Documenting Genocide: Forensic Archaeology, Impact and Education relating to the Slave Worker Graves in Swakopmund, Namibia

Ovaherero and Nama groups continue to call for the urgent preservation of the burial grounds of the genocide victims, in Swakopmund and across the region. This project supports our wider efforts, and those of our project partners, to ensure the long overdue protection of the unmarked graves in Namibia and to promote education efforts that counter genocide denialism still present in the country and across the UK and EU more widely. For this phase of the project, we will partner with the Genocide Museum in Swakopmund – described as ‘one of the smallest museums in Africa yet perhaps the most important’ (The Economist 2024) to transform its permanent exhibition. In addition, an international travelling version of the exhibition will be created, and the project team will conduct workshops and training for the local community on forensic archaeology and the identification of surface human remains – an ongoing problem in and around the cemeteries of the slave workers due to anthropogenic factors and natural processes.