More than a century after the dramatic events that unfolded at the beginning of the twentieth century in South-West Africa, the German authorities expressed their readiness to apologize to the people of Namibia and recognize the actions of the colonial administration of German South-West Africa as genocide of the local peoples of Herero and Nama. Let us recall that in 1904-1908. in South-West Africa, German troops killed more than 75 thousand people - representatives of the Herero and Nama peoples. The actions of the colonial troops were in the nature of genocide, but until recently Germany still refused to recognize the suppression of the rebellious African tribes as genocide. Now the German leadership is negotiating with the authorities of Namibia, following which a joint statement is planned by the governments and parliaments of the two countries, characterizing the events of the early 20th century as the Herero and Nama genocide.
The topic of the Herero and Nama genocide surfaced after the Bundestag approved a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Then Metin Kulunk, representing the Justice and Development Party (the ruling party of Turkey) in the Turkish parliament, announced that he was going to submit for the consideration of fellow deputies a bill on the recognition of the genocide by Germany of the indigenous peoples of Namibia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Apparently, the idea of the Turkish deputy was supported by the impressive Turkish lobby in Germany itself. Now the German government has no choice but to recognize the events in Namibia as genocide. True, the representative of the German Foreign Ministry, Savsan Shebli, said that recognizing the destruction of the Herero and Nama as genocide does not mean that the FRG will make any payments to the affected country, that is, the Namibian people.
As you know, Germany, together with Italy and Japan, entered the struggle for the colonial division of the world relatively late. However, already in the 1880s - 1890s. she managed to acquire a number of colonial possessions in Africa and Oceania. Southwest Africa has become one of Germany's most important acquisitions. In 1883, German entrepreneur and adventurer Adolf Lüderitz acquired plots of land on the coast of modern Namibia from the leaders of local tribes, and in 1884 the right of Germany to own these territories was recognized by Great Britain. Southwest Africa, with desert and semi-desert territories, was sparsely populated, and the German authorities, deciding to follow the pattern of the Boers in South Africa, began to encourage the migration of German colonists to Southwest Africa.
The colonists, taking advantage of the advantages in weapons and organization, began to select the land most suitable for agriculture from the local Herero and Nama tribes. Herero and Nama are the main indigenous peoples of South West Africa. Herero speaks Ochigerero, a Bantu language. Currently, the Herero lives in Namibia, as well as in Botswana, Angola and South Africa. The Herero population is about 240 thousand people. It is possible that if it were not for the German colonization of South-West Africa, there would have been many more - German troops destroyed 80% of the Herero people. Nama is one of the Hottentot groups belonging to the so-called Khoisan peoples - the aborigines of South Africa, belonging to a special capoid race. Namas live in the southern and northern parts of Namibia, in the North Cape province of South Africa, as well as in Botswana. Currently, the number of Nama reaches 324 thousand people, 246 thousand of them live in Namibia.
Herero and Nama were engaged in cattle breeding, and the German colonists who came to South-West Africa, with the permission of the colonial administration, took the best pasture lands from them. Since 1890, the post of the supreme leader of the Herero people was occupied by Samuel Magarero (1856-1923). In 1890, when German expansion into South West Africa was just beginning, Magarero signed a treaty of "protection and friendship" with the German authorities. However, then the leader realized what the colonization of South-West Africa was fraught with for his people. Naturally, the German authorities were out of reach for the Herero leader, so the leader's anger was directed at the German colonists - farmers who seized the best pasture lands. On January 12, 1903, Samuel Magarero roused the Herero to revolt. The rebels killed 123 people, including women and children, and laid siege to Windhoek, the administrative center of German South West Africa.
Initially, the actions of the German colonial authorities to counter the rebels were not successful. The commander of the German troops was the governor of the colony, T. Leutwein, who was subordinate to a very small number of troops. German troops suffered heavy losses both from the actions of the rebels and from the typhus epidemic. Ultimately, Berlin removed Leitwein from command of the colonial forces. It was also decided to separate the posts of the governor and the commander-in-chief of the troops, since a good manager is not always a good military leader (as well as vice versa).
To suppress the Herero uprising, an expeditionary corps of the German army under the command of Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha was sent to South-West Africa. Adrian Dietrich Lothar von Trotha (1848-1920) was one of the most experienced German generals of the time, his experience of service in 1904 was almost forty years - he joined the Prussian army in 1865. During the Franco-Prussian War, he received the Iron Cross for his prowess. General von Trotha was considered a "specialist" in colonial wars - in 1894 he participated in the suppression of the Maji-Maji uprising in German East Africa, in 1900 he commanded the 1st East Asian Infantry Brigade during the suppression of the Ihetuan uprising in China.
On May 3, 1904, von Trotu was appointed commander-in-chief of the German troops in South-West Africa, and on June 11, 1904, at the head of the attached military units, he arrived in the colony. Von Trota had 8 cavalry battalions, 3 machine-gun companies and 8 artillery batteries at his disposal. Von Trotha did not rely heavily on colonial troops, although the units manned by the natives were used as auxiliary forces. In mid-July 1904, von Trota's troops began to advance towards the Herero lands. To meet the Germans, superior forces of Africans - about 25-30 thousand people - moved forward. True, one must understand that the Herero set out on a campaign with their families, that is, the number of soldiers was much smaller. It should be noted that almost all the Herero warriors by that time already had firearms, but the rebels did not have cavalry and artillery.
On the border of the Omaheke Desert, enemy forces met. The battle unfolded on 11 August on the slopes of the Waterberg mountain range. Despite the superiority of the Germans in armament, the Herero successfully attacked the German troops. The situation reached a bayonet battle, von Trotha was forced to throw all his strength to protect the artillery guns. As a result, although the Herero clearly outnumbered the Germans, the organization, discipline and combat training of the German soldiers did their job. The rebels' attacks were repulsed, after which artillery fire was opened on the Herero positions. Chief Samuel Magerero decided to retreat to the desert areas. The losses of the German side in the Battle of Waterberg amounted to 26 people killed (including 5 officers) and 60 wounded (including 7 officers). In the Herero, the main losses fell not so much in the battle as in the painful passage through the desert. German troops pursued the retreating Herero, shooting them with machine guns. The actions of the command even caused a negative assessment from the German Chancellor Benhard von Bülow, who was indignant and told the Kaiser that the behavior of the German troops did not comply with the laws of war. To this, Kaiser Wilhelm II replied that such actions correspond to the laws of war in Africa. During the passage through the desert, 2/3 of the total Herero population died. Herero escaped to the territory of neighboring Bechuanaland, a British colony. Today it is the independent country of Botswana. A reward of five thousand marks was promised for the head of Magerero, but he hid in Bechuanaland with the remnants of his tribe and lived safely to old age.
Lieutenant General von Trotha, in turn, issued the infamous "liquidation" order, which in fact provided for the genocide of the Herero people. All Herero were ordered to leave German South-West Africa on pain of physical destruction. Any Herero caught within the colony was ordered to be shot. All the grazing lands of the Herero went to the German colonists.
However, the concept of total destruction of the Herero, put forward by General von Trotha, was actively challenged by Governor Leutwein. He believed that it was much more profitable for Germany to turn the Herero into slaves by imprisoning them in concentration camps than simply to destroy them. In the end, the chief of staff of the German army, General Count Alfred von Schlieffen, agreed with Leutwein's point of view. Those of the Herero who did not leave the colony were sent to concentration camps, where they were actually used as slaves. Many Herero died in the construction of the copper mines and the railroad. As a result of the actions of the German troops, the Herero people were almost completely destroyed and now the Herero make up only a small part of the inhabitants of Namibia.
However, following the Herero, in October 1904, the Hottentot Nama tribes revolted in the southern part of German South-West Africa. The Nama uprising was led by Hendrik Witboy (1840-1905). The third son of the leader of the Moses tribe Kido Witbooy, back in 1892-1893. Hendrik fought against the German colonialists, but then, like Samuel Magerero, in 1894 concluded a treaty "on protection and friendship" with the Germans. But, in the end, Witboy also made sure that German colonization did not bring anything good for the Hottentots. It should be noted that Witboy managed to develop a fairly effective tactic of countering the German troops. The Hottentot rebels used the classic hit-and-run method of guerrilla warfare, avoiding direct confrontation with German military units. Thanks to this tactic, which was more beneficial for the African rebels than the actions of Samuel Magerero, who undertook a head-on collision with the German troops, the Hottentot revolt lasted for almost three years. In 1905, Hendrik Witboy himself died. After his death, the leadership of the Nama detachments was carried out by Jacob Morenga (1875-1907). He came from a mixed family of Nama and Herero, worked in a copper mine, and in 1903 created a rebel group. The Morenghi guerrillas successfully attacked the Germans and even forced the German unit to retreat in the battle at Hartebestmünde. In the end, British troops from the neighboring Cape province came out against the Hottentots, in a battle with which the partisan detachment was destroyed on September 20, 1907, and Jacob Morenga himself was killed. Currently, Hendrik Witboy and Jacob Morenga (pictured) are considered national heroes of Namibia.
Like the Herero, the Nama people suffered greatly from the actions of the German authorities. Researchers estimate that a third of the Nama people died. Historians estimate the losses of the Nama during the war with the German troops at no less than 40 thousand people. Many of the Hottentots were also imprisoned in concentration camps and used as slaves. It should be noted that it was Southwest Africa that became the first testing ground where the German authorities tried out methods of genocide of unwanted peoples. For the first time, concentration camps were also established in South West Africa, in which all Herero men, women and children were imprisoned.
During the First World War, the territory of German South-West Africa was occupied by the troops of the Union of South Africa - the British dominion. Now in the camps near Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg there were German settlers and soldiers, although the South African authorities dealt with them very gently, without even taking away the weapons from the prisoners of war. In 1920, Southwest Africa as a mandated territory was transferred under the control of the South African Union. The South African authorities turned out to be no less cruel towards the local population than the Germans. In 1946, the UN refused to grant the SAC's petition to include South West Africa in the union, after which SAS refused to transfer this territory under UN control. In 1966, an armed struggle for independence unfolded in South West Africa, in which the leading role was played by SWAPO, the People's Organization of South West Africa, which enjoyed the support of the Soviet Union and a number of other socialist states. Finally, on March 21, 1990, Namibia's independence from South Africa was declared.
It was after independence that the question of recognizing Germany's actions in South West Africa in 1904-1908 began to be actively worked out. genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples. Back in 1985, a UN report was published, in which it was emphasized that as a result of the actions of the German troops, the Herero people lost three quarters of their number, dropping from 80 thousand to 15 thousand people. After the declaration of independence of Namibia, the leader of the Herero tribe Riruako Kuaima (1935-2014) appealed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The leader accused Germany of the Herero genocide and demanded to pay compensation to the Herero people, following the example of payment to the Jews. Although Riruako Quaima died in 2014, his actions were not in vain - in the end, two years after the death of the Herero leader, known for his uncompromising stance on the issue of genocide, Germany nevertheless agreed to recognize the colonial policy in South-West Africa as Herero genocide, but so far without compensation.
