Dear Director General, Doctor Johannes Vogel,

    Werner Janensch, a German paleontologist, found a girafatitan in 1908, which was exported illegally to your institution in 1909. It has rested there ever since, despite the return of other artifacts and fossils to Tanzania by your government. In addition, German scientists have worked with those from Tanzania since 2000 to recover other fossils from this location. We ask for reparation for fossils stolen in the form of a museum/university for the study of Tanzanian paleontology, the return of the girafatitan, and assistance in developing the paleontology program. For this, we look forward to further work with your scientists in the extension of paleontological knowledge, including that being done at Olduvai Gorge.

Thank you

     Both the Namibian government and the Herero and Nama peoples have spoken before the United Nations, and suits have been brought in the United States courts by Namibia and members of the Diaspora. The dissension between the tribes and the government, however, hinder legal recourse. The Germans are attempting to deal with the government, but not the indigenous people. The attempt at negotiating reparations has thus failed.

In contrast, the demands from the Diaspora are personal. They want the same recognition of harm the Accra Declaration calls for, but what is being recognized is ongoing harm to persons and culture, and ongoing policies that are designed to benefit the white European male and his descendants.

Recent investigations have revealed that the American Museum of Natural History continues to house the skulls and human remains of indigenous peoples from around the world, including those of Ovaherero and Nama victims from the German colonial period and genocide in Namibia (1904-1908). It is well known that German anthropologists and scientists collected such skulls to study them and try to support their racist theories of human development and supposed racialized biological differences. Many of these skulls came into the possession of German anthropologist Felix von Luschan. The AMNH purchased skulls and remains from von Luschan and his widow.

This unfortunately acquisition fits into the AMNH’s long history of supporting and partnering with organizations and individuals invested in eugenics. Examples include their financing of the Galton Society in the early 20^th century, their sponsoring of the Second and Third International Congresses of Eugenics (in 1921 and 1932, respectively), and the leadership of curator Harry Shapiro, an outspoken advocate of eugenics.

In order to restore its reputation and do right by the descendants of these brutal colonial acts, it is vital that the AMNH work to restore all human remains to their descendants. Members of the Ovaherero and Nama peoples as well as the Namibian government have been working to bring reconciliation and healing and some closure to this horrific historical chapter, and the restoration of these remains is one important part of this healing process.

It was not until 2015 that the German government officially used the word "genocide" to describe what had happened to the Ovaherero and Nama people in the years 1904 to 1908. The term was also used in the draft joint declaration of the Namibian and German governments that was agreed upon in a preliminary way in 2021. However the language there showed some hedging: “The German Government acknowledges that the abominable atrocities committed during periods of the colonial war culminated in events that, from today’s perspective, would be called genocide.” That phrase "from today's perspective" implies some level of excuse-making for the perpetrators of the genocide.

As a politically relevant side-note, some oppose the use of the word "genocide" to refer to Germans' colonial history in Africa and oppose any kind of connections being drawn between German tactics there and what subsequently took place in the Holocaust. Such connections are seen as a "levelling" that does not take seriously enough placing the Holocaust/Shoah in its own category of horror, one that cannot be compared to anything else. This "politics of memory" that has taken hold so forcefully in Germany has been one of many bumps in the road toward Germany recognizing the full harms of its colonial past.

Those harms were perpetrated over decades, but culminated in 1904-1908, in response to a revolt of the Ovaherero and Nama people to colonial rule. The revolt was crushed, and the people were forced into concentration camps or driven into the Omaheke desert, to die of thirst. By 1908, 80% of the Ovaherero and 50% of the Nama had died. Famously, the German

Thousands of acres of land (and countless cattle) were taken from the indigenous communities and given to German settlers. Even today, “German Namibians make up 2 percent of Namibia’s 2.5 million population but own about 70 percent of the country’s land” (Shola Lawal, Al-Jazeera, Dec 2023). Germany economically exploited the land and its people in other ways as well, particularly once it discovered diamonds there in 1908.

Demands for reparation include a 2017 case brought by descendants of the genocide victims to the U.S. court system, filing a class action lawsuit and invoking the Alien Tort Statute of 1789. That effort failed. Previously, in 2016, the group "Restorative Justice after Genocide" held public protests in Berlin demanding restorations. This group included Herero and Nama representatives as well as German activists.

But most significant (and controversial) have been the meetings between representatives of the Namibian and German governments that led to the draft declaration of 2021 mentioned above. While claiming to have included Ovaherero and Nama representatives, these were not recognized by the relevant communities as leaders who represent their interests. The political divisions in Namibia have complicated matters. Furthermore, the German government has explicitly refused to accept any legal obligation to Namibia or to those impacted by the genocide and has also refused the language of “reparations,” preferring instead to frame everything in “voluntary” terms. Many activist groups associated with the Ovaherero and Nama have protested the agreement and have filed suit in Namibia to prevent Namibia from receiving the promised funds from Germany.

These funds – around one billion euros over thirty years – pale in comparison to the money Germany has given to Israel in recognition of the harms of the Holocaust or the money it has put towards remembrance and memorial of Holocaust victims.

It is unclear how this agreement will fare, but the Ovaherero and Nama people continue to seek international attention to and recognition of the historical harms of colonialism and seek to redress the significant gaps in the language of the draft agreement as well as its terms.

The incident escalated into a full-scale riot when a white mob gathered outside the courthouse where Rowland was being held, and rumors spread that there would be a lynching. The mob eventually made its way to the Greenwood district, looting and burning businesses and homes, and attacking African American residents. The violence resulted in the destruction of more than 35 city blocks in Greenwood, which was known as "Black Wall Street" due to its prosperous black-owned businesses.

The exact number of casualties from the riots is unknown, as many bodies were buried in unmarked graves, but estimates range from 100 to 300 deaths, mostly African Americans. Thousands of residents were left homeless and the economic impact on the community was devastating.

The Tulsa race riots are considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history, and their legacy continues to impact the city of Tulsa and the African American community. In recent years, efforts have been made to uncover the true extent of the violence and provide reparations to the descendants of the victims.

Other explanations, such as a fortified work, or ritual sites, have also been considered, though none have been proven to any degree. These uses are also not exclusive, and it was likely a multi-use site.

The finding of iron artifacts also links them to the Nok tradition of iron work farther to the east, and there also seems to have been a Mafa like culture, though not the ancestors of the Mafa, who used the site.

I do a great deal of work with construction and design programs, which have proven to be a great outschool tool for us. Tracing the process and evolution at this site, and comparing it with cultures to the northwest and the successor cultures on this site, would be a great tool for demonstrating both African technology and design principles.