Namibië: Herero - uprising against German colonial rule

The almost inevitable armed clash started when Samuel Maherero issued an order addressed to ‘all the headmen in my country' on 11th January 1904. Interestingly, he instructed his people not to harm any missionaries, English, Basters, Bergdamaras, Namas, or Boers. It was an order that was obeyed with only a few exceptions. In addition, according to the Herero code of war, women were not harmed. The Hereros not only had the advantage of surprise but also, probably with foreknowledge, had begun hostilities at a time when Major Theodor Leutwein and a sizeable portion of the German military force were fighting in the deep south of the country. German settlers were killed, towns and garrisons were besieged, and the Hereros achieved a number of military successes. However, with more and more Hereros and their leaders gathering around Samuel, severe logistical problems began to arise. One of the most severe was the simple question of how and where sufficient grazing and water could be found for the scores of thousands of cattle that were now gathered together in one place. As Leutwein began to organize his campaign, the tide of war turned. After two hard-fought battles that left the Germans bloodied but victorious, Samuel withdrew to the Waterberg, not only because it was remote but also because it provided good supplies of water. Here the whole Herero nation awaited the attack by the German forces. Following criticism that Leutwein's approach to the war was ineffective, in May 1904 Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha was appointed to replace Leutwein as military commander. Von Trotha, who had served in German East Africa (now Tanzania), had a simple and forceful approach to colonial wars: Crush and destroy the enemy. As he said later, his plan was to encircle the Hereros at Waterberg, annihilate them if possible, hunt down the survivors, and capture and hang the leaders. Von Trotha waited only long enough to receive reinforcements and to organise his forces before he moved on the Hereros to do battle. The confrontation finally took place on 11th August at Hamakari. Although fiercely contested, the resources and discipline of the German force won the day. That night, the Hereros, including Samuel Maherero, began to slip away towards the east. At this point, it is worth noting that historians have debated, and continue to debate, why Samuel remained still and passive for so long. In fact, the Germans were amazed to find that in spite of the fact that they had been based there for so long, the Hereros had not made any specific preparations for the battle. The general opinion is that Samuel expected and hoped that there would be a negotiated settlement, as, for instance, had taken place between the Germans and Hendrik Witbooi ten years earlier. Whatever the reasons, it is clear that Samuel entered the final battle reluctantly and only when he was forced to it. For the Hereros, the result was disastrous. They retreated eastwards into the dry Sandveld of the Kalahari, away from water and sustenance. In October, Von Trotha issued his notorious order that all Hereros should be exterminated. It read: "I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this letter to the Herero nation. The Herero are no longer German subjects. ...… All Hereros must leave the country. If they do not do so, I will force them with cannons to do so. Within the German borders, every Herero, with or without cattle, will be shot. I no longer shelter women and children. They must either return to their people or they will be shot at. This is my message to the Herero nation" A fence was constructed to keep the Herero survivors from the water holes, which were guarded by soldiers. Later, when the 'extermination order' was rescinded after protests in Germany, the surviving Hereros were rounded up to be interned in concentration camps, where they were used as slave labour on public and private projects. The same fate befell the Oorlam/Namas of the south when they rose against the Germans and were defeated in turn. The camps were operated specifically to provide slave labour, with no concern for the welfare of the inmates. Indeed, there is evidence that in some camps the conditions were deliberately designed so that most of the inmates were certain to die. For instance, this was the case at the notorious Shark Island camp at Luderitz, which housed captured combatants from the conflict in the south. It has been estimated that by the time the camps were closed in 1909, more than three-quarters of the Herero and Nama people had died in the short space of less than five years through warfare, privations, and exhaustion during slave labour. As sites for slave labour and extermination, the concentration camps in Namibia were in lineal descent from the concentration camps that the British established in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and were forerunners of the notorious extermination centres that the Nazis operated during the Holocaust. Uit: www.namibian.org/travel/namibia/history/maherero.html