Unknown to many is that the first and the most devastating 20th century genocide happened in Namibia.  The Republic of Namibia declared its independence from South Africa on March 21, 1990. South Africa had colonized Namibia since 1915 after defeating German forces in World War I. Germany colonized Namiba, which they called “South West Africa” in the 1884s.
According to “Namibia – Genocide and the Second Reich,” a documentary by the BBC on the history of Namibia’s struggle for independence, “what few people do not realize is that places like Auschwitz were not Germany’s first concentration camps and the holocaust was not first Germany’s first genocide.” It was in Namibia against the Herero people.
Namibia is quickly becoming a model of just governance among African nations.  Namibia’s outgoing President Hifikepunye Pohamba received the 2014 Mo Ibrahim prize for African leadership in Nairobi, Kenya on March 2, 2015.  On a long list of achievements, Namibians have gone far in equal gender representation. It is in the process of adopting the ‘zebra’ style system which is that when a minister is a woman, the deputy minister must be a man and vice versa.