Germany in Namibia: A Century Since the 20th Century’s First Genocide

Land and memory are the entwined twins that remain strongly intertwined to this day for the Herero and Nama people inhabiting the south-western African country of Namibia, and Germany at the heart of the European continent.

Exactly a century ago, German colonial rule tightened its harsh grip on Namibia, with widespread killings being part of the German colonial punitive campaign between 1904 and 1908, which is recognized today as the first genocide of the 20th century. However, the story of German colonialism started 3 decades before that bloody era.

“Africa’s Reserves”

In 1884, after the Berlin Conference that divided African territories among European powers, Namibia was allocated to the Germans. By the early 20th century, nearly 5,000 German settlers had arrived, ruling over about 250,000 indigenous African inhabitants. With the growth of German control, the rights and freedoms of African peoples rapidly diminished, and the Herero and other groups were systematically driven from their ancestral lands, with the settlers assigning them to what they referred to as “reserves.”

Africans deemed by the Germans to have violated the law experienced whipping and sometimes hanging, and even German official records show several cases where white settlers received lenient sentences for committing rape and murder crimes. This continuous brutality, alongside the land issue, sparked widespread anger and resentment among the local populations.

By 1904, the Herero, led by their leader Samuel Maharero, revolted against the German colonial invaders. On January 12th of the same year, many of their fighters attacked the town of Okahandja, where over 120 individuals, mostly Germans, were killed.

The conflict quickly escalated, with the Herero movement initially being highly successful, sweeping through the weakly defended colonial settlements, while the Germans struggled to organize their defenses under their governor Theodor von Leutwein.

However, in June of the same year, the Kaiser dismissed him from command on the battlefield and appointed General Lothar von Trotha in his place, who immediately implemented a military policy of “no peace but extermination,” quickly disarraying the Herero.

At the dawn of August 11th on the Waterberg Plateau, about 50,000 or more Herero men, women, and children awoke to their humble huts being bombarded.

The men rushed to combat the Germans, leaving behind their families, and were killed by a brigade of about 6,000 German recruits called “Schutztruppe,” the official designation for the German forces in the territories of their African empire.

Despite the German soldiers’ numerical inferiority to the resisters, they possessed superior weapons including Maxim automatic cannons, which soon decimated Herero defenses.

Early in the battle, Herero fighters overran the German artillery positions, but General von Trotha ordered machine guns to be advanced forward, whose rapid fire pushed the Herero back and killed thousands.

Those who survived fled east, through a gap in the German defenses, into the harsh, waterless Kalahari Desert known as “Omaheke,” where tens of thousands died of thirst, while others were captured and sent to concentration camps to be used as forced labor.

Ethnic Cleansing

During the trek through the desert, the German war against the Herero evolved into a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing. General von Trotha ordered his forces to create a line of outposts hundreds of kilometers long to prevent the Herero from returning to their abandoned farms and villages and instructed others to deny them access to water wells.

On October 3rd, 1904, near the remote desert water well “Osombo zo Windimbe,” General von Trotha read his infamous extermination order (Vernichtungsbefehl): “I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this letter to the Herero. The Herero are no longer German subjects… Any Herero found inside the German borders, with or without a gun or with or without cattle, will be shot. I will no longer accept women and children, I will send them back to their people or allow them to be shot at. These are my words to the people of the Herero.”

Desperate Herero on the brink of death scavenged for refuge and water wells, with tens of thousands perishing. Finally, political outrage in Germany over this colonial brutality compelled the Kaiser to send a telegraph to von Trotha to retract the order on December 8th, 1904.

By late 1904, the Nama people, some of whom were allied with the Germans to protect their lands, had seen enough of European brutality and feared the growing hostility and open racism displayed by the whites towards them. Their charismatic leader Hendrik Witbooi – who was in his seventies – summoned the Senate to hear reports of atrocities.

Shortly after, Witbooi called all Nama to fight the Germans. Many clans responded, including one led by another famed leader, Jacob (Jakobus) Morenga, and joined a war against the settlers, killing prominent men but avoiding women and children.

The German soldiers struggled against the heat, thirst, and constant fatigue from the sudden Nama raids. There were about 200 raids and skirmishes before Witbooi was fatally wounded by a shrapnel piece in late 1905 in one of his attacks. He died 3 days later, and the Nama alliance collapsed.

Soon after, the remaining scattered Nama surrendered, and along with the last withered remnants of the Herero still alive, were sent to concentration camps.

Ida Hoffman’s family – a Nama movement activist whose ancestor was killed by the Germans – carries a horrendous story through generations. Hoffman tells Al Jazeera, “The Germans also killed my great-grandfather’s daughter, Sarah Snew.”

She adds, “According to the oral history passed down through generations, Snew was pregnant when she was killed, and the Germans cut open her belly, took out the child, and killed it in cold blood.” The family still honors her memory at a grave in the desert where she was buried.

Descendants of eyewitnesses say many nude (sexual) images of women were turned into postcards and sent to Germany. Those strong enough were transported for forced labor at the neighboring harbor and railway.

No one knows the exact number of those imprisoned in the camps. The records documenting this are either random or non-existent, but they reveal thousands of deaths among the Herero and Nama, wherever preserved.

Others endured inhumane experiments. Many prisoners who suffered from scurvy were injected by doctors with opium, arsenic, and other substances to see how they could affect a disease resulting from a fresh food deficiency. Autopsies were performed on those who died as a result to see the experiments’ effects.

Many ended up at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, where Joseph Mengele, who later conducted lethal medical experiments on Auschwitz prisoners in the early ’40s, studied.

The Blue Book

What happened to the African peoples in Namibia was a brutal harbinger and almost forgotten by the Nazi Holocaust against Jews and other groups in World War II.

However, the memory of these events is still disputed in Namibia itself. The first real documentation of the genocide was in the famed “Blue Book” authored and produced by South African authorities in 1918 after the Germans were defeated in World War I.

The Union of South Africa – a British colony at the time – invaded the German colony “South West Africa” in 1915 after an early defeat at the war’s outset, and quickly overran the German forces that surrendered in July of the same year.

It is estimated that about 65,000 Herero of an original 80,000 died, while about 10,000 Nama (approximately half the population) perished.

Some claim these statistics are exaggerated, while Herero activists believe the figures were much higher, asking, “But what’s the actual number significance?” stating, “The actions themselves were genocide.”

Nearly 120 years later, reconciliation between the Germans and the Herero and Nama peoples remains elusive.

The United Nations: “Genocide”

In 1985, the “Whitaker Report” by the United Nations classified what happened to the Herero and Nama as genocide. In May 2021, the German government itself officially recognized the events as genocide.

In a joint declaration with Namibia, the Germans pledged to pay 1.1 billion euros over more than 30 years to the Namibian government for assistance, stating that it must be expended in areas where the descendants of atrocity victims now reside.

There has been significant resentment in Namibia regarding the joint agreement between the Namibian and German governments, along with demands from Nama and Herero activists for renegotiation of the treaty, provision of more funds for the impacted communities, and their direct involvement in discussions.

As of now, neither government has signed the treaty. The Namibian government has indicated a desire for further negotiations, while the German parliament has refused more talks.

Many in the Herero and Nama feel that the majority party government “South West Africa People’s Organization” (SWAPO) does not adequately represent them or their peoples, as the strongest party support comes from the Ovambo people in the northern half of the country. Meanwhile, the government sees itself representing all Namibians, arguing that the treaty cannot be restricted to just Herero and Nama approval.

Vekuii Rukoro, a senior negotiator in the Namibian government, tells Al Jazeera there is an “internal consultation process to build consensus.”

And the special envoy of the German government, Ruprecht Polenz, confirms in an email that “the joint declaration has been discussed in Namibia since May 2021, and is often seen as controversial. The federal government is monitoring this discussion and awaits the outcome.”

On the centennial of the genocide in Namibia, the African state rejected Germany’s support of Israel’s position in the International Court of Justice, where it faces charges of genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Namibian Presidency expressed its deep concern over Germany’s “shocking decision” made two days ago, in which it rejected the moral indictment by South Africa before the International Court of Justice against Israel.

Namibia rejects Germany’s Support of the Genocidal Intent of the Racist Israeli State against Innocent Civilians in Gaza

On Namibian soil, #Germany committed the first genocide of the 20th century in 1904-1908, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most… pic.twitter.com/ZxwWxLv8yt

— Namibian Presidency (@NamPresidency) January 13, 2024

Germany announced that it would intervene as a third party before the International Court of Justice to support Israel in the genocide case filed against it.

Namibia pointed to what it described as the first genocide of the 20th century, committed by Germany on Namibian soil between 1904 and 1908, which “claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent Namibians under inhumane and brute circumstances.”

It criticized Berlin’s disregard for the violent deaths that led to the martyrdom of more than 23,000 Palestinians in Gaza, as well as ignoring UN reports highlighting the internal displacement of around 85% of civilians in Gaza amid a severe shortage of food and basic services.

The Namibian Presidency reiterated President Hage Geingob’s call issued at the end of last month, stating, “No peace-loving human being can ignore the slaughter committed against the Palestinians in Gaza.”

Geingob urged the German government to reconsider its inappropriate decision to intervene as a third party in defense of “acts of genocide” committed by Israel, supporting Tel Aviv before the International Court of Justice.