The Herero and Namaqua Genocide
Remaining in Africa, we now shift our attention to an episode of colonial genocide that deeply scarred the legacy of the German colonization of Africa. On the western extremities of the southern African subcontinent lies the nation of Namibia, known until independence as South West Africa, and prior to that as German South West Africa.
The German Empire claimed the colony in 1884, as part of what was known as the ‘Scramble for Africa’. It was of limited practical use to them, bearing in mind that it almost entirely comprised desert, but it was essential in the cut and thrust of competition, in particular with the British, in the race for European global expansion.
The indigenous population of the territory comprised dispersed agricultural and pastoral communities belonging to the two major indigenous population groups in southern Africa. These were, and are the Bantu and the Koi-koi, or Khoisan. Just for the sake of background, the former, the Bantu people, form the vast majority of the African population and are typically described as Negroid, or Congoid, their origins being in the region of the Congo and the Niger Delta. Their spread was occasioned by a phenomenon known as the Bantu Migration, or Bantu Expansion, which began in the first millennium and concluded towards the end of the 18th century. The latter, the Khoisan, are the original, and much more ancient race displaced by the Bantu, and relegated in many instances to the arid desert reaches of the west of the sub-continent. The most famous of this race is the San, or Bushmen.
The Germans found both of these races difficult to integrate into their colonial economy, simply because they were inimical to labor and were often nomadic in lifestyle. The dynamics of genocide are rooted in the complex colonial policies of the time. In 1884, it was agreed among European powers that all expansion into Africa would be by treaty with local, indigenous authority. This implied that all colonization was by invitation, which was, of course, hardly the case. It was only by the spurious acquisition and manipulation of treaties with native kings and rulers that most European powers took the title of Africa. Most of these treaties implied imperial ‘protection’ in exchange for land rights. The land rights, of course, were freely utilized, while the ‘protection’ often simply meant bondage.
In its simplest terms, the Herero, a Bantu people, in one of many internecine conflicts, required German protection and did not get it. They subsequently rebelled, attracting a violent response from the Germans. This response quickly escalated to orchestrated genocide, and was extended beyond the Herero to the neighboring Namaqua people, who were of Khoisan origin, and the San, or Bushmen as well. Between 1904 and 1907, up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama were killed, many in concentration camps, dying of disease and starvation.
The German government has in recent years heard demands for compensation and recognition of the victims, and the legacy of this event remains a strain on relations between the two nations.
Also Read: Most Blood-Soaked African Battles and Conflicts.