Shared History, Historical Memory & the Road to Reconciliation

Germany colonised South West Africa (Namibia) in 1884 when Chancellor Bismarck declared it a German protectorate at the Berlin Conference — the same conference that carved all of Africa between European powers without a single African present. When the Herero people under Chief Samuel Maharero and the Nama people under Captain Hendrik Witbooi rose in rebellion against German land seizures and cattle theft in 1904, General Lothar von Trotha issued the Vernichtungsbefehl (Extermination Order). The order led to mass killings and is widely recognized by historians as a genocidal campaign against the Herero and Nama people — declaring that every Herero man, woman, and child found within German territory would be shot.

Those who fled into the Omaheke Desert were driven back by soldiers who poisoned the waterholes. Shark Island concentration camp in Lüderitz Bucht — where prisoners were worked to death processing guano in Atlantic Ocean winds — has been described by historians as a significant site connected to Germany's colonial history in Namibia. The skulls of Herero and Nama victims were sent to German universities for racial pseudoscience experiments. In 2021, Germany officially recognized the killings of the Herero and Nama as genocide and announced a reconciliation package. Discussions between the German and Namibian governments, together with representatives of affected communities, have continued regarding the agreement and its implementation.

In Germany itself, this history is commemorated at the Herero and Nama Memorial in Berlin's Wedding district, the Humboldt Forum (whose Ethnological Collections include colonial-era artefacts and exhibitions on colonial history), and historical archives in Bremen. Your Daylite Digital Ambassador represents a Proudly Namibian service, offering visitors an authentic Namibian perspective on Germany's colonial history, remembrance, and reconciliation.