Elisabeth Kaneza [ENG]

Do you think that Germany should pay reparations to the Herero and Nama communities that were affected by and dispossessed during the genocide from 1904-08? Please elaborate.

Well, I think that the question of reparations is out of the question, so to speak. We need reparations, because there has been a human rights violation and this was not only a violation but a crime, therefore what has been done to people has to be made up for and in this case we are talking about reparations. The real question which needs to be asked is what kind of reparations; a genocide that has to be investigated retroactively of course poses a challenge to all parties, that means ideally we can trace back and archive what happened, in the worst case we can’t. And then we have to think about what preconditions have to be met for reparations, if we look at monetary reparations it is a completely different question, because then we have to ask: can a grief ever be compensated for monetarily? And I think from a human rights perspective it doesn’t work to say we have to compensate for the loss one-to-one in monetary terms, it is often not even possible, instead we have to… and this we can really only do in an exchange with the affected ones. What kind of harm was done? There is no question – human suffering, we lost human lives, that is unquestionable. Therefore there need to be reparations, but what is needed now, so many years after such a genocide? And this is a question almost no one can answer, save for those who were affected by it, and nowadays we speak of the descendants of the Herero and Nama and they have to answer this question, they have to be in the negotiations to examine: What do they need? What are their demands? What harm has been done to them? It is there that we have to start a dialogue.

Do you think that a memorial and informational centrum concerning the topic slavery, colonialism and racism should be built in Berlin? Please elaborate.

Absolutely. We need a memorial, we also need monuments, that’s for sure. It’s almost ironic that it has been omitted so far. We know Germany has a colonial history, we know Germany also has a colonial legacy, both here in Germany and also in Africa we have traces of this colonization. And it is so to speak almost macabre having to discuss today about whether we should have a monument in 2017. We need one and it is long overdue.

What’s your take on the many human remains from the Global South that are kept in German museums until today?

What should one say, well, it is a crime, this is the first thing to say, these… these human remains need to be rightfully brought back to where they came from; yes, that means they don’t belong to Germany, this is a crime and it’s bad enough that they are here. The other point is, and many who are curators and have to depict things deal with this: Don’t we need, to understand history, to recapitulate history, don’t we need hints, tangible leftovers of such a history? And here we are in the colonial discourse again: Who decides what is written, shown, told about whom? And that is precisely the problem we see in Germany, that this is done without the agency, which is displayed. I come from Rwanda, I was born there, during the genocide I was in Rwanda and in Rwanda right now, to show the crime… the cruelties, we have remains, we have exhibitions with skulls of victims, right? And that is always a balancing act between: what do we do to remind, yes, and what should we just refrain from to maintain the victim’s’ dignity. That is always a balancing act, and therefore I can understand that very well from a Rwandan context, saying that we have to remind and we need it in front of us visually what… what was taken, what happened. In the German context it is without the affected peoples’ agency and that makes it even worse.

According to you, how important is the equal and conceptional contribution of descendants of colonized people to handle the colonial past (i.e. negotiations regarding reparations, museums, exhibitions, representation in schoolbooks, street renaming etc.)?

That is very important and leads me back to the point on reparations, yes, when we speak about monetary reparation payments then it is very clear what has to be done: one authority has to pay back money to another authority. The question is where to? Yes, in the best case, we have very well-defined this group of who is getting reparation payments.. Now we are in a certain construct, which is obviously also dominated by the West, of state systems and especially when we look at Namibia the great challenge is to examine, even if there were reparation payments: where would they go? Do the affected people benefit from them? That is one thing. The other thing… and this is why the affected people have to be present. The other thing is that we have to repair history , to rehabilitate, yes, that means another form of reparation, which is not monetary and here those who profited from this crime, are duty-bound to work through this history with the affected people. And that’s very important because we always say there is the history of the winners and they write history and that becomes mainstream history, that is the history that’s being bought, shared and we know that racism is a business, too. And we can’t change this narrative if the other side doesn’t share its perspective, which is why we need the affected people, for them to be a part. And then we need another level; we need an opening, yes, that means an opening on the other side that profited, and it is not enough to say “we have good confessions, we have good will and we want to set things right,” the way it is happening in some museums now, where colonial history is admitted and then certain things can be displayed without the participation of people of African descent, for example, without artists of African descent being a part, making conceptual contributions. That doesn’t work because that is a reproduction of narratives, which are only on the surface… showing that one has understood what it’s about and that the understanding is in fact lacking, because the needed understanding lies in the detail and details always lie in the concept, that is: where does the conceptual reflection for the processing start? And if it doesn’t start with the subject, if there are no ways to this subject then we have a problem, because then I have a top-down approach again, then I am reporting again, I am talking about others from my perspective… and this is very important.

When we look now at the case of Namibia, also in terms of reparations, we’re talking about the descendants of the direct victims, that means we’ve neglected to speak with the direct victims, the victims’ generation, in part, we have some still, but in part we have neglected to speak with the victims’ generation. And this is of course due to the historical neglect of this era. And when we now speak to the descendants of these victims, other concerns emerge, that is if we can prove there has been a genocide and this genocide has such a long… We start with colonialism, colonialism leads to genocide and this genocide has an impact until the present day and we see these continuities today in the descendants of the affected people. Here we don’t only speak about any payments, building some streets or as some call it “development cooperation” and building wells. Here we speak about actual work of appreciation of an entire group, we also speak about economic factors, disadvantaging an entire group on the basis of these events and these people are now spread around the world. And there one cannot take it back and say: “we are now talking within the national context and negotiating with our counterpart. We are a government – they are a government.” We have to take it seriously and say we actually look for this group, where are they and they are there and they are formulating demands, everyday they formulate demands! And therefore this confession… for reconciliation… is not to be taken seriously until we finally have the affected ones on board. This is very important.