The Gap between Post-War and Postcolonial Reconciliation: A Case Study of the Repatriation of the Human Remains from Germany to Namibia

Abstract

Germany is well known for its proactive reconciliation diplomacy and Vergangenheitsbewältigung (overcoming its past) particularly that aspect of it related to National Socialism and its atrocities during WWII, ending in the Holocaust. On the other hand, its colonial past has been long swept away into oblivion. The gap between the war and colonial memory has characterized the post-war German culture and politics of memory. The racist theory, which gave ideological backing to National Socialist injustices, was developed in the context of colonialism. Genocide, concentration camps, and forced labor, which are usually associated with the Holocaust, were already practiced in the former African colonies during the German Empire. For the fundamental overcoming of the Holocaust as well, confrontation with the colonial past is indispensable. The purpose of this paper is to examine how people in contemporary Germany are dealing with their colonial past and promoting postcolonial reconciliation, i.e., the restoration of the relationship with Others from Germany’ s former colonies. Empirically, the case of the repatriation of human remains derived from German Southwest Africa by a German medical school is described and analyzed in detail. In 2011 in Berlin, 20 skulls were handed over to a delegation from Namibia. They were victims of the so called Herero-Nama War of 1904- 1908. The Herero and Nama peoples revolted against German colonial rule. German troops thoroughly destroyed the indigenous resistance and the surviving people were driven into concentration camps. Historians consider these atrocities the first genocide of the 20th century. In those days, an unknown number of dead bodies were sent to German universities as anthropological “samples” for racial studies. The recently restituted 20 skulls were part of them. Anthropological research in Germany at that time was premised on the dichotomy of Naturvölker / Kulturvölker (nature-people / culture-people). The former meant people in colonies and the latter European, “civilized” people. The members of the Namibian delegation wanted not only to receive their ancestral human remains but to negotiate with the German government on the issues of structural dialogue and reparation for genocide. However, their hope was not fulfilled because of the avoidant attitude of the German government. Thus, the gap between post-war and postcolonial reconciliation is maintained. How can this asymmetrical relationship be decolonized and reconciled? Some clues can be found in this process of repatriation: compassion and listening to Colonial Others. The reason for postcolonial amnesia must be reexamined in a further study. This may call the very notion of “civilization” into question and reconnect the divided relationship between nature (-people) and culture (-people).