A Picture Book Journey
Beyond Statecraft: Unmasking the Truth of the Ovaherero and Nama Genocides
Screening and Talk
8. July 2026
18.00-21.00
18.00-21.00
Save the Date
For free
All ages welcome
in English
The evening addresses the false media narratives that perpetuate the idea that the genocides of the Ovaherero and Nama people have already been sufficiently acknowledged and recognized. Representatives from the Global Ovaherero Genocide Foundation (GOF) and the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA) will be joined by legal experts and civil society representatives to discuss the history of litigation, parliamentary inquiries, and passed legislation. They will also discuss the systemic zigzagging of successive German governments and the severe inadequacies of the 2021 Joint Declaration (JD).
The discussion will emphasize that nothing meaningful has changed thus far and explain why this struggle must continue until the German government formally recognizes the crimes of the German Empire and engages in genuine dialogue about reparations within established international frameworks. That dialogue must take place directly between the state and the communities descended from survivors.
Swakopmund reconstruction from colonial postcards, 1907, used to reconstruct the town as it looked during the genocide periodSwakopmund
29 min, English with German subtitles
This investigation – the latest instalment of Forensic Architecture's and Forensis’ project on the genocides perpetrated against the Nama and Ovaherero people by Imperial Germany in present-day Namibia – focuses on the harbor town of Swakopmund, conducted in partnership with activists and traditional leadership. Between 1904 and 1908, Swakopmund housed a German colonial concentration camp; working with descendants of survivors and forensic archaeologists, this project reconstructs the town as it existed during the genocide, locating the camp, sites of forced labor, and unmarked graves that urban development has since disturbed and destroyed. The project supports calls for the urgent preservation of these burial grounds and for education efforts countering the genocide denialism that persists in Namibia today.
Swakopmund has been produced by Forensis and Forensic Architecture in collaboration with the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), and the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA).
The screening is followed by a panel discussion with Nandiuasora Mazeingo (Ovaherero Genocide Foundation-Chairperson), Maboss Johannes Ortmann (NTLA) and Tim Mulhanga (Medico International), moderated by Anne Schroeter (ECCHR).
This event takes place in the frame of the exhibition Fractured Lifeworlds: Ovaherero und Nama im Kampf um Gerechtigkeit seit Generationen, für Generationen at Spore Initiative.
