Authorities in Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, announced Wednesday the removal of a statue honoring Curt von François, the main German settler and considered the founder of the city.
This was reported by government spokesman Harold Akwenye, who added that the von François statue will be moved to the Independence Museum on a temporary basis, although future plans are not yet clear.
For his part, Job Amupanda, former mayor of the capital, celebrated before the microphones of DPA that the removal of the statue means the «beginning of a process of decolonization» in Namibia, and specifically in the city.
The controversy surrounding the statue of Von François has come to the fore in the last two years, when Namibian activist Hildegard Titus requested its removal, a request that she herself now believes was the trigger.
As Titus also acknowledged before the microphones of the German agency, Von François represents the most violent past of Windhoek, so that his figure should not be glorified or occupy a space on the public road.
Although historians are less and less clear about the real role of Von François in Namibia, they do point out that he could have been the one who gave the order for a brutal German attack on Hornkranz in which dozens of people died.
The current Namibia was known as German Southwest Africa until 1915, when they achieved independence from the European colonialist country, which until then ruled with an iron fist and violently repressed any hint of insurrection.
In fact, it is in this country where it is estimated that the first genocide of the 20th century may have taken place, the one carried out by the Germans against the Herero and Nama populations in response to their attempted uprising.
The German and Namibian authorities have long been negotiating a proposal for a possible reconciliation agreement between the former colonial and colonial powers.
