How German Government Murdered Over 100,000 Namibian People In A Genocide In 1904-1094
November 20, 2020 499
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The atrocities and crimes against
humanity which was perpetrated by the Europeans in Africa, are really painful
to recount or tell, but we will talk about them nonetheless.
At the Berlin Conference of
1884-1885, various European nations agreed among themselves to invade Africa,
and take up territories forcefully, in an ambitious attempt to expand their empires,
and gain new economic territories.
And as they invaded various parts
of Africa, they laid waste to many ethnic nationalities and peoples who
resisted their invasion. They killed, raped, maimed, and starved Africans in
their own lands just to rule and take control of the lands and its resources.
Initially Germany did not commit
much funds and officers towards the stealing of land and resources from Africa.
But after they saw the gains and advancements of the British and France, they
entered Africa - mainly for economic and geopolitical contest with other
European powers.
The invasion and mass murder of
the people of Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Togo, Cameroun and Namibia, was signed
off by prince Otto von Bismarck, who was the founder of modern Germany.
One of the mass murders and
genocide of African people by the Europeans was the killing of over 100,000 of
the Herero and Nama people of South-West Africa, by the Germans, between 1904
and 1908.
The killing and mass murder of
the indigenous people by Germany was started by an explorer named Karl Peters.
He would inspire others such as Jesco von Puttkamer, who was Bismarck's nephew
by marriage. Puttkamer was appointed the German governor of the Cameroons, and
as Governor he rained hell on the people of the various places the German
raised their flag.
His atrocities were brought to
light in a book by a British historian named Thomas Packenham. The book's title
is "The Scramble for Africa, White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent
from 1876 to 1912"
In a detailed account of an
example of the horror perpetuated by Puttkamer through his official, Thomas
Packenham wrote: "…a Lieutenant Dominik was sent on an expedition to
negotiate a treaty with the Bahoro. Instead, he shot down all the men and women
in the village, and the fifty-four children that survived were put in baskets
and drowned like kittens” (Packenham, “The Scramble for Africa”, page 623)
The German officials were illegal
encroaching on the lands of the Herero, who were cattle herders, and who wanted
to be left alone. In retaliation to the oppression by the Germans, the Herero
people mounted a rebellion against the occupying Germans in 1904.
The rebellion was an attempt to
defend themselves, and drive the Germans out, but the Herero did not have sophisticated
guns and weapons like the Germans. The rebellion started on the January of
1904, with Samuel Maharero leading the Herero people while Hendrik Witbooi led
the Nama people.
The German General Lothar von
Trotha and his soldiers viscously attacked the rebels, and after defeated them,
went ahead to attack the entire population, in an attempt to exterminate them.
Lothar Von Trotha gave the
following order: ‘within the German borders every Herero, with or without a
gun, with or without cattle, will be shot.’
The German soldiers mowed down
men, women and children, and then went ahead to drive thousands of them into
the Kalahari Desert, where about 90% of them died of thirst and starvation,
under the intense desert heat. The war between the Herero/Nama and the Germans
was known as the "Battle of Waterberg."
The same attack and decimation of
the Herero people was visited on the Nama people in present-day Southern
Namibia. After over four years of aggressive
murdering and genocide, the Germans had killed three quarters of the Herero
people, and half of the Nama people.
Other accounts of the genocide
said that the Germans hanged many of the Herero and Nama people from trees.
They sealed off the watering holes, and forcefully prevented those who survived
the desert heat from returning to their land. Many other survivors were
imprisoned in concentration camped, and this led to them dying either by
disease or exhaustion.
These atrocities, for many
decades have been denied by the German government, even though they accepted
their genocide of the Jews and paid reparations. The Germans refused to accept
the incidents of 1904-1908 as a genocide, because it would then implicate them
and other European powers who have denied their genocidal acts in other parts
of Africa.
But in a recent UN Whitetaker
Report, the United Nation, have stated that the atrocities by the Germans in
Namibia, was a deliberate attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama people.
The report also went ahead to
name the Genocide of the Herero and Nama people as one of the biggest and bloodiest
genocide in the 20th century.
It was only in 2004, that the
German government formally accepted that the colonial adventure and atrocities
in South West Africa was actually a act of Genocide. That led to an apology to
the Namibian government, but the German government ruled out any option of
reparations for the Hehero and Nama people.
From 2001 uo till 2017,
representatives of the Hehero and Nama people have been filing lawsuits in the
United States, against the German government and the Deutsche Bank, which
financed their atrocities in Africa. The lawsuit was largely unsuccessful.
Recently there has been
negotiations between the Namibian government and the German government about
reparations for the Herero and Nama people, but unfortunately, the reparations,
if it will be given, will not get to the families of the 100,000 people killed.
Read this article for the full
details of the lawsuits and negotiations.
The genocide of the Herero and
Nama people is only but the tip of the iceberg. The European colonizers
committed far worse atrocities all over Africa.
For far too long, these
atrocities have been kept under the rug, but it's time they are brought out and
discussed. More so, by African governments who are still living and breathing
under the York of their colonial masters.
African scholars, historians, writers, and people must learn to discuss these genocides of our people, because the conditions which led to them, are still much alive in the world today. Discussing it will educate our people and keep them on the alert in their dealings with Europeans.