Germany’s colonial genocide 1904-08 in what is today Namibia affected not only the resistant men but also women and children who died of thirst in the Omaheke/Kalahari or were worked and tortured to death in concentration camps. The prominent Ovaherero and Nama activists Esther Muinjangue and Sima Luipert talk about women’s sacrificial resistance and their continuing struggle for recognition of the genocide by the German Bundestag. They explain why the communities directly affected by the genocide demand an official apology and reparations from Germany.

Sima Deidre Luipert is vice chairperson of the  Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA) Genocide Technical Committee.

Esther Utjiua Muinjangue is chairperson of the Ovaherero  Genocide Foundation (OGF)  and president of the National Unity  Democratic Organisation (NUDO).