Legal scholar Sophie Petry's research revealed that the arid plains of German South West Africa, now Namibia, became a site for colonial economic violence under German rule.

As an assistant researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin, Petry highlighted how tax policies were used deliberately to impoverish Indigenous communities while benefiting settlers and colonial companies.

The research on Colonial Taxation and Economic Exploitation in German South West Africa, presented at the German Colonialism and the Law conference in Windhoek, examined how fiscal policies were used to consolidate colonial control.

The German government imposed poll tax and smelter tax on indigenous communities, forcing them to labour on settler farms and mines due to their inability to pay these taxes in cash. 

This created a cycle of debt and dependency, stifling indigenous autonomy.

Legal scholar Sophie Petry emphasised how discriminatory tax policies funded colonial administration and military expenses while deepening economic dependence among indigenous populations.

Post-independence, Namibia and other former colonies have raised claims about how arbitrary tax demands under colonial rule led to the loss of their resources and land. 

Reparation advocates argue that Germany's fiscal exploitation was a systemic economic crime. 

Legal scholars, like Sophie Pery, highlight forced labour for tax payments and racially biased enforcement as grounds for restitution. 

Germany's first comprehensive tax law, the 1919 Reichsabgabenordnung, introduced penalties for tax evasion but excluded colonial territories. 

However, its principles of centralised enforcement and punitive measures echo colonial repression.