Berlin did not want the term "reparations for war crimes" to be used, as this could open the door to a chain of individual claims.
Berlin did not want the term "reparations for war crimes" to be used, as this could open the door to a chain of individual claims.
I skimmed a few (German language) sources, and so far it seems like it's actually a direct payment to the State of Namibia. However, the actual text of the agreement is not yet published, so nobody knows for sure, probably.
Namibian opposition rightfully criticizes how the actual indigenous peoples were excluded from the negotiations (there were some representatives present, but they were selected by the Namibian state top-down) - and how the actual payment doesn't got to them directly but rather to the State of Namibia.
This would literally be neocolonialism though, it's better for the Namibian (socialist-ish) government to receive the money and to hopefully build up some industry so that the populace can actually spend their money on domestic goods, rather than just increase the money already flowing out of the nation.
Why would money given to Herero/Nama directly flow out of the nation? Honestly asking, I know next to nothing about the situation (as you might have guessed)
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Sure, but how does giving it to Namibia change that consideration? Do we know that a) the Herero/Nama wouldn't invest in infrastructure and other 'enduring ways' and b) that Namibia will indeed do so (and not just subsidise consumer goods from the global north, let's say)?
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Yea, makes sense. I had hoped the Herero/Nama would be somewhat self-governing, as in, have the means in place to collectively invest in local infrastructure already - but that's probably a naive assumption of mine. I just know too little about the situation in Namibia, especially regarding these peoples' context within it. Still, the state picking representatives as opposed to them deciding on their own representatives really rubs me the wrong way with this whole thing.
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Mm. Better than what I was thinking but I'm still giving this a lot of side eye
Yea, same. It's not horrible, but it kinda stands or falls with the actual wording of the agreement