The brutal genocide in colonial Africa was finally recognized as it should be.

This story was co-produced when he was a teenager in the 1960s. Konajik of Israel took part in the struggle against apartheid in his hometown Namibia. He could not have known that his radicalism would take him to the whole world, and Berlin was the birthplace of his motherland's problems.

At that time, Europeans called Kaunajik's hometown southwest Africa, and the most important thing was the European name; Tribal names, even Namibian names, have no place in official classification. Blacks and whites share the same country, but they are not allowed to live in the same community or patronize the same enterprise. Konajik said that this is completely impossible.

/kloc-at the end of 0/9, decades after German immigrants made demands on Southwest Africa, due to the provisions of the League of Nations, the region was administered by South Africa. This means that Kaunatjike's homeland was controlled by the descendants of Dutch and British colonists, and the white rulers made apartheid a national law in 1948. Its shadow extends from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, covering an area larger than the border between Britain, France and Germany.

"Our struggle is against the South African regime," said Kaunatjike, a 68-year-old Berlin resident. "We were labeled * * *"

In the 1960s, hundreds of anti-apartheid activists were killed and thousands were put in prison. As South Africa tightened its fist, many activists decided to flee. "I left Namibia illegally at 1964," Kaunatjik said. "I can't go back."

He is only 17 years old.

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Konajik sat in the living room in a quiet corner of Berlin, where he spent most of his life. With a light beard and glasses, he looks very diligent. His hair has turned white since the day he opposed apartheid. He said: "I feel very comfortable in Berlin. It's a little ironic when you think of the 1980s in Kloc-0/9, just a few miles away from Kaunatjik's apartment, German William II ordered the invasion of southwest Africa. ".This made his journey a strange destination.

Konajik fought this battle when he was a teenager, and it can be said that he is still fighting today. The cycle of oppression against apartheid began with the brutal regime established by the German Empire. It should be admitted that with the help of Germany's Kaunajik,

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It first reached the arid coast of southwest Africa in the middle of19th century. Tourists have stayed on the coast for centuries, but this is the beginning of an unprecedented wave of European intervention in Africa. Today, we call it the struggle in Africa.

1884, German Chancellor otto von bismarck called a meeting of European powers, which was known as the Berlin Conference in history. Although this meeting decided the future of the whole continent, no black African was invited to participate. Bismarck declared southwest Africa a German colony, which was not only suitable for trade, but also suitable for European settlement. King Leopold of Belgium occupied Congo at the same time, and France claimed control of West Africa.

The German flag soon became a beacon for thousands of colonists in South Africa and a symbol of the fear of local tribes, who lived there for thousands of years. Missionaries are followed by businessmen, and businessmen are followed by soldiers. Settlers occupied important puddles in the arid desert to consolidate their control. With the influx of colonists into the inland, local minerals, livestock and agricultural wealth have emerged.

The aborigines did not accept all this willingly. Some German businessmen do have peaceful trade with local people. But like the Belgians in Congo and the British in Australia, Germany's official policy is to occupy territories that Europe considers empty, but this is not the case. There are 13 tribes in Namibia, and the two most powerful ones are Nama and herrero.

Germans are tolerated in part because they seem willing to act as intermediaries between warring local tribes. But in fact, their treaty was suspicious, and when Germany benefited from its own interests, they stood by. Theodor Leutwein, the German colonial governor in the early 20th century, was very happy that the local leadership began to split. For example, according to the Dutch historian Jan Bart Gewald, Rutwin was happy to provide military support to the disputed sheikh because he benefited from the violence and land expropriation in Africa. These strategies are familiar to American history students. In the United States, European colonists slaughtered and deprived indigenous people.

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When Konajik was a child, he only heard a fragment of this history. His Namibian school teacher told him that when Germans first came to southern Africa, they built bridges and wells. There is a more sinister story faintly echoing. For example, some relatives fought the Germans to protect the herrero tribe. His herrero tribe.

Kaunatjike of Israel lived in Berlin for most of his life. The roots of Konajik are much more complicated. Some of his relatives have been on the other side, including his own grandfather. He has never met either of them because they are both German colonists.

"Today, I know my grandfather's name is Otto Muller," Konajik said. "I know where he is buried in Namibia."

During apartheid, he explained that blacks were forced to move to poorer communities, and friendship with whites was impossible. Apartheid is translated as "apartheid" in Afrikaans. But many African women work from home in Germany. Konajik said: "Germans certainly have secret relationships with African women." Some people have * * *. "He doesn't know what happened to his grandmother.

After arriving in Germany, Kaunatjike began to read about the history of southwest Africa. This is a very personal story for him. He said: "I am considered a political refugee and heresy." . He found that many Germans did not know the colonial history of their country.

But some historians have found a terrible story. Some people think that Germany's behavior in southwest Africa is a precursor to Germany's actions in the Holocaust. The boldest among them believe that southwest Africa was the site of the first genocide in the 20th century. "Our understanding of Nazism and where its basic ideas and philosophy came from," wrote David Olusega and kasper W. Eriksson in their book The Caesar massaction. "Unless we explore what happened in Kaiser Wilhelm II's Africa, it may be completely incomplete.

Kaunajike is a calm man, but before he explains his voice. When German colonists forced indigenous tribes to go deep into the inland of southwest Africa, German researchers only took Africans as experimental subjects. Papers published in German medical journals use skull measurements to prove that Africans are not human. "The bones were brought here," Kaunatjike said. "The grave was robbed."

If these strategies sound familiar, it is because Nazi Germany also used them. This connection will not end there. A scientist who studies Namibian race is Professor Joseph Meng Le. He is a notorious "angel of death" who once conducted experiments on Jews in Auschwitz concentration camp. Heinrich Goering, the father of Hitler's right-hand man, was once the governor of Germany's southwest African colony.

The relationship between German colonial history and Nazi history is still controversial. (For example, historians Isabel Hull and Bolsi Kundus questioned the word genocide and the connection between Nazism and mass violence in Africa. However, Konjak believes that the past is the prelude, and Germany's actions in southwest Africa C. German colonial rule ended a century ago, when the German Empire lost in World War I, but it was not until 1990 that Namibia became independent from South Africa that Germany really began to recognize the systematic atrocities there. Although historians began to use the word genocide in the 1970s, German officials refused to use it.

Progress is slow. Just a century after the murder began, in 2004, the German development minister announced that her country had committed atrocities in southwest Africa. But according to Konajik's colleague Norbert Roth, Germany * * * shirked its official responsibility.

In sharp contrast to Germany's attitude towards the Holocaust, some teachers began to cover the Holocaust in the third grade, and Germany used a technical means to avoid a formal apology for the genocide in South Africa.

"For many years, their answers have been the same, but nothing has changed," said Roster, a staff member of AfrikAvenir, a non-profit organization in Berlin. "It is said that the genocide convention was formulated in 1948, which cannot be traced back."

This illustration depicting a German woman being attacked by a black man is a typical description of genocide by Germans in herrero: white citizens, especially women, it is annoying for activists and historians that Germany avoided genocide as an international crime in the early 20th century. Roshett believes that * * * evaded this topic for pragmatic reasons, because historically, the verdict of genocide was followed by the demand for compensation. This is the case with the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide and the Rwandan genocide. Konajik is a witness and heir to Namibia's history, but the story of his country has been doubly ignored. First of all, the historical records of apartheid often overemphasize South Africa. Second, the description of genocide in history is too focused on the Holocaust, and it is easy to forget that the colonial history was earlier than the Second World War, which may indicate its occurrence. The intense concern about the centenary of the Armenian massacre has also aroused concern about the atrocities in European colonies. A decade of radicalism has also helped change the dialogue in Germany. German activists successfully pressured the university to send Errero's body back to Namibia; One by one, German politicians began to talk openly about genocide.

Perhaps the biggest breakthrough was this summer. In July this year, Norbert Lamert, Speaker of the German Parliament, described the murders of Herrero and Nama as Voelkermord in an article in Time magazine, which literally means "murdering a country"-genocide. Lammert called it a "forgotten chapter" in history, and Germans have a moral responsibility to remember this chapter.

"We have been waiting for this for a long time," Konajik said. "This is what the speaker of the Bundestag said. This is a feeling for us.

Then we think it's really starting now. It will go further, "Kaunatjike said. The next step is a formal apology from Germany, followed by a dialogue between Namibian, German and Errero representatives. So far, Germany has been hesitant to ask for compensation, but activists will undoubtedly give reasons. They want students to know this story, not only in Germany, but also in Namibia.

For Kaunatjike, personal milestones can be matched with political milestones. 20 15 is the 25th anniversary of Namibia's independence. /kloc-in October, Kaunatjike plans to visit his birthplace. He said, "I want to go to the old village where I grew up. He will visit a generation of Namibians who remember before apartheid. But he also plans to go to his grandfather's grave. He has never met his German family, and he often wants to know.