War
series of German colonial wars in South West Africa
The Herero and Nama War is the collective term for a series of interlinked, anti-colonial armed struggles by native peoples in German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), mainly the Herero and Nama people, against the German Empire. The overall conflict took place between 1904 and 1908, and included the Herero uprising and the Second Nama Rebellion.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Herero Wars”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Herero and Nama War is the collective term for a series of interlinked, anti-colonial armed struggles by native peoples in German South West Africa (present-day Namibia), mainly the Herero and Nama people, against the German Empire. The overall conflict took place between 1904 and 1908, and included the Herero uprising and the Second Nama Rebellion.
The 1904–1908 conflict has received numerous different names, with Herero and Nama War being a popular choice, including the variant war against the Ovaherero and Nama. The alternatives Namibian-German War or Namibian War had gained popularity by the 2020s, emphasizing the anti-colonial and inter-ethnic character of the conflict. As part of the debate on Namibian genocide reparations, the Scientific Services of the German Bundestag released a 2016 paper where the overall conflict was dubbed Rebellion by the Ethnic Groups of the Herero and Nama in German Southwest Africa; this naming was strongly criticized by historian Harald Kleinschmidt who regarded it as "discriminatory" and based on German colonial literature.
Instead of giving the entire war one name, however, researchers have often focused on individual sections or phases of the fighting and given those individual names. As such, the 1904–1908 conflict has been subdivided into the Herero uprising (1904–1907), alternatively known as Herero Revolt, Revolt of the Hereros, Herero War, or the Ovaherero-German War; and the Second Nama Rebellion (1904–1908) or Nama-German War.
Before colonization, the most populous groups in Namibia were the Herero in the central and southern regions, the Nama in the south, and the Ovambo in the north. The Ovambo were agriculturists as their lands had access to the waterways of the Etosha Pan, whereas the other native peoples were mainly semi-nomadic cattle-raisers. By the 19th century, the Herero were transitioning into a form of "nomadic feudalism", with a greater division of wealth and a political-religious elite which included the chiefs of the around 20 oruzo (paternal derivation groups). The Namibian Nama were traditionally split into eight clans since the 18th century, namely the Red Nation, Fransman Nama, Swartbooi Nama, Groot Doden, Veldschoendragers, Keetmanshoop Nama, Bondelswarts, and Topnaars. In the early 19th century, the Oorlam Nama also migrated into Namibia, adding five more clans, namely the Witboois, Amraal, Bereseba, Bethanie, and the Afrikaners. The Oorlam clans were partially descended from European settlers in South Africa. Both the Herero and Nama adapted some aspects of warfare from the South African Boers, including horse-mounted guerrilla warfare. The Oorlam Nama were particularly acquainted with European ways due to having lived around Boer settlements before their migration to Namibia. In contrast, the Ovambo discouraged most contacts with European explorers and traders due to their strong focus on their inherited warrior traditions.
Smaller ethnic groups included the San, Damara, and Basters. The San were largely hunters and gatherers and weaker than the other native peoples. The Damaras were largely "serfs" or slaves of Herero and Nama, while the free Damaras existed as hunters and gatherers in the local mountains. The Basters were descended from "legally recognized and religiously consecrated unions" of Dutch men and Nama women; they were proud of their European heritage and spoke Dutch.
From 1830, the later Namibia became engulfed in warfare between the different ethnic groups and clans due to influx of migrants from other regions, the spread of European firearms by trade, and scarcity of resources due to droughts. A major conflict erupted when Herero intruded into traditional Nama lands on the search for new pastures in 1830, whereupon the Nama rallied under the leadership of Jonker Afrikaner to push them back. The resulting fighting intermittently lasted until 1858, with Jonker Afrikaner temporarily dominating much of Namibia, while the Herero suffered such heavy losses that European Christian missionaries prematurely claimed that the "Herero race has so far as we know ceased to exist". Under the pressure of Christian missionaries and many Nama –who had grown wary of his power– Jonker Afrikaner was forced into signing the peace treaty of Hoachanas in 1858. As part of this treaty, the Herero acknowledged the Nama as overlords.
After Jonker Afrikaner died in 1861, his Nama coalition fell apart. As Swedish trader Charles Andersson had also sold large numbers of guns to the Herero, the latter exploited the Nama's weakness by launching a new conflict which became known as the "Herero War of Freedom". At the time, local white residents began petitioning both the Cape Colony and North German Confederation to intervene to bring the Nama-Herero conflicts to an end, but these requests were ignored. Regardless, historian Jon Bridgman argued that these petitions set "a dangerous precedent" for things to come. The war ultimately concluded with the treaty of Okahandja in 1870, with the Herero regaining their independence.
From 1870, Herero chief Samuel Maharero became the predominant figure in Namibia, being called upon to mediate in disputes by Herero, Nama, and Europeans alike. However, Maharero regarded his position as tenuous and continued to view the Nama as potential enemies; he thus requested the Cape Colony to send a commissioner to secure the peace and, by extension, his own position. As a result of Maharero's closeness to commissioner William Coates Palgrave, the Nama were ultimately unwilling to submit to the Palgrave Commission. The peace process collapsed in 1880, when a new war broke out over a border incident and Palgrave withdrew from the region. The renewed conflict was economically ruinous to local European traders.
In the early 1880s, the German statesman Otto von Bismarck, reversing his previous rejection of colonial acquisitions, decided on a policy of imperial expansion. In 1882 Bismarck gave permission to Adolf 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 to Angra Pequena (later renamed Lüderitz Bay) from Joseph Fredericks, a chief of the Oorlam 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.
The continued resistance of the Witboois, led by Hendrik Witbooi, culminated in an armed conflict in 1893, as the Germans opted to violently force them into submission. This campaign, also known as the "First Nama Rebellion", demonstrated the Nama's effective use of guerrilla warfare and dragged on until 1904. It was concluded when the new German governor, Theodor Leutwein, managed to corner the Witboois in the Naukluft Mountains where they agreed to surrender. The German-Witbooi treaty allowed the Witbooi Nama to remain under arms as German allies and auxiliaries. Over the next years, Leutwein launched disarmament and punitive operations to subjugate native groups, including the Mbandjeru and Khaua Nama, the Zwartboois, the Grootfontein "mixed-bloods", and some Nama Afrikaners.
Whilst Rhenish 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 of Lüderitz, Swakopmund, and Windhoek. 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. The large majority of these settlers were men, as just 700 white women lived in the colony before the rebellion. This caused many male settlers to take native concubines, often forcefully, or just rape local women. The impact of the German colonization was uneven, with the Herero territories being heavily affected, whereas the Ovambo "remained essentially unconquered". The fort Namutoni effectively marked the northern border of German control, beyond which the Ovambo remained largely self-governing.
Traditional Herero society and political-religious systems disintegrated during the German rule. The new commercial pressures encouraged many Herero to sell their cattle, forcing large numbers to become cattle ranchers who worked for Germans or richer Herero. Samuel Maharero was officially appointed Herero paramount chief by the Germans, though this position had not existed before colonization and Maharero could not fulfill the religious duties of the chiefdom due to being Christian. There existed no measures for Maharero, let alone other chiefs, to enforce their decision across the entire Herero people; at best, chiefs like Maharero acted as primus inter pares. Regardless of any formal appointments, the power of all Herero chiefs largely depended on their wealth and had to be shared with all other cattle owners. Furthermore, the Herero were subdivided into nine large tribes by 1903. The Okahandja Herero under Maharero's personal leadership were the largest tribe, bordered to the west by the Omaruru Herero of Chief Manasse and the Otijimbingwe Herero under Chief Zacharias. Around Mount Waterberg lived Chief Kambazeni's tribe, while the east was split into smaller tribes under Chiefs Nikodemus, Tjetjo, Mambo, Ombondju, and Kakimena.
The Herero's key grievance and the structural condition which led to the outbreak of the war was the existence of an unfair judicial system. If a white person was killed, multiple Africans would be executed as punishment. In contrast, settlers could kill natives with effective impunity because African lives were deemed worthless, so the judicial system would find a way to exonerate or issue a minimal punishment. The result was widespread murder and rape against Africans by settlers, which weakened the colonial administration's monopoly on violence and overall authority. The victims were powerless to get redress for these crimes because police and soldiers were among the perpetrators. African witnesses were generally deemed to be unreliable by German courts, often contributing to the courts exonerating settlers accused of wrongdoings. Several settlers abused the lopsided judicial system, becoming serial violators. On the other side, Germans who opposed the abuses were ostracized by settlers and even sanctioned by the courts as well as colonial authorities. German employers were legally allowed to beat, whip, and flog indigenous employees. Even chiefs were subject to corporal punishments. According to historian Horst Drechsler, most "Germans described the Africans as baboons and treated them accordingly". Many settlers regarded the native Africans as either potential cheap labor or obstacles to be eliminated.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Herero uprising”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.