Lothar Von Trotha’s Ghosts What was forgotten will be remembered forever.

In 2019 leaders of the Ovaherero and Nama communities organised a protest in Swakopmund, Namibia, appealing to the world at large for recognition of their right to compensation from the German government for the Herero Nama Genocide conducted from 1904 to 1908. The protest followed a dismissal of the lawsuit by Manhattan-based judge Laura Taylor Swain.

From 1904 to 1908, years before the Great War, an extermination order for the Herero and Nama communities was given by Lothar Von Trotha, the then governor of the German South West Africa.

The Herero and Nama communities suffered uncounted losses of life in that period. They were also displaced from their land.

Genocide reparations for the afflicted communities remain a hotly contested issue in Namibia.

OvaHerero & Nama Protest, Swakopmund, Namibia, 2019. © James Jamu.

 

OvaHerero & Nama Protest, Swakopmund, Namibia, 2019. © James Jamu.

 

OvaHerero & Nama Protest, Swakopmund, Namibia, 2019. © James Jamu.

 

OvaHerero & Nama Protest, Swakopmund, Namibia, 2019. © James Jamu.

 

OvaHerero & Nama Protest, Swakopmund, Namibia, 2019. © James Jamu.

 


James Jamu is a Malawian journalist, photographer, and documentary filmmaker living and working in Namibia. He is a recipient of the Butler Media Institute Award for outstanding multimedia journalism at the Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA) training program. He has also been awarded an Open Society Institute of Southern Africa grant. His work has appeared in solo exhibitions at the Namibian Parliament and the National Council. He also worked as a cinematographer for “Daughter of Molly: My Body Space As An Archive”—a short film screened at the Owela Festival in Recklinghausen, Germany, and at the National Art Gallery of Namibia.

Cover Image: James Jamu.