In the early 1900s, Germany colonized a country in southern Africa, which is now known as Namibia, resulting in the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples. In the podcast, Tim Whewell with BBC travels to Namibia to see the effects of colonialism. Namibia currently wants reparation, primarily in the form of land since German descendants from the colonizers currently occupy enormous amounts of land.
Whewell travels with a citizen of Namibia who is striving to make a deal with the Germans. The pair first visit a German landowner who is completely closed off to the idea of any reparation. He does not even believe that the Germans committed genocide, despite documentations of hangings, concentration camps, and cruel conditions. The pair then visits another German landowner. This landowner does believe that the Germans committed cruel acts and that Germany should apologize but still is unwilling to give over portions of his land to the Namibian people. Currently, the Namibian government is trying to work with the Germans to make reparations, but people have little faith in the government because it is corrupt.
I think the podcast resembles two different works that we covered this semester: Things Fall Apart and Persepolis. In Things Fall Apart, the British colonizing the African communities is very similar to the colonization of Namibia by Germany. Two powerhouse European countries exploited African countries that are not as powerful. They showed little regard to the countries while accomplishing their goal of spreading their colonial rule. The story depicted in the podcast reminds me of Persepolis because mistrust for the government exists in both. In Persepolis after the Islamic Revolution, Marji’s family and many other Iranian citizens did not agree with the government’s stances and were fearful of their motives and actions. This fear is present in the citizens of Namibia, as they do not trust that the government will handle the dispute between the Germans appropriately.
Through the production of this podcast, I think that Whewell is attempting to shed some light on how horrific colonization was and how its effects last even over a century later. I think he also attempts to show how complicated it is for these countries to come to a compromise many years later.