Nama & Ovarherero Genocide Place - Luderitz, Namibia
Posted by: 
Torgut
S 26° 38.735 E 015° 09.158
33J E 515189 N 7052810
This monument to the native peoples who were targeted by the Germans in consequence the Herero Wars can be found in Sharks Island
Waymark Code: WM1A9KP
Location: Namibia
Date Posted: 07/12/2024
Views: 2
Sharks island is not really an island but an isthmus. This said, it is a place of historical significance. The whole area was a concentration camp run by the Germans when they rule what is now Namibia. The inmates were rebel natives. They couldn't escape by swimming due to the many sharks which by then would swim around the isthmus, thus the name.
Nowadays it's a place with a few monuments, the campsite, the lighthouse and a small beach.
One of the monuments is dedicated to the "Genocide" of the Nama & Ovarherero, mostly following their uprising against the German presence in Southwest Africa. The so called Herero Wars followed and it didn't end well to the Africans. A considerable number of people from these tribes were enclosed in Sharks Island, forced to work and eventually killed.
The monument was inaugurated on the 22nd April 2023, which means the 118th anniversary of the last extermination order issued by the German authorities.
A curiosity: it seems a first attempt to place the monument had a problem as there are traces of a previous version nearby completely smashed.
From Wikipedia:
(
visit link)
"Shark Island or "Death Island" was one of five concentration camps in German South West Africa. It was located on Shark Island off Lüderitz, in the far south-west of the territory which today is Namibia. It was used by the German Empire during the Herero and Namaqua genocide of 1904–08.
Between 1,032 and 3,000 Herero and Namaqua men, women, and children died in the camp between March 1905 and its closing in April 1907."
Check provided link for detailed information.