| Herero Wars | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theScramble for Africa | |||||||
 German troops in combat with the Herero in a painting byRichard Knötel. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Herero,Nama, and other Namibians | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Theodor LeutweinLothar von Trotha | Samuel Maharero Hendrik Witbooi † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Initial strength: ~2,000[1] | Herero: 10,000[2] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 65–70,000 including civilians[3] | ||||||
TheHerero Wars were a series of colonial wars between theGerman Empire and theHerero people ofGerman South West Africa (present-dayNamibia). They took place between 1904 and 1908.
The Hereros were cattle grazers, occupying most of central and northern South West Africa. Under the leadership ofJonker Afrikaner, who died in 1861, and later under the leadership ofSamuel Maharero, they had achieved supremacy over theNama andOrlam peoples in a series of conflicts that had in their later stages, seen the extensive use of firearms obtained from European traders.[4]
In the early 1880s, the German statesmanOtto von Bismarck, reversing his previous rejection of colonial acquisitions, decided on a policy of imperial expansion. In 1882 Bismarck gave permission toAdolf Lüderitz to obtain lands which Germany would bring within its "protection", under the conditions that a port was established within the territories taken and that there was "clear title" to the land. Lüderitz bought the title toAngra Pequena (later renamed Lüderitz Bay) from Joseph Fredericks, a chief of theOorlam people, in exchange for 200 rifles, 2,500 German marks, and some lead toy soldiers, and established a port there. Clarification of Germany's title among the European powers took some time, as the British demurred in response to a German request to clarify the boundaries of their title, however in April 1884 Bismarck instructed the German consul in declare "Lüderitzland" (as Lüderitz's holding in South-West Africa had become known) as under the "protection" of the German Reich. Lüderitz steadily spread Germany's influence throughout the South-West African territory until by 1885 only one tribe within it – the Witboois – had not concluded some kind of arrangement with Germany.[4]
WhilstRhenish missionaries, traders, and other Europeans had been present in the territory since the 1830s, it was only with the advent of Germany's claim to South-West Africa that German settlement of the territory began in earnest. By 1903 there were roughly 4,682 European settlers in the protectorate of whom nearly 3,000 were Germans, most of them in the towns ofLüderitz,Swakopmund, andWindhoek. The advent of large-scale German settlement also brought about changes in the treatment of the native Herero and Nama peoples by Europeans, with native people facing increased legal discrimination and expropriation of land for the use of European settlers.[5]
In 1903, some of the Khoi and Herero tribes rose in revolt and about 120-150 German settlers were killed, with many victims tortured and mutilated before death.[6] Troops were sent from Germany to re-establish order but only dispersed the rebels, led by ChiefSamuel Maharero. In a famous letter toHendrik Witbooi, theNama chief, Maharero sought to organize his rebellion against the Germans while building alliances with the other tribes, exclaimingLet us die fighting![7]
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 machineguns. The German governorTheodor Leutwein sent desperate messages to Maharero in hopes of negotiating an end to the war. The Hereros, however, were emboldened by their success and had come to believe that, "the Germans were too cowardly to fight in the open," and rejected Leutwein's offers of peace. One missionary wrote, "One hears nothing but (Herero) talk of 'cleaning up,' 'executing,' 'shooting down to the last man,' 'no pardon,' etc."[6] Soon after the rebellion began, German EmperorWilhelm II replaced Leutwein with the notorious GeneralLothar von Trotha.[8]
A conclusive battle was fought on 11 August 1904, at theBattle of Waterberg in theWaterberg 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.[9]
Trotha's troops defeated 3,000–5,000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg but were unable to encircle and annihilate the retreating survivors.[10]: 605 The pursuing German forces prevented groups of Herero from breaking from the main body of the fleeing force and pushed them further into the desert. As exhausted Herero fell to the ground, unable to go on, German soldiers killed men, women, and children.[11]: 22
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[12][13][14][15][16][17] or died of thirst while fleeing. 65,000 of 80,000 Hereros and at least 10,000 of 20,000 Nama died as a result of the conflict.[18]
In 1915, during World War I,South African forces occupied it in the so-calledSouth West Africa Campaign, and SW Africa officially became a mandate of South Africa in 1920.[19]
On 16 August 2004, 100 years after the war, the German government officially apologised for the atrocities.[20] "We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time," saidHeidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's development aid minister. In addition, she admitted that the massacres were equivalent togenocide.[21]
Not until 2015 did the German government admit that the massacres were equivalent togenocide and again apologised in 2016. The Herero are suing the German government in a class action lawsuit.[22] In 2021, Germany announced that they would repay Namibia €1.1 billion.[23]
Some notable fighters in Herero Wars are revered as thenational heroes of Namibia.[24]
The Herero Wars and the massacres are both depicted in a chapter of the 1963 novelV. byThomas Pynchon. The tragic story of the Herero and Nama Genocide also appears in Pynchon's 1973 novelGravity's Rainbow.
The heavy toll of theHerero and Nama genocide on individual lives and the fabric of Herero culture is seen in the 2013 historical novelMama Namibia by Mari Serebrov.[25]
The war and the massacres are both significantly featured inThe Glamour of Prospecting,[26] 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.
