The Marine Memorial in Swakopmund

The Marine Denkmal (Marine Memorial) in Swakopmund, Namibia, commemorates the German imperial soldiers who fought against Indigenous Namibians in the Herero Wars (1904-1908). Amid fraught Namibian-Germany relations and contested national memory politics, this monument has become a reminder of unresolved colonial legacies and traumas. Indigenous Namibian groups have pursued legal measures to secure reparations from the German government for the Herero and Nama genocide of 1904-1907. In 2021, Germany and Namibia reached an agreement in which the former country would pay the latter $1.3 billion over the next 30 years, but this deal remains controversial. This case study explores how monuments that celebrate colonial times from the past can provoke contemporary disputes.