Herero Wars

Herero Wars
Part of the Scramble for Africa

German troops in combat with the Herero in a painting by Richard Knötel.
Date1904–1908
LocationGerman South West Africa
Result German victory, systematic extermination of native peoples
Belligerents

German Empire German Empire

 Herero, Namaqua, and other Namibians
Commanders and leaders
German Empire Lothar von Trotha Samuel Maharero, Hendrik Witbooi
Strength
Initial Strength:~2,000,[1] Eventual strength: Almost 20,000,[2] Herero: 10,000,[3]
Casualties and losses
KIA: 676, MIA:76, WIA: 907, died from disease: 689, civilians: 100[4] As many as 65-70,000 including civilians[4]

The Herero Wars were a series of colonial wars between the German Empire and the Herero people of German South West Africa (present-day Namibia).

Background

The Hereros were cattle grazers, occupying most of central and northern South West Africa.

During the Scramble for Africa, South West Africa was claimed by Germany in August 1884. At that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for white settlement. German colonists arriving in the following years occupied large areas of land, ignoring any claims by the Herero, Namaqua, and other natives. There was continual resistance by the natives.

A sort of peace was worked out in 1894. In that year, Theodor Leutwein became the colony's governor. White settlers were further encouraged and took more land from the natives. That caused a great deal of discontent.

Rebellion

In 1903, some of the Khoi and Herero tribes rose in revolt and about 60 German settlers were killed. Troops were sent from Germany to re-establish order but only dispersed the rebels, led by Chief Samuel Maharero. In a famous letter to Hendrik Witbooi, the Namaqua chief, Maharero sought to organize his rebellion against the Germans while building alliances with the other tribes, exclaiming Let us die fighting![5] The Herero led a guerrilla campaign, conducting fast hit and run operations then melting back into the terrain they knew well, preventing the Germans from gaining an advantage with their modern artillery and machine-guns. However a conclusive battle was fought on August 11, 1904 at the Battle of Waterberg in the Waterberg Mountains. Chief Maharero believed his six to one advantage over the Germans would allow him to win in a final showdown. The Germans had time to bring forward their artillery and heavy weapons. Both sides took heavy losses, but the Herero were scattered and defeated.[6]

In October 1904, General Lothar von Trotha issued orders to kill every male Herero and drive women and children into the desert. As soon as the news of this order reached Germany, it was repealed, but Trotha initially ignored Berlin. When the extermination order was finally suspended at the end of 1904, surviving tribesmen were herded into concentration camps, while others were transferred as slave labor to German businesses; many Herero died of overwork and malnutrition.

It took the Germans until 1908 to re-establish authority over the territory. By that time tens of thousands of Africans estimates range from 34,000 to 110,000 had been either killed[7][8]:296[9][10][11][12]) or died of thirst while fleeing. 65,000 of 80,000 Hereros and at least 10,000 of 20,000 Nama.[13]

At the height of the campaign some 19,000 German troops were involved.

At about the same time, diamonds were discovered in the territory, which briefly greatly boosted its prosperity.

Aftermath

In 1915, during World War I, British and South African forces occupied it in the so-called South West Africa Campaign, and SW Africa later became a protectorate of South Africa.

On 16 August 2004, 100 years after the war, the German government officially apologized for the atrocities.[14] "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time," said Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's development aid minister. In addition, she admitted that the massacres were equivalent to genocide.[15]

Not until 2015 did the German government admit that the massacres were equivalent to genocide and again apologized in 2016. The Herero are suing the German government in a class action lawsuit.[16]

In literature

The Herero Wars and the massacres are both depicted in a chapter of the 1963 novel V. by Thomas Pynchon. The tragic story of the Herero and Namaqua Genocide also appears in Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow.

The heavy toll of the Herero and Namaqua Genocide on individual lives and the fabric of Herero culture is seen in the 2013 historical novel Mama Namibia by Mari Serebrov.[17]

The war and the massacres are both significantly featured in The Glamour Of Prospecting,[18] a contemporary account by Frederick Cornell of his attempts to prospect for diamonds in the region. In the book he describes his first hand accounts of witnessing the concentration camp on Shark Island amongst other aspects of the conflict.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bridgman, Jon M. (1966) Revolt of the Hereros University of California Press. p. 66
  2. ↑ Bridgman, p. 112
  3. ↑ Bridgman, p. 87
  4. 1 2 Bridgman, p. 164
  5. ↑ Gewald, Jan-Bart, Herero Heroes: A Socio-political History of the Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923, London: James Curry Ltd (1999), ISBN 082557493, p. 156
  6. ↑ Robert Gaudi (2017). "7: Hereroland". African Kaiser. Penguin. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  7. ↑ Jeremy Sarkin-Hughes (2008) Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia, 1904-1908, p. 142, Praeger Security International, Westport, Conn. ISBN 978-0-31336-256-9
  8. ↑ A. Dirk Moses (2008) Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, NY ISBN 978-1-84545-452-4
  9. ↑ Dominik J. Schaller (2008) From Conquest to Genocide: Colonial Rule in German Southwest Africa and German East Africa, p. 296, Berghahn Books, NY ISBN 1-8454-5452-9
  10. ↑ Sara L. Friedrichsmeyer, Sara Lennox, and Susanne M. Zantop (1998) The Imperialist Imagination: German Colonialism and Its Legacy, p. 87, University of Michigan Press ISBN 978-0-47209-682-4
  11. ↑ Walter Nuhn (1989) Sturm über Südwest. Der Hereroaufstand von 1904, Bernard & Graefe-Verlag, Koblenz ISBN 3-7637-5852-6.
  12. ↑ Marie-Aude Baronian, Stephan Besser, Yolande Jansen (2007) Diaspora and Memory: Figures of Displacement in Contemporary Literature, Arts and Politics, p. 33, Rodopi ISBN 978-1-42948-147-2
  13. ↑ Herero und Nama verklagen Deutschland wegen Kolonialverbrechen 06.01.2017, FOCUS Magazine
  14. ↑ Namibia holocaust
  15. ↑ "German minister says sorry for genocide in Namibia" (15 August 2004) The Guardian
  16. ↑ Christoph Schult und Christoph Titz Herero und Nama verklagen Deutschland Der Spiegel, 06.01.2017
  17. ↑ Serebrov, Mari (2013) Mama Namibia. Windhoek, Namibia: Wordweaver Publishing House
  18. ↑ Frederick Carruthers Cornell (1920). The Glamour Of Prospecting: Wanderings Of A South African Prospector In Search Of Copper, Gold, Emeralds, and Diamonds. London, England: London, T.F. Unwin Ltd.
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