Ekandjo kitchen remark ‘rubbish’
The chairperson of the Nama Genocide Technical Committee, Ida Hoffman, has hit back at Youth Minister Jerry Ekandjo for stating at the weekend that German colonial forces killed 60% of the Nama people and kept the remaining 40% to work in their kitchens.
Ekandjo on Saturday also told a belated Independence Day gathering at Keetmanshoop that the Germans killed 80% of the OvaHerero and retained the rest to work in their kitchens as slaves during the 1904-1908 genocide.
More than 110 years ago, the Nama and OvaHerero were exterminated by German troops led by military commander Lothar von Trotha.
Hoffman, who is also a Swapo parliamentarian, yesterday told Namibian Sun that the surviving victims of the 1904-1908 genocide were kept in concentration camps such as the notorious Shark Island.
The concentration camp on Shark Island at Lüderitz was one of five Namibian concentration camps.
“I do not know about kitchens. That is rubbish,” Hoffman said before going into the gruesome atrocities the Nama people suffered at the hands of the German authorities at the time.
“The women had to break bottles and use those splinters to skin the heads of their husbands and even their children. That is why we have the skull of a two-year-old child in Germany,”
Hofmann said before adding that these same women had to dig graves to bury the rest of their husband’s bodies.
“Other women were killed and left lying on the dunes and the jackals came and ate their breasts. Rape was at its worst and imagine any German could just come and do what he wanted,” she said.
According to Nampa, Ekandjo also said the Germans during their colonial reign only “plundered the country and brought zero development for its citizens.”
“We swam through a river of blood to enjoy freedom today. Under the Swapo-led struggle, Namibia became free. It was a struggle where people died and were sent to prison,” he said, adding that colonial rule of 106 years was stopped by Swapo.
When contacted for comment, Ekandjo simply said: “Go to the archives and read.”
Although the German ambassador to Namibia was unavailable for an interview yesterday, the mission’s spokesperson, Kinne Ulrich, said they could only refer to ongoing talks between the two countries.
OvaHerero Paramount Chief Vekuii Rukoro also declined to comment.
German opposition parties as well as the Nama and OvaHerero groups are seeking to force the German government to formally apologise to the Namibian people for the 1904 genocide, and to start dialogue on reparations.
In 2001, they filed a US$4 billion lawsuit against the German government and two German firms in the US. But Germany dismissed the claim, saying international rules on the protection of combatants and civilians were not in existence at the time of the conflict.
JEMIMA BEUKES
Ekandjo on Saturday also told a belated Independence Day gathering at Keetmanshoop that the Germans killed 80% of the OvaHerero and retained the rest to work in their kitchens as slaves during the 1904-1908 genocide.
More than 110 years ago, the Nama and OvaHerero were exterminated by German troops led by military commander Lothar von Trotha.
Hoffman, who is also a Swapo parliamentarian, yesterday told Namibian Sun that the surviving victims of the 1904-1908 genocide were kept in concentration camps such as the notorious Shark Island.
The concentration camp on Shark Island at Lüderitz was one of five Namibian concentration camps.
“I do not know about kitchens. That is rubbish,” Hoffman said before going into the gruesome atrocities the Nama people suffered at the hands of the German authorities at the time.
“The women had to break bottles and use those splinters to skin the heads of their husbands and even their children. That is why we have the skull of a two-year-old child in Germany,”
Hofmann said before adding that these same women had to dig graves to bury the rest of their husband’s bodies.
“Other women were killed and left lying on the dunes and the jackals came and ate their breasts. Rape was at its worst and imagine any German could just come and do what he wanted,” she said.
According to Nampa, Ekandjo also said the Germans during their colonial reign only “plundered the country and brought zero development for its citizens.”
“We swam through a river of blood to enjoy freedom today. Under the Swapo-led struggle, Namibia became free. It was a struggle where people died and were sent to prison,” he said, adding that colonial rule of 106 years was stopped by Swapo.
When contacted for comment, Ekandjo simply said: “Go to the archives and read.”
Although the German ambassador to Namibia was unavailable for an interview yesterday, the mission’s spokesperson, Kinne Ulrich, said they could only refer to ongoing talks between the two countries.
OvaHerero Paramount Chief Vekuii Rukoro also declined to comment.
German opposition parties as well as the Nama and OvaHerero groups are seeking to force the German government to formally apologise to the Namibian people for the 1904 genocide, and to start dialogue on reparations.
In 2001, they filed a US$4 billion lawsuit against the German government and two German firms in the US. But Germany dismissed the claim, saying international rules on the protection of combatants and civilians were not in existence at the time of the conflict.
JEMIMA BEUKES
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