Family of German warmonger von Trotha apologise to Herero People

October saw the Herero people of Namibia receive an apology from the descendants of Lothar von Trotha, the German military chief, who in 1904 coordinated and commanded the genocide of an estimated 65,000 Herero people in pursuit of increasing his country’s share of the African land grab during colonialism.

Representatives of the von Trotha family paid a visit to six of the royal houses of the Herero at Omaruru following an invitation from the Supreme Chief Alfons Maharero, grandson of Samuel Mahereo who led the resistance against German occupation of Herero land 103 years ago.

Wolf Thilo von Trotha, addressing the Herero people said: "We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed of the terrible events that took place 100 years ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time. We say sorry, since we bear the name of General Lothar von Trotha”.

Wolf Thilo von Trotha continued “We however do not only want to look back, but also look to the future."

With the future of the Herero people firmly in mind, Chief Maharero drew attention to the issue of the outstanding reparations owed by the German government, highlighting that it was essential a dialogue be established between the Herero and the German government so his people could obtain “restorative justice“. A von Trotha family representative later told the AFP news agency that they were on a “private visit” and that the family could not involve themselves in a demand for reparations from the German government.

The apology represents something that has thus far failed to come from the German government who have only managed a general show of regret. They refuse to apologise specifically for the genocide and accept liability for the military strategy von Trotha executed that declared war on every Herero man, woman and child, poisoning all their sources of water and using machine guns on those who defied German threats and stayed on their Ancestral land. The remaining were driven out into the dry Omaheke desert and left to die of hunger and thirst.