[allAfrica.com] [The_Africa-America_Institute_Awards_Dinner] Academics Dissect Herero Genocide New Era (Windhoek) ANALYSIS September 16, 2004 Posted to the web September 16, 2004 By Mukelabai Mumbuna Windhoek A RECENT international con-ference that brought together academics of various intel-lectual depth and compre-hension analysed events relating to the horrific 1904-07 war that nearly wiped out the Herero tribe in Namibia. Meeting under the Univer-sity of Namibia (Unam)'s History Department, the aca- demics also scrutinised the aftermath of the genocide that resulted in almost 100 000 deaths. The conference, which met at Unam last month, under the theme "Decontaminating The Namibian Past", was aimed at detoxifying and depolluting Namibian historical debates from misrepresentation and ignorance, and through this to contribute towards more tole-rance among the different Namibian communities, as well as to combat intolerance and to promote empathy in Namibian historical discourses. This, among others, created the space in which repeated and prominent criticism of the struc-turing and academic formatting of this conference by parti-cipants became possible. This was the third conference organised by the History De-partment over the past decade. They first highlighted the neglected Herero inter-war era between 1915 to 1946; the second focused on a variety of issues, chief among them the prominent role of ordinary people during the liberation war and sensitive aspects associated with this war; while the last conference addressed the wars of 1904-07 and its after-effects. This conference was de-signed as an academic event to deliberate on Namibian history in a year that sees the centennial of the colonial wars, seen by many to be the crystallising point in Namibian history, but which also marks 160 years of missionary activity in Here-roland, 120 years of formal German colonialism, 90 years of direct South African interven-tion in Namibia, and 15 years since the implementation of UN Resolution 435. For this purpose, new and original work was invited in a widely spread call for papers, which at the same time set out the motives and objectives of the planned event and in which it was also indicated that broad public participation was intended. From roughly 80 proposed conference contributions received, the convener and his colleagues in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Unam selected seventy for presentation at the conference and extended invitations to this effect. Sixteen Namibian aca-demics and forty-eight scholars of international repute even-tually presented work on issues related pre-eminently to the war of 1904. The latter hailed from as far as Japan, Israel, Germany, the UK and the USA. Academics from South Africa were pro-minent in attendance, reflecting the close historical and aca-demic connections of the two countries. Papers were also presented from anthropology, sociology, literature, history, and political studies, on thematically structured panels with discussions. A theatre production, a film premiere and an art exhibition featured as well, enriching the event considerably. It is believed that the various papers presented contributed towards achieving this objec-tive. Sensitive issues such as land rights, reparations, the psychological impact of the events of 1904, the way in which relations between the various communities in Namibia were shaped by these events, as well as moving personal testimonies, were dealt with in a manner that avoided partisan positions or pursuing underlying vendettas. Furthermore, the pre-sentations brought together information from a wide range of disciplines and highlighted aspects of the Namibian past that are seldom, if ever, dealt with in a responsible and comprehensive manner in public reports. Many papers indeed challenged readers to reconsider their own prejudices and to confront evidence that is rarely brought into the public domain. Seen from this pers-pective, this conference will hopefully assist in promoting the continuation of a debate in the years ahead and expand into areas not yet adequately addressed. Throughout the year 2004, deserved attention has been directed towards the genocide campaign against the Herero in 1904. The organisers, however, considered it of great impor-tance to direct attention to other groups who suffered as a result of these savage wars. A panel on Damara history facilitated spirited debates about their plight, highlighting the dearth of research and know-ledge about such histories in Namibia. Another panel high-lighted the critical role of history teaching in schools and how history can be presented in a manner that would attract learners to engage more force-fully with it. Two panels on Namibian literature and their authors sparked debates about the role of fiction as an agent in historical discourses. Although the con-ference aimed to promote informed debate by steering clear of partisan positions, it nevertheless aimed to inter-rogate the ethical foundations upon which public policies and debates in Namibian society rest. So far, the matter of whether land ownership and use should be viewed as a legal or an ethical matter came under scrutiny, in the process fundamentally reassessing public and private values. It is no secret that many aspects of the Namibian past have failed to attract attention, often because it was considered to be too sensitive to write or to talk about. However, this conference proved, that it is possible to engage with such issues in the public domain without promoting racial hatred and group animosity and en-dangering the policy of national reconciliation. The discipline required by academic debate ensured that positions had to be carefully argued and that counter-arguments had to be considered. This is of great significance, given the often-partisan nature of debates in the local media, where the objective appears to be to score points and discredit counter arguments. To assist in carrying to the general public the debates generated at this conference and to enable a wider audience to familiarise themselves with existing new research findings, it is planned to publish a book containing some of the best papers pre-sented at the conference. Though some of the issues addressed during these con-ferences caused some unease in certain official quarters, the History Department is con-vinced that its efforts continue to be inspired by an honest concern for the truth and balanced, emphatic reporting. It is against this background that department feels compelled to respond to attempts to use the conference as a vehicle for pursuing a questionable agenda. At the closing session of the conference, an initiative was referred to in order to ensure the adoption of a conference reso-lution, supporting claims for reparation against the govern-ment of the Federal Republic of Germany. Without disputing the moral and ethical legitimating of this issue, it was stressed that this proposed resolution and the dis-cussion leading to its adoption did and does in no way reflect the spirit of tolerance, empathy and mutual understanding that pervaded deliberations through-out the conference proceedings. Particularly the bickering over 'ownership of the genocide' flew in the face of the maturity, empathy and critical evaluation and differentiation displayed by the contributors and the au-dience, which demonstrated that Namibians across a wide spec-trum of political and ideological opinions can meet to discuss matters of great sensitivity in a responsible and compassionate manner. Moreover, only those who chose to remain for the last session of an overwhelmingly rich and taxing conference debated the resolution. Also, it was not discussed with the conference organisers prior to its presentation at the last afternoon session, and clearly countered an initiative at odds with what the conference was attempting to achieve.   ===============================================================================  Copyright © 2004 New Era. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). ===============================================================================