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Ovaherero Genocide Foundation

Inclusivity and honesty in all Talks with Germany: “Germany knows who the children of the victims of her murderous policies a century back are and indeed currently where they live, she must therefore soonest cease with her gimmicks of wasting resources on engaging distant and unaffected parties in her so-called genocide negotiations AND in earnest directly engage Ovaherero and Nama leadership to find permanent closure to the horrific chapter of her disastrous colonial expedition South-West Africa which can only be effected through genuine and faithful accession to a legal agreement on reparation settlement, commensurate with her crimes and negotiated only with legitimate Ovaherero and Nama representatives. It is only a fallacy that a settlement for genocide crimes meted out against ethnic groupings in pre-modern southern African states times, can be arrived at without their bonafide voices and settled only with the state of Namibia. Whilst the state of Namibia, as home to the largest share of descendants of victim’s communities remains a key stakeholder in the discussion with the German state, it cannot wholly appropriate the campaign onto itself and preferred splinter Ovaherero and Nama groupings who in the main are extremely under-representative of the broader affected communities and are fully-absorbed into the government structure and as such enjoys no latitude and or leeway to independently speak for the aspirations of our communities. Equally, the “globalization” of descendants of that war principally implies that Ovaherero and Nama people are today global communities transcending territorial boundaries and thus no single state can rationally claim monopoly and full representation over them. Accordingly therefore, only their own leadership can fully and aptly articulate their interests now resident across multiple nation-states and thus any discussion about them is only adequately crafted to the extend it incorporates genuine representative voices from them !!!” Nandiuasora Mazeingo, OGF Chairperson, April, 2021

About Us

Ovaherero Genocide Foundation

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Ovaherero Genocide Foundation

The Ovaherero Genocide Foundation is dedicated to the memory for the eighty thousand (a whopping 80% share of the population) Ovaherero people murdered between 1904 and 1907 by the German State of far of Europe AND achievement of justice for their descendants who continues to languish in conditions of poverty and destitution as a direct consequence of their forbearers’ dispossessions, displacement and general dehumanization of that violent experience.

We consider the finest memorial to all victims of the German barbaric racial supremacist orientation and colonial policies that culminated in the execution of 20th century's first genocide against Ovaherero and Nama people BUT chiefly the lingering legacy of dispossession, displacement and sheer homelessness and destitution endured by successive generations of these victims' descendants, as proclaimed by the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to be COMMENSURATE REPARATION payments (as sanctioned only by the aforementioned descendants – the sole and authentic representatives of Ovaherero and Nama people) delivered directly to then and or any agents of their choosing.

Mission

Our mission is to:

  1. Achieve an unfettered, sincere and genuine recognition by the Germany state and the international community, including its most representative intergovernmental organization- the United Nations, of the crime of genocide committed against Ovaherero and Nama people in the periods leading up to the 1904 Ovaherero’s uprising but chiefly subsequent off Germany’s expressed will and intend to annihilate and or obliterate all OvaHerero and Nama people, in October 1904 and April 1905 respectively, and thereby meeting textbook definition of the crime of Genocide  AND, when deemed necessary and unobstructive to the main discussion for reparations, directly deliver a fitting apology (from the Germany state) to the Ovaherero and Nama people as the direct-interest party, through their legitimate representative leadership.
  2. Through all possible available avenues and resources, advise, motivate, mobilize, urge, steer, compel the state of Germany to, in the context of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment on the crime of Genocide, agree to and effect reparations payments commensurate with the diabolical crimes she committed against Ovaherero and Nama people more than a century back.
  3. Establish itself and remain central to the critical mass mobilizing Ovaherero populace the world over to optimally deploy their earned reparation resources and other self-help initiatives to the agenda of rehabilitation, reconstruction and or revitalization of the once glorious community of Southern Africa.

Vision

Our vision is of a Herero nation that is once again restored to its former glory, with the majority of its offspring’s returned to the Herero ancestral lands, rearing and living off its most sacred and beloved companion-the cattle-and fully tapping into its God-given potential as an active and vibrant community amongst the family of nations the world over.  

Values

Our values are of respect, integrity, honesty and good neighborliness.

Our struggle for restorative justice is intergenerational, it is one that no single generation can monopolize and or claim supremacy over. The duty of my generation therefore is to strive to the best of our abilities to achieve its stated objectives. Should present conditions inhibit us in any way to accomplish this mission and we thus are unable to arrive at that desired station of ultimate glory for our people's long quest for justice, our responsibility then becomes sacrosanct in that we must only, without dent or diminishing, bequeath this noble campaign to those to come after us so as to ensure our peoples over century old calls for justice remains alive and true to its original framers. Capitulation, surrender and even compromise in language or deed is not acceptable to this generation or any other after us. Only real and meaningful justice must be delivered to our people.

Nandiuasora Mazeingo