23/5/2025

It is about much more than genocide or restitution: dignity – at the conference commemorating the Berlin Africa Conference of 1884/85. Berlin is the place where, 140 years ago, the division of Africa among the European colonial powers was legitimised by treaty. To this day, the conference continues to shape European thinking about Africa and African thinking about Europe. It is worth taking a close look at the narratives that have become established about the conference and examining their consequences. Because, according to Adebayo Olukoshi (Wits School of Governance), ‘It’s today’s injustices that open the wounds from yesterday’. Accordingly, the question of reparations is not one about the past, but one about the present and the future. ‘There have been enough dialogues. It is time to talk about reparations,’ says Namibian writer Joseph Diescho. But what exactly is meant by reparations? Here, the relationship between Germany and Namibia is being put to the test.

If you want to know more, the conference report on Zeitgeschichte-online can be found here.