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The History
Namibia’s coastline is very barren and unwelcoming, and inland one’s biggest problem is water.
Rain is very scarce and the riverbeds very seldom have any water running through them. Yet it
is Namibia's mineral wealth which attracted the settlers and European powers. Gemstones, Uranium, Tin and
Copper are some of the minerals worth mentioning. The discovery of diamonds at a later stage
caused an even greater influx of foreigners with a lust for wealth.
In accordance with Europe’s colonial rush, 1884 saw
Southwest Africa officially declared a German colony.
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"Deutsch-Südwestafrika"
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Leutwein with Samuel Maharero 1895 |
This brought with it a military governor who knew little about running a colony and nothing at
all about Africa. Major Theodor Leutwein began by playing off the Nama and Herero tribes against
each other. More and more white settlers arrived, pushing tribesmen off their cattle-grazing lands
with bribes and unreliable deals. Part of the bribes included weapons, bringing
with them violence which created a greater
divide between the otherwise relatively peaceful and harmonious tribes.
In 1904 the Herero, having lost most of their land and live stock to the settlers and seeing
no other choice, rebelled. Under their leader
Samuel Maherero they began to attack the numerous
German outposts. They killed German men, but spared women, children, missionaries, and the English
or Boer farmers whose support they didn't want to lose. |
At the same time, the Nama chief, Hendrik Witbooi, wrote a letter to Theodor Leutwein, telling
him what the native Africans thought of their invaders, who had taken their land, deprived them of
their rights to pasture their animals on it, used up the scanty water supplies, and imposed alien
laws and taxes. His hope was that Leutwein would recognise the injustice and do something about it.
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Shortly afterwards Major Leutwein was replaced by another commander, this time a man notorious
for brutality and more than draconian in his approach.
Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha said,
'I wipe out rebellious tribes with streams of blood and streams of money. Only following this
cleansing can something new emerge'. Von Trotha brought with him to German South West Africa
10,000 heavily-armed men and a plan for war.
General von Trotha ordered the extermination of all Herero, whether armed or not,
man woman or child. The 20% that
did survive were rounded up and sent into labour camps to be slaves of German settlers. |
Lothar von
Trotha |
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Shortly afterwards the
Nama, with
Hendrik Witbooi at their head, also rebelled. Having gained
insight into Schutztruppe tactics from helping them fight the Herero, they realized that they could not
win against the Germans in open-field battle with their inferior weaponry. This meant that the Nama
tactics included a more guerrilla like warfare…The Nama stationed themselves around the Karasburg
mountains and led small but effective attacks against the
Schutztruppe. |
Hendrik Witbooi |
In one of these attacks Hendrik Witbooi was severely wounded and later died,
and his successor Isaak Witbooi and his clan, known as the
Witboois, gave up against the overpowering Schutztruppe. Yet
the Bondelzwarts
continued the war under the leadership of Simon Kopper and the Nama-Herero Jakob Morenga.
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| Witbooi |
Morenga and clan |
Jakob Morenga |
Portable Nama dwelling |
Hauptmann Friedrich von Erckert |
All in all the Nama created quite a headache for the Germans, and 1905 into 1906 saw small
victories only on the side of the Nama. That was until the day of
The Battle of Norechab, 14
February 1906. The Schutztruppe, under the command of
Hauptmann
Friedrich von Erckert, were pre-warned about the attack / cattle raid, and even though they
lost five men they won this battle which created the confidence for further victories.
Wounded, Morenga fled over the Orange River in May and was arrested by the English troops in
South Africa. In 1907 Simon Kopper gave himself up and was imprisoned together with 2000 Nama on
Shark Island, Lüderitz. The conditions in this prison / concentration camp were very poor…only
450 Nama made it out alive. |
Later however both Morenga and Kopper managed to flee from prison and returned to the hills to
continue the struggle, even after the Germans had called the official end to the war against the
Nama. But together with the help of their English neighbours the Schutztruppe managed to quell the
resistance, Jakob Morenga was killed on the 19th September 1907, Simon Kopper in the last battle
of the Namas on the 16th March 1908.
It is worth noting, had the Herero in the north and the Nama in the south rebelled at the same
time and not straight after each other, the outcome of this period of colonialism would have been
very different. But not only were they not working together, the Nama even did a lot of the dirty
work in the war against the Herero.
It is also ironic that most of the weapons used to kill many German soldiers over this period were
originally traded in an unfair exchange for cattle and land.
The German government in 2004 admitted that what happened in Namibia over this period can
indeed be classed genocide, and is seeking pardon for its military’s actions.
An interesting article on these developments can be found
here.
Note: It is the Nama uprising that we will be
concentrating on during our tour.
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