The #Namibian gvt recently rejected #Germany's offer to pay compensation for the 1904-07 #genocide. The offer was meagre as Germany doesn't think it is legally obliged to pay. In this paper, I retell the story from two different perspectives. Threat 1/ https://twitter.com/MPILheidelberg/status/1295354317566771201

Germany's position rests mainly on two arguments: 1-The German empire had lawfully acquired sovereignty over SW Africa; 2-The genocide did not violate international law at the time. 2/

I contrast both views with two different perspectives: 1-A postcolonial perspective of international law; 2-The voice of leaders from SW Africa, namely Hendrik Witbooi and Maharero Tjamuaha. 3/

By "postcolonial perspective", I mean a view that understands international law in the late 19th century not as monolithic, but as the result of colonial encounters and the massive social and economic problems underlying them and evoked by them. International law at the time 4/

... was far from uniform and consolidated. By travelling back in time in accordance with the rules of intertemporal law, we should acknowledge the contingency rather than rushing to conclusions and making IL appear determinate in ways it never was. 5/

Moreover, whose international law is relevant, anyway? In their letters, Maharero and Witbooi set out the normative foundations of their relationships with each other, with the colonial powers, and with their people in some detail. I am using their correspondence to make 6/

the case for the plurality of international law, then and now. Moreover, this defeats the frequently-invoked view that the inhabitants of colonial territories were unable to observe the law. They did, if you just had listened for once. 7/

Conclusion: It's high time to recognize Namibians (past and present) as equals in debating legal relationships of the past. At the end of his letters, even those addressed to his enemies, Witbooi always closes with "Ik ben [blijv] Ur vriend en capitain." 8/

It is this claim to equality that Germany needs to accept, not only for the sake of reconciliation with Namibians, but also in order to get to terms with its own goddamn past. 9/9

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