Gaob Daniel Timotheus Frederick was sitting in the front row of the visitors' gallery in the Bundestag this week. Wearing a suit and hat, he had traveled all the way from Namibia to see this parliamentary debate unfold. For almost 120 years, his family had been waiting for the return of human remains of their ancestor, Cornelius Frederick (sometimes spelled Fredericks), who had led the Nama resistance against German colonial rule and died on Shark Island in Germany's first concentration camp .

In the name of his great-grandfather and as a member of the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), Frederick was there to demand an "unconditioned apology" from Germany.

Sitting next to him, in uniform and white gloves, with a carved lion on the handle of his walking stick, was the head of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority, Paramount Chief Mutjinde Katjiua.…