Herero and Namaqua Genocide
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The Herero and Namaqua Genocide occurred in German South-West Africa (modern day Namibia) from 1904 until 1907, during the scramble for Africa, and is considered the worst atrocity in the history of the German colonial empire. On January 12th, 1904, the Herero people under Samuel Maharero rose in rebellion against the German colonial rule. In August, German general Lothar von Trotha finally defeated the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and recklessly drove them with their family into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of thirst. In October, also the Namaqua took up arms against the Germans, and were killed with similarities in style. In total, some 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the total Herero population), and 10,000 Namaqua (50 percent of the total Namaqua population) perished. Characteristic of the genocide was death by starvation and the poisoning of wells for the Herero and Namaqua population that was trapped in the Namib Desert.
In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report recognized Germany's attempt to exterminate the Herero and Namaqua peoples of South-West Africa as one of the earliest attempts at genocide in the 20th century. Germany has also recognized the genocide, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Aid Development Minister, declaring in 2004 that: "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility." <ref>Germany admits Namibia genocide, BBC News, August 14, 2004</ref>
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[edit] Before the genocide
The Herero tribe were originally a tribe of cattle herders living in the region of modern Namibia. Formerly, Namibia was called German South West Africa and the area occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland.
During the Scramble for Africa, the British made it clear that they were not interested in the territory so in August 1884 it was declared a German Protectorate; at that time the only overseas territory deemed suitable for white settlement that had been acquired by Germany. From the outset there was resistance by the Khoikhoi to the German occupation although a sort of peace was worked out in 1894. In that year Theodor Leutwein became Governor of the territory and it entered a period of rapid development, while Prussia sent the Schutztruppe imperial troops to crush any rebellion.<ref name="BBC290801">A bloody history: Namibia's colonisation, BBC News, August 29, 2001</ref>
White settlers were encouraged and settled on land taken from the natives, which caused a great deal of discontent. German colonial rule in the area was far from egalitarian, the natives including the Herero were used as slave labourers, their lands were frequently sized and given to colonists, and resources, particularly diamond mines, were exploited by the Germans.
In 1903 some of the Nama Tribes rose in revolt under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi, and about 60 German settlers were killed <ref name="BBC290801"/>. Khoikhoi and Herero joined the Namas months later. More troops were sent from Germany to re-establish colonial rule but only succeeded in dispersing the rebels led by Chief Samuel Maharero.
In 1904 the Hereros revolted, led by Chief Samuel Maharero, and killed about 120 Germans, including women and children, destroying their farms. General Lothar von Trotha was dispatched in October 1904 with a force of 14,000 soldiers to resolve the crisis. He issued an appeal to the Hereros:
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General Lothar von Trotha's orders to kill every male Herero and drive the women and children into the desert were lifted in 1904 by the Kaiser, but the massacres had already began. When the order was lifted at the end of 1904, prisoners were herded into concentration camps and given as slave labour to German businesses, where many died of overwork and malnutrition.
[edit] The genocide
German forces met the 3000-5000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg and defeated them decisively. The survivors retreated with their families towards Bechuanaland, after the British offered the Hereros asylum under the condition not to continue the revolt on British soil.
Some 24,000 Hereros managed to flee through a gap in the netting into the Kalahari Desert in the hope of reaching the British protectorate. German patrols later found skeletons around holes (25-50 feet deep) dug up in a vain attempt to find water. Maherero and 1000 men crossed the Kalahari into Bechuanaland.
The German administration never conducted a census before 1904. Only in 1905 did a counting take place which revealed that 25,000 Herero remained in German South-West Africa.
Survivors, mostly women and children, were eventually put in concentration camps, such as that at Shark Island, similar to those used in British South Africa during both Boer Wars. German authorities attributed to each Herero a number and meticulously recorded every death of a Herero, whether in camps or due to forced labor, and including, unusually enough, the name of each dead person. German enterprises were able to rent Herero people for manpower, and death of workers was permitted, and reported to the German authorities. Forced labor, disease and malnutrition killed an estimated 50 to 80 percent of the entire Herero population by 1908, when the camps were closed. This extermination thus qualifies as genocide.
It took until 1908 to fully re-establish German authority over the territory by which time some 100,000 Africans had been killed. At the height the campaign some 19,000 German Troops were involved. According to the 1985 UN Whitaker Report, some 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the total Herero population), and 10,000 Namaqua (50 percent of the total Namaqua population) were killed between 1904 and 1907. Others estimates give a total of 100,000 killed.
At about the same time diamonds were discovered in the territory and this did much to boost its prosperity. However it was short-lived. The German colony was overtaken and occupied by the Union of South Africa in 1915, in one of the colonial campaigns of World War I. South Africa received a League of Nations Mandate over South-West Africa in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles.
[edit] Recognition, denial and compensation
Larissa Förster, a Namibia expert at the Museum for Ethnology in Cologne considers (like many modern historians) the Herero massacre the first genocide of the 20th century : "It was clearly a command to eliminate people belonging to a specific ethnic group and only because they were part of this ethnic group." <ref> "Remembering the Herero Rebellion", in Deutsche Welle, January 11, 2004 </ref> Historical revisionists prefer the terms "Herero Wars" while acknowledging massacres. They deem the evidence insufficient to call it a genocide and reject comparisons to Auschwitz as sensationalism.
In 1998, German President Roman Herzog visited Namibia and met Herero leaders. Chief Munjuku Nguvauva demanded a public apology and compensation. Herzog expressed regret but stopped short of an apology. He also pointed out that reparations were out of the question.
On the 100th anniversary on August 16, 2004, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's development aid minister officially apologized for the first time and expressed grief about the genocide committed by Germans, declaring that "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time". In addition, she admitted the massacres were equivalent to genocide, without explicitly mentioning the concentration camps and slavery that took place, which are well documented by the Germans themselves. Furthermore, she ruled out paying a special compensation but pointed out that the German government is continuing to pay a yearly sum of 11.5 million Euros as development aid for Namibia.
The Hereros have filed a law suit in the USA in 2001, demanding reparations to the German government and to the Deutsche Bank, which financed the German government and companies in Southern Africa <ref>German bank accused of genocide, BBC News, 25 September, 2001</ref><ref name="BBC120104"/>
[edit] Fictional representations
One chapter of Thomas Pynchon's novel V. (1963) is about the Herero genocide. A group of characters of Herero descent are also present in his Gravity's Rainbow (1974), which hints more than once at the Herero Massacre.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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[edit] Bibliography and documentaries
- Exterminate all the Brutes, Sven Lindqvist, London, 1996.
- A Forgotten History-Concentration Camps were used by Germans in South West Africa, Casper W. Erichsen, in the Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, 17 August, 2001.
- Genocide & The Second Reich, BBC Four, David Olusoga, October 2004
- German Federal Archives, Imperial Colonial Office, Vol. 2089, 7 (recto)
- The Herero and Nama Genocides, 1904-1908, J.B. Gewald, in Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, New York, Macmillan Reference, 2004.
- Let Us Die Fighting: the Struggle of the Herero and Nama against German Imperialism, 1884-1915, Horst Drechsler, London, 1980.
- The Revolt of the Hereros, Jon M. Bridgman, Perspectives on Southern Africa, Berkeley, University of California, 1981.
[edit] External links
- Herero War - History in Pictures from Radio Bremen
- Germany Refuses to Apologize for Herero Holocaust (BlackVoices - October 14, 2002)
- Germany apologizes
- Center for Holocaust studies under the, misspelled, title "Hereo Genocide in Namibia 1904"
- Article on debate over it being genocide
- The resistance struggle culminates in genocide: 1904-1906
- The tribe Germany wants to forget, Mail&Guardian, 13 March 1998
- Pilgrimage - Controversy - Reconciliation 1904-2004de:Aufstand der Herero und Nama
fr:Génocide des Hereros nl:Namibische genocide 1904 no:Herero-oppstanden
