Anger and joy as skulls returned from Germany
Source: Agencies |
October 5, 2011, Wednesday
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WITH warriors on horseback and tearful women ululating their joy, hundreds of Namibians yesterday welcomed home the skulls of ancestors taken to Germany for racist experiments more than a century ago.
The skulls are "testimony to the horrors of colonialism and German cruelty against our people," Namibia's Prime Minister Nahas Angula said at an airport ceremony. "The Namibian nation accepts these mortal remains as a symbolic closure of a tragic chapter."
German Ambassador Egon Kochanke said he welcomed home the skulls but also indicated it was time for the two countries to move forward.
Some Herero and Nama people made clear they are not so willing to forget the past and waved banners demanding reparations from Germany for what some historians call the first genocide of the 20th century. Historians say German troops killed and starved to death some 60,000 of the 85,000 Herero people from 1904 to 1907.
"We are ready for battle! We are going to fight!" Herero warriors in military uniform chanted as a leader, chest covered in animal skins, led a cleansing ceremony watched by tribal chiefs in red and yellow hats.
Hundreds of people in ceremonial address were at the airport. They sang hymns and traditional praise songs.
Tears poured down the cheeks of one wrinkle-faced Nama woman as a cortege set off with the boxed skulls escorted by warriors on horseback.
Two of the fragile 20 skulls were unveiled later at another ceremony in downtown Windhoek.
Germany only apologized for the massacres in 2004, during ceremonies marking the centenary of the start of the Herero uprising against German colonizers.
From 1909-1914, scientists tried to prove the "racial superiority" of white Europeans over black Africans by analyzing the facial features of the skulls, according to Thomas Schnalke, head of the Berlin Medical Historical Museum.
The skulls are "testimony to the horrors of colonialism and German cruelty against our people," Namibia's Prime Minister Nahas Angula said at an airport ceremony. "The Namibian nation accepts these mortal remains as a symbolic closure of a tragic chapter."
German Ambassador Egon Kochanke said he welcomed home the skulls but also indicated it was time for the two countries to move forward.
Some Herero and Nama people made clear they are not so willing to forget the past and waved banners demanding reparations from Germany for what some historians call the first genocide of the 20th century. Historians say German troops killed and starved to death some 60,000 of the 85,000 Herero people from 1904 to 1907.
"We are ready for battle! We are going to fight!" Herero warriors in military uniform chanted as a leader, chest covered in animal skins, led a cleansing ceremony watched by tribal chiefs in red and yellow hats.
Hundreds of people in ceremonial address were at the airport. They sang hymns and traditional praise songs.
Tears poured down the cheeks of one wrinkle-faced Nama woman as a cortege set off with the boxed skulls escorted by warriors on horseback.
Two of the fragile 20 skulls were unveiled later at another ceremony in downtown Windhoek.
Germany only apologized for the massacres in 2004, during ceremonies marking the centenary of the start of the Herero uprising against German colonizers.
From 1909-1914, scientists tried to prove the "racial superiority" of white Europeans over black Africans by analyzing the facial features of the skulls, according to Thomas Schnalke, head of the Berlin Medical Historical Museum.
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