The Unsung History of the Herero Genocide

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For my first Black History Month post, I seek to highlight a history that has been completely overlooked and disregarded despite its immense importance and weight. I wish I could have shared a more positive account, but I have been compelled to share what I have learned about such a powerful peoples: The Herero. This primarily Namibian ethnic group played a huge role in the history of both the African and European continent.

Last month, on January 27th, the world took time to remember the unforgettable history of the Holocaust while mourning the victims of this tragedy on the annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust. Today, I seek to further uncover the history of these victims by sharing the Herero story. I will highlight the complexities of the Holocaust genocide while demonstrating how this tragedy is -at least in part- intrinsically linked to histories of colonialism and slavery. As well I will ask: How come we are never called to find links between the general history we learn in our public-school textbooks and the unsung histories of colonialism?

As I share the heartbreaking history of the Herero people, I do not seek to minimize the stories of Holocaust survivors. Nor do I seek to compare the tragedies. Instead, as you read, I hope that this text serves as a reminder that the miniscule links between the worlds various evils merit attention. The historical plagues of hatred and evil only spread as fast and as far as the world once allowed it to.

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The Traditional & Indigenous Herero

Hereros at the end of the 19th century. Source: Wikipedia

The painful story of the Herero peoples begins in the early 19th century, when this indigenous population in South West Africa (today’s Nambia) lived traditional lives. The community shared the land with several other ethnic groups, including the Namas, the San, the Ovambo and the Damara. In the mid 1800’s, when German explorers and missionaries began to arrive on the land, they described the indigenous Africans as warlike and fierce. The settlers co-existed with the Herero community which practiced traditional livestock farming. Little did the Herero’s know, their traditional lives would soon be devastated by the growing arrival of Germans on their land.

The Repudiation of a Treaty

Among the numerous subsaharien territories conquered by the Germans, the Hereros were subjected to the worst treatment from colonialists. These settlers brought along their racist ideologies of Social Darwinism while enacting treaties and policies that aimed to “prove” and “reinforce” the hierarchical difference between Blacks and whites. The most despicable treaty put in place to control the Hereros was enacted by German Southwest Africa’s (GSWA) imperial commissioner Heinrich Ernst Goering. Through the means of the treaty, Goering coerced the Chief of the Hereros to exclusively obey German rulers and German law. Soon thereafter, the signed treaty was repudiated by the Chief. However, the indignant Germans responded to this ‘betrayal’ by ordering the deployment of more soldiers to the South West African territory.

The First Uprising

In 1896, following the dispatch of Captain Curt von François and his soldiers, the Herero’s held an uprising that did not prevail. Governed by Major Theodor Leutwein, the colonials won the battle; and they soon established law and order throughout the territory in order to ‘civilise’ all Herero peoples. Surprisingly, Major Leutwein -who had power over the colony- enforced the compliance of the Herero people without the use of weaponry. Additionally, Leutwein’s colonials, who had battled against the Hereros in the first uprising, developed a sense of respect towards the African men through the passing years. This recognition was linked to their former battle (against the first uprising) which had led them to view Herero men as soldiers they had respectfully fought against.

The Second Uprising

As years went on, the Hereros still held an understandable bitterness towards the Germans; despite Major Leutwein’s non-violent strategy. By 1904, 3.5 million hectares of their land had been stolen. This newfound reality meant that all indigenous peoples had begun quickly losing their ability to practice traditional ways of life. Other tribulations also afflicted the community, such as the accumulation of German debt. During the last months of 1903, the community decided to plan a second revolt.

The second uprising took place on January 12th of 1904 and it was successful until the late spring. The tribe members attacked all German farms, villages and forts. Most were destroyed in just a few days. Additionally, the African fighters besieged all of the German’s fortified areas. However, when new German troops arrived on the territory, the Hereros were quickly overpowered at the Battle of Waterberg, where they were introduced to the wrath of commander General von Trotha.

Battle of Waterberg. Source: Wikipedia

The Wrath of von Trotha

General von Trotha was a new leader within the colony who had arrived following a departure from Major Leutwein. Unlike his predecessor, the new German military commander possessed a strong disgust towards all Herero peoples. The new leader viewed all Herero individuals as inferior and treated them as such. In fact, at the time, referring to the Herero community as “baboons” was a norm amongst the German settlers. As well, according to von Trotha, the “Negro” Hereros were not even to be considered as German subjects. He affirmed that as African peoples they were incapable to submit to any German treaty, and therefore their annihilation was to be thoroughly accomplished. He ordered for the complete extermination of the community and enacted his efforts in three abhorrent ways.

The Genocide

First, von Trotha trapped the Herero in “killing zones” or forced them to flee towards the Omaheke Desert where most would die of thirst. Second, he ordered his soldiers to kill men, women and children indiscriminately if they did not comply during the march southeast. Finally, the General sought to eliminate any source of water that the Herero’s may have access to. He did so by poisoning their water holes: the Hereros would die by means of poison or virulent thirst.

Witnessing these newly founded atrocities against the Hereros, Leutwein and many other German’s were disturbed by the new Major’s order. They organized a discussion with the Foreign Office and successfully convinced chief of staff of the Kaiser, Count von Schlieffen, to lift the executing order enacted by von Trotha. Unhappy with this decision, von Trotha then decided to destroy the Herero community by another means: he called for all Hereros to be forced into labour, branded and shot upon disobedience. This change led to what is now known as the great labour camp imprisonment of the Hereros.

The 17 000 Survivors & German ‘Scientific Research’

Von Trotha’s genocide led to the death of over 63 000 Hereros. The remaining 17 000 survivors in the community were put into concentration camps and were subject to experiments in the name of scientific research. Today, it has been proven that Hitler’s opinions regarding racial hygiene and bastardization were primarily influenced by the “research” of anthropologist Eugen Fischer conducted in the traditional lands in which the Herero lived. Scholars have confirmed that ‘professor’ Fischer’s research on mixed children with white and black (black subjects were various ethnic groups including the Nama and Herero) parenthood linked racial intermixing to intellectually and socially inferior offspring. Another example of the ‘scientific gains’ made at the expense of Herero lives is the tale of Shark Island.

Shark Island

Following von Trotha’s departure from the African territory, a new Governor, von Lindequist, promised to be more humane and spare the Hereros; so long as the remaining survivors of the genocide left the mountains and bush lands they occupied (in hiding). However, von Lindequist did not keep his promise: the few thousand survivors who surrendered were not spared. Instead, the surviving Hereros were divided into groups and forced into slave labour for scarce amounts of food. Furthermore, they were forced to live lives of constant movement and many were later sent to islands. Among the many islands, the Shark Island concentration camp was known for having environmental conditions so harsh that it could not sustain human life.

German Concentration Camps: The Similarities

Some scholars argue that GSWA concentration camps served as blueprints for the concentration camps that later surfaced in Nazi Germany. Their similarities included the common goal and purpose to kill and end all human life. Incidentally, both types of concentration camps were placed in areas deemed distant enough from the ‘public gaze’. Finally, the conditions in the camps also draw parallels: victims were subjected to violence and malnutrition while experiencing a lack of housing and medical care. As well, devastatingly, the death tolls in both camps were extremely high. At Shark Island, only 193 individuals survived of the initial 3000 brought to the camp.

Chief of the Hereros, 1904. Source: Wikipedia

Acknowledgement and Mourning

As a final observation, I would like to emphasize the importance of drawing attention to African history and acknowledging tragedies that have shaped today’s modern world. It is true, that victims of both the Holocaust and the earlier Herero Genocide merit acknowledgement and mourning. Most importantly, we must realize that colonial tragedies -such as the Herero genocide- have long lasting impacts on the world as a whole, including Europe. Today, Germany is called to recognize their histories of evil to not only Jewish populations, but African populations as well. The story of the Hereros has brought up many conversations regarding reparations, apology and most importantly acknowledgment. However, we are not to wait on statements from the very States who enforced these inhumane crimes. Instead, it is up to us to share, to mourn and to remember.

Sources:

All images : WIKIPEDIA

Baer. (2017). Introduction. In The Genocidal Gaze: From German Southwest Africa to the Third Reich. (pp. 1–16). Wayne State University Press.

Bargueño, D. (2012). Cash for Genocide? The Politics of Memory in the Herero Case for Reparations. Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 26(3), 394–424.

Bernhard, P. (2016). Hitler’s Africa in the East: Italian Colonialism as a Model for German Planning in Eastern Europe. Journal of Contemporary History, 5(1), 61–90.

Bridgman, J., & Worley, L. J. (2009). CHAPTER 1: Genocide of the Hereros. In Century of genocide: Critical essays and eyewitness accounts (p. p.14-43). Routledge.

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Montreal Hollocaust Museum. “Herero Genocide in Namibia,” n.d. https://museeholocauste.ca/en/resources-training/herero-genocide-namibia/

Schaller, D. (2010). The Struggle for Genocidal Exclusivity: The Perception of the Murder of the Namibian Herero (1904–8) in the Age of a New International Morality. In German Colonialism and National Identity (p. 350). Routledge.

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