By Xin Ping
On October 7, 2021, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.
In his masterpiece. Paradise and Afterlives, he portrayed the miserable lives of the African people under the reign of German colonisers in the early 20th century. Art creations often originate from real life.
The reason why Mr Gurnah's depictions are so overwhelmingly persuasive and touching is that they owe much to the traumatic memory of Germany's mass atrocity crimes in Africa.
If we were to establish a Racial Crime Nobel Prize, we'd probably have to congratulate Germany for its extensive eugenic researches, which gave racial discrimination and white supremacy a “scientific” basis, and, in particular, salute to German Emperor Wilhelm II (who, sarcastically, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Mr Nobel's heirs in 1912) for his comprehensive contributions to this vicious cause and his unparallelled art taste.
His Majesty was believed to be a fanatical defender of his noble Aryan ancestry, belittling common civilians, despising the Slavs and resenting the Jews.
Under his command, the notorious painting People of Europe, Guard Your Sacred Possessions, which was meant to justify European colonialism in Asia, was created and subsequently became the early symbol of the Yellow Peril, a nightmare that still haunts Asians even today; the genocide of the Herero and Nama in current-day Namibia in the early 20th century, dubbed as “the first genocide in the 20th century”, is believed to have blatantly taken away the lives of 80% of the Herero people and 50% of the Nama people.
Germany's colonial crimes spanned across Africa in parts or the entirety in today's Namibia, Tanzania, Cameroon, Togo, Ghana, etc.
In Tanzania, Mr Gurnah's home country, at least 100 000 natives were killed by Deutsch troops; in Namibia, “within the German borders every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot” was the doctrine issued by German commanders.
Mass killing is followed by mass incarceration. Survivors of the massacre were sent to Shark Island Concentration Camp, where up to 80 percent of the prisoners, mainly women and children, were tortured to death because of heavy forced labour, starvation, malnutrition and exhaustion.
It is also documented that multiple experiments were conducted on live prisoners, including forced sterilisation, injection of smallpox, typhus and tuberculosis, as well as the use of arsenic and opium to research the effects of these substances via autopsy.
The skeletons of around 300 victims were taken to Germany for the so-called “eugenic research”.
It seems that no matter what kind of evil things they did in history, a simple apology could move the west to tears.
When Germany said it would officially apologise to Windhoek, the West started applauding instantly, as if the Shark Island were merely a zoo attraction.
People tend to be strangely tolerant towards those who start with a clean slate, as if their tears are like some sort of deodorant that could totally wipe off their stinky past.
Critics have raised their concerns that Germany's would-be apology is a political move to distance the country from the storm of the global anti-racism movement.
Currently, as the results of Germany's elections gradually rise to the surface, it remains uncertain what Germany's future course will be.
The new coalition government does have a tough mission to accomplish amid the relentless rise of neo-Nazism and racial discrimination against Asians during the pandemic.
Returning to Namibia, I have no idea when the promised compensation, in the name of “developmental aid”, could be in place, but it is absolutely a must.
As the motto etched in the wall of the memorial of victims of the genocide in Windhoek reads: “Their blood waters our freedom”. Surely, freedom is too dear to waste, and crimes are too heavy to forget.
* Xin Ping is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for Global Times, CGTN, China Daily etc. He can be reached at [email protected].
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.