Anthropological types were recorded that were close in their characteristics to the modern Khoisan peoples. These are people of the so-called "Boskop" and "Florisbad" anthropological types. The only significant difference from the modern representatives of the Khoisan race is a higher growth and a very large brain volume (1600 cc, which is more than that of modern representatives of Homo sapiens).

On the territory of Namibia, archaeological and anthropological finds show the presence of Khoi-Koin and San already in the first centuries of the new era.

The ancestors of modern Hottentots migrated to the territory of Namibia from the African Great Lakes region around the same time, pushing aside or mixing with the ancestors of the current Bushmen. A number of scientists also express more exotic hypotheses: for example, the French archaeologist Breuil claimed that South Africa was inhabited by immigrants from Egypt (he refers to some anatomical features of the Khoisan peoples and ancient Egyptians).

Unlike the San Hottentots, they had already domesticated cattle and were skilled in smelting and metalworking. By the time the Europeans appeared on the southern tip of Africa (17th century), the Khoi-Koins were already moving to settled life and mastering agriculture.

About a millennium later (in the 16th century), the Bantu tribes began to penetrate Namibia from the north and northeast, the first of which were the ancestors of the Herero. They were able to push back the Khoisans from the left bank of Kunene, but their further advance was stopped.

However, later the southern corridor became the main channel of communication with the outside world - from the Cape of Good Hope through the highlands of Namaqualand.

During the 17th and 19th centuries, the Hottentot tribes that inhabited the southern tip of Africa were practically destroyed. So the tribes of the Hottentots disappeared - Kochokva, Goringaiikva, Gainokva, Hesekwa, Kora, who lived in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe present Cape Town. The rest of the Hottentots, in the course of contacts with Europeans, largely lost their identity. In the early period of colonization, the cohabitation of white colonists with Hottentot women was massive. As a result, numerous mestizo groups (basters) were formed - "Rehoboth Basters", "Betan Basters", "Eagles", "colored" South Africa.

In the 19th century, new associations formed from the remnants of the disintegrated tribes, connected by the desire to defend at least a fraction of independence. The most significant of these are the eagles in Namibia and the grikva in South Africa. In the 18-19 centuries, the Orlam tribal union (descendants of the Gochokwa, Damakwa, etc. tribes), forced out by white settlers, crossed the Orange River and moved north. Orlam were already Christians, spoke the language of the Boers, used horses and guns. Orlam included Witboys - Hottentots who settled in the area of ​​Gobabis, Berseba and Bethany, as well as Afrikaners (Boers), who wandered in search of cattle and land under the leadership of the Orlam leader - Jonker Afrikaner.

The process of formation of the Nama Hottentot state began with the establishment of the hegemony of the Orlam tribe. The leader of the Jonker Afrikaner tribe formed a regular army of two thousand (the first in the region) and created a cavalry as a branch of service. Around 1823, Jonker founded the settlement and his headquarters Winterhoek (after the name of the place of birth in the north of the Cape Colony), which later became the capital of the country - the city of Windhoek. Jonker Afrikaner on his lands contributed to the development of agriculture, crafts and trade. All this, as well as the conquest of some of the neighboring Herero tribes (by the 40s of the 19th century, the entire southern and part of the central part of the country was under the rule of the Nama), led to the formation of the first centralized state in southern Africa.

Jonker's grave in Okahandja has become an object of worship - Hottentots from all over the country gather there every year.

In 1865, Rehobothers, driven by the British from their lands on the left bank of the river, came to the Central Plateau of Namibia. Orange.

In the 70s of the 19th century, following the Rehoboths, the Afrikaners moved to Namibia, after the British became the owners of the Cape Colony. This migration of Afrikaners was called "The Trek to the Land of Thirst". "Trackers" moved north along the path paved by the eagles, using the water sources discovered by their predecessors, and, as a rule, settled near these sources. Up to the final region of their migration - the Planaltu Plateau in Angola - the Afrikaners were accompanied by their guides, Rehoboths and Nama.

In the north of Namibia, in the 60s of the 19th century, another large inter-tribal Herero association was created under the leadership of Chief Magerero. The Herero are a Negroid tribe that came to Southwest Africa in the 16th century, but their southward advance was interrupted by the Hottentots of the Topnar tribe. They faced them in a bloody war on the Swakop River. After that, the two tribes divided the zones of influence, but the rivalry persisted, which manifested itself in periodic skirmishes.

In the middle of the 19th century, German colonialists began to penetrate into Namibia, initially in the person of Christian missionaries. In SWUZA, the Rhine Missionary Society was especially active (since 1842 among the Nama, since 1844 among the Herero).

In 1850, Jonker expelled the missionaries from Windhoek and declared himself the head of the local Afro-Christian church - he began to perform divine services himself.

Throughout the territory of present-day Namibia, the Rhine Missionary Society created strongholds of German influence in the form of mission stations, over one of which the Prussian flag was raised back in 1864. In addition, German trading and transport companies began to create communications and a network of trading posts along the entire western coast of Africa.

So, relying on the "Rhein", the agent of the Bremen merchant Lüderitz G. Vogelsand, on the basis of an agreement dated May 1 and August 25, 1883, exchanged the Angra-Peken bay (modern Lüderitz) with the surroundings and land inland for 260 rifles and 600 lb. Art. Then, fraudulently, the Germans took into their hands almost all the lands of this leader, indicating in the documents the size of the purchased territory in a geographical, or German, mile, which is 5 times larger than the English one known to us at that time.

By the beginning of the colonial seizure, the Germans were opposed mainly by two ethnic communities - Herero (80 thousand people) and Nama (20 thousand).

After the death of J. Afrikaner, the Rhine missionaries managed to arm both sides and provoke a war between them, which continued intermittently from 1863 to 1892.

During the first stage of colonization (1884-1892), the Germans drew more and more areas into the sphere of their legal and actual control. In the east, the lands of the Nama tribes adjoined the coastline 100 km wide, who agreed to conclude protectorate agreements with the Germans: Betanians, Topnar, Berseba, Rui-Nasi, as well as Rehoboter and Herero. The possessions of the other part of the Nama - the Witboys, Bondelswarts, Weldschundragers, Fransmanns and Kaua, who refused to conclude such agreements, remained outside the German administration. In 1888, the Herero abandoned the protectorate treaty, believing that an alliance with the Germans did not help them in the fight against the Nama.

By the beginning of the second stage of the existence of German South-West Africa (1893-1903), the colonial authorities already had significant forces and means at their disposal to crush the resistance of the Africans and start creating a resettlement colony.

In 1892, in response to the demand of the Imperial Commissioner G. Goering (the father of the future Reichsmarschall) to stop internecine wars, the Nama and Herero made peace for the first time in history, realizing that the front of the struggle should be directed against the Germans.

In April 1893, as they advanced inland, German troops attacked the residence of the Nam paramount chief Henrik Witboj at Hornkranz.

Under the threat of destruction, the supreme leaders of the Herero S. Magerero and Nama H. ​​Witboy were forced to sign treaties on the protectorate: in 1890, the leader of the Herero, and in 1894, the leader of the Nama. Armed resistance to the Germans by individual tribes continued in subsequent years, which later turned into the largest joint uprising of Herero and Nama in 1904-1907. In January 1904, the Herero and Nama Bondelswarts were the first to enter the fight, under the leadership of Jan Morenga. H. Witboy entered the struggle in October of that year, proclaiming himself the spiritual leader of all the Nama (back in 1887, following the example of J. Afrikaner, he founded the local Afro-Christian church and expelled the missionaries).

The speeches of the Nama together with the Herero were especially effective, as a result of which General L. von Trotha was forced in 1905 to offer peace negotiations, but was categorically refused.

The Nama uprising began to decline after H. Witboj was wounded in a shootout near the town of Falgras on October 29, 1905, and bled to death.

Until the autumn of 1906, the Morenga detachment fought most stubbornly, for the capture of which Wilhelm II appointed a reward of 20 thousand marks. Only on March 31, 1907, J. Morenga was killed in a clash with the police of the Cape Province.

And only by uniting with the British, the Germans suppressed this uprising. Many detachments (tribes) left Namibia for neighboring territories. Simon Kopper was the last to do this in 1909, breaking through with his fellow tribesmen through the German border posts to the southern regions of the Kalahari (Bechuanaland).

It should be noted that the Herero and Nama warriors waged war according to moral rules: they spared women, children, missionaries, merchants. Their goal was not the destruction of the Germans, but their expulsion from their land. As a result of the policy of genocide by the German troops, the Herero population decreased by 80%, and the Nama by 50% (according to the 1911 census).

At the beginning of the First World War, South African troops entered the territory of German South-West Africa. From that moment until the end of the 20th century, the territory of Namibia was under South African control. The German population of the country, despite the favorable attitude of the authorities of the Union of South Africa towards it, partially emigrated to Germany (out of 15 thousand Germans who lived there in 1913, by 1921 only 8 thousand remained).

At the same time, the South African authorities (since 1915) pursued a policy of resettling "poor whites" from the territory of South Africa to the territory of Namibia - in order to allocate them land (at the expense of Africans). Already in 1921, the number of South African settlers in the country was 1.5 times higher than the number of Germans, amounting to 11 thousand people.

In the second half of the 1930s, the Germans began to return to the country, hoping for the restoration of German colonial rule.

The policy of the South African authorities towards the indigenous population was not much different from the German one. The pre-war period is also marked by a number of performances by Namibians.

In 1924, the Rehoboths attempted to declare independence. In 1932, the Ovambo rebelled in the north of the country. In 1922, the Nama-Bondelswarts, who were engaged in cattle breeding and hunting, refused to pay a tax on the dogs that they needed on the farm, and took refuge in the mountains, led by the leader J. Christian. The authorities sent mounted riflemen and planes against the Bondelswarts, which subjected the camp of the rebels to shelling and bombardment.

In the post-war period, the South African authorities pursued the same segregation policy in Namibia as in their own country.

The principle of separate residence of each people was proclaimed: the country was divided into nine homelands and a large "white zone" for the European minority. Within the "white zone" Africans could settle only with the permission of the authorities. Cities were also divided into quarters according to nationality.

This pattern of settlement is largely preserved to this day. After the declaration of independence, the European population in the country decreased, many lands were returned to the Africans.

The uprising began on January 12, 1904 with the performance of the Herero tribes led by Samuel Magarero. The Herero started an uprising, killing about 120 Germans, including women and children. The rebels besieged administrative center German South West African city of Windhoek. However, having received reinforcements from Germany, the colonialists defeated the rebels on April 9 near Mount Onyati, and on August 11 surrounded them in the Waterberg area. In the Battle of Waterberg, German troops defeated the main forces of the rebels, whose losses amounted to three to five thousand people.

Britain offered the rebels refuge in Bechuanaland in what is now Botswana, and several thousand people began to cross the Kalahari Desert. The rest were imprisoned in concentration camps, forced to work for German entrepreneurs. Many died from overwork and exhaustion. As the German radio Deutsche Welle noted in 2004, “It was in Namibia that the Germans for the first time in history used the method of keeping imprisoned men, women and children in concentration camps. During the colonial war, the Herero tribe was almost completely exterminated and today constitutes only a small fraction of the population in Namibia.

There is also evidence that the remaining tribal women were raped and forced into prostitution. According to a 1985 UN report, German troops massacred three-quarters of the Herero tribe, reducing their numbers from 80,000 to 15,000 depleted refugees. Part of the Herero was destroyed in battle, the rest retreated into the desert, where most of them died of thirst and hunger. In October, von Troth issued an ultimatum: “All Herero must leave this land. Any Herero found within German possessions, whether armed or unarmed, with or without pets, would be shot. I will not accept any more children or women. I will send them back to my compatriots. I will shoot them." Even the German Chancellor Bülow was indignant and told the emperor that this was not in accordance with the laws of warfare. Wilhelm calmly replied: "It is in accordance with the laws of war in Africa."

Those same 30,000 Negroes taken prisoner were placed in concentration camps. They were building railways, and with the arrival of Dr. Eugen Fischer, they also began to serve as material for his medical experiments. He, as well as Dr. Theodore Mollison, practiced methods of sterilization and amputation of healthy parts of the body on concentration camp prisoners. They injected blacks with poisons in various concentrations, observing which dose would become lethal. Later, Fischer became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he created the department of eugenics and taught at it. Josef Mengele, later infamous as a savage doctor, was considered his best student.

Already after the defeat of the Herero, the Nama tribes (Hottentots) revolted. On October 3, 1904, an uprising of the Hottentots led by Hendrik Witboi and Jacob Morenga began in the southern part of the country. For a whole year, Witboy skillfully led the battles. After the death of Vitboy on October 29, 1905, the rebels, divided into small groups, continued the guerrilla war until 1907. By the end of the same year, most of the rebels returned to civilian life, as they were forced to provide food for their families, and the remaining partisan detachments were soon forced out of the border of modern Namibia - to the Cape Colony, which belonged to the British.

Comparing it to the Nazi genocide of the Jews. In 2004, Germany recognized the commission of genocide in Namibia.

In 1884, after Britain made it clear that it had no interest in the territories of Namibia, Germany declared them a protectorate. The colonialists used the slave labor of local tribes, seizing the country's lands and resources (diamonds).

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ [Russian subtitles] - On the recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Bundestag

Subtitles

The satirical program "Today Show" (Heute Show), German Television Second Channel (ZDF) Since yesterday, it has been fixed on paper: whoever kills up to one and a half million Armenians commits genocide. Since yesterday, the Bundestag has officially called that which did the Turks in 1915 under the supervision of the German Empire. There was a big question, you probably followed him: will we not slam the door on relations with Turkey in this way? But today we must admit: wow, we are brave! We really called genocide genocide In my opinion, we were the first in general! After France, Switzerland, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Russia, the Vatican, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and Uruguay. Yes, and Uruguay too, I understand me! Everyone but Taka-Tuk Land and Atlantis! By the way, the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary couldn't come to this vote on the genocide resolution yesterday. Unfortunately, they had other things planned. Steinmeier, for example, urgently needed to fly to South America . Although fleeing to South America because of the genocide is also a kind of German tradition. Yes! And Gabriel had a meeting with the construction industry, also very important! All in all, it was a hell of a story. On the eve of the vote, Turkish associations wrote threatening letters to deputies. There was something like: "You say genocide again, and I'll call my bros!" Or sisters. We demand that all MPs be fair and admit that they have no right to judge historical events. First of all, this thing in front of you is a microphone, and you don't have to shout like that! And secondly, you just accidentally admitted yourself that we are talking about historical events. Of course, today's Turkey is not guilty of murders more than a hundred years ago, but reconciliation and denial cannot be carried out at the same time. Indeed, genocide is still completely denied in Turkish textbooks. In my opinion, for elementary grades they write that the Armenians are a people who once lived happily and contentedly in the Ottoman Empire, but one day all the Armenians got lost in the forest and have disappeared since then. End. That won't work either, my friends! The only thing worth criticizing is the timing of this resolution. Why so late? Now, of course, one gets the impression that the deputies certainly wanted to prove that they did not mince on half-bent before this Erdogan. Of course, the Turks are terribly unhappy! They insist that it could not have been genocide, because... After all, until 1948 there was no legal definition of genocide. Thus, what happened before that cannot be genocide, because there was no such corpus delicti. What? Everything that happened before 1948 was not genocide? That's it! We will know! Yesterday, first of all, Turkey recalled its ambassador from Berlin, instead of recognizing that we, the Germans, from a historical point of view, can learn a lot. Welcome to Dr. Birte Schneider's Extra History Lesson! Quiet! So, a question to the class: Who did the first genocide in the twentieth century? Anyone else? Okay, then the fat hyperactive boy is in the front row. I know! It was Turkey! Yesterday I saw on TV in the Bundestag, but Phoenix! Yeah, the fool accidentally switched from "House 2" to "Phoenix" and thinks he learned something! Class! Oliver, due to the fact that 1904, according to my calendar, was earlier than 1915, the first genocide, of course, counts against Germany. "What?! Where else is this? ! I don’t understand!” We then in the colony of German South-West Africa almost completely destroyed the Herero and Nama tribes. Just three weeks ago, the associations of victims officially sued us in The Hague. Not heard! Yes, and could not hear. Almost no one reported it. The German media, unfortunately, were busy with more important topics, such as Horst Seehofer's toy railway or Daniela Katzenberger's planned wedding. Terrible. Terrible. You ask yourself who Will he agree to marry Katzenberger in his right mind? So, my friend, listen here: since 2007, only in the Bundestag there have been 5 proposals to finally recognize the crimes of Herero genocide. And each time they were dismissed, and with what argument? "Genocide" legal rule appeared only in 1948, and therefore it cannot be extended to earlier events. And it is impossible to derive legal claims from them. Wait a minute! Yes, this same exactly the argument of the Turks! Excellent! Olya, I’ll draw a little sun for you in my diary! Look, it even smiles a little! "Oliver figured something out. Hooray!" the only german politician of the government that has ever apologized to the victims was Vichorek-Tsol of the SPD in 2004. She even cried! And then she had to hear from a member of the CSU Ruka what it was, a quote: "... there was an expensive outburst of emotions. Billion-dollar lawsuits against Germany do not need to be supplied with extra ammunition." And, in my opinion, "ammunition" in this context is a particularly well-chosen metaphor. You understand? The Turks, at least, are talking about honor, and Germany just wants to save money. Well, we don't have to either! Also, President Roman Herzog said even earlier, I think in 1989, that what Germany did to the Herero, quote, "was not good." Oliver, if I vomit in the elevator after two cans of Redbull and sausages, that would be bad. And expelling an entire people into the desert and leaving them there to die is called genocide. "Not good" "Genocide" Is anyone at home? So now the whole class writes a sentence a hundred times: "I never again want to explain to others how to correctly recognize a genocide before I correctly recognize all my own genocides. Any questions? Yes! I wanted to go back to Katzenberger again... It was Birte Schneider! The satirical program "Today Show" (Heute Show), German Television Second Channel (ZDF). Translation -- YouTube.com/igakuz I don't understand, I've always had an A in history!

Insurrection

On January 14, 1904, the Herero and Nama, led by Samuel Magarero and Hendrik Witboy, started an uprising, killing about 120 Germans, including women and children. At this point, a small (700 men) German military corps was in the south of the colony, putting down another petty uprising, leaving 4,640 German civilians unprotected; while the forces of the rebels were 6-8 thousand people. The total ethnic population of the colony is estimated according to various sources from 35-40 to 100 thousand people (the most adequate estimate is 60-80 thousand), of which 80% were Herero, and the rest were Nama or, as the Germans called them, Hottentots. In May 1904, command of the German forces in South East Africa passed from the governor of the colony, Theodor Leutwein, to Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha, and on June 14, the German troops (schutztruppe) of 14,000 soldiers under his command arrived to put down the uprising. The expedition was financed by Deutsche Bank and outfitted by Wurmann. Von Trotha was ordered to "suppress the rebellion at all costs", which was, however, the standard wording and did not in itself imply the complete annihilation of the tribe. Nevertheless, he was more uncompromising than Leutwein, in particular, he was against negotiations with the rebels, which coincided with the position of Kaiser Wilhelm and was one of the reasons for this appointment of von Troth.

By the beginning of August, the remaining Herero (about 60 thousand people) with their cattle were pushed back to Waterberg, where von Trotha planned to defeat them in a decisive battle according to the usual German military canons. at the same time, however, the Schutztruppe experienced great difficulties in the conditions of a desert territory remote from the railway. An encirclement was organized, and in the west the German positions were most strongly fortified, since von Trotha considered the retreat of the Herero in this direction as the worst-case scenario, which he tried with all his might to avoid. The southeast direction was the weakest. On August 11, a decisive battle took place, during which, due to the uncoordinated actions of German units, almost all Herero managed to escape to the southeast and further east into the Kalahari desert. Von Trotha was extremely disappointed with this outcome, but in his report he wrote that "the attack on the morning of August 11 ended in complete victory." We can say that in this way he wished for reality, and at that time - before the battle - he did not plan mass extermination: there is evidence that he prepared the conditions for keeping prisoners.

Desert persecution and massacre

Since a complete victory in the general battle (which was supposed to be the battle of Waterberg) was not achieved, Trotha ordered the pursuit of the rebels who had gone into the desert to begin in order to force them to give battle and still carry out the rout. However, this was fraught with great difficulties for the Schutztruppe, and the Herero went further and further, so Trota decided to cordon off the boundaries of habitable territory, leaving the Africans to die in the desert from hunger and thirst. Thus, it was at this stage that the transition from the suppression of the uprising to genocide took place. The reason for this was Trot's fear that the uprising would turn into a sluggish guerrilla war, and any outcome other than the complete defeat of the rebels would be considered a defeat by the German authorities. That is, there were two ways: either the Schutztruppe initiate a battle and win a final victory in it, or they push the rebels out of their colony. Since the first could not be achieved, the second path was chosen; the possibility of negotiations and capitulation Trota resolutely rejected. The Herero had the opportunity to obtain asylum in the British colony of Bechuanaland in what is now Botswana, but most, when trying to get there, died of hunger and thirst in the desert or were killed by German soldiers.

The transitional moment was marked by Troth's famous proclamation, published by him on October 2, 1904:

I, the commander-in-chief of the German soldiers, convey this message to the Herero people. The Herero no longer belong to Germany. They committed robberies and murders, cut off the noses, ears and other parts of the body of wounded soldiers, and now, out of cowardice, they refuse to fight. I announce: whoever delivers the captured commander to one of my stations will receive a thousand marks, and whoever delivers Samuel Magerero himself will receive five thousand marks. All Herero people must leave this land. If they don't, I will force them with my big guns (artillery). Any Herero male found within German possessions, armed or unarmed, with or without cattle, will be shot. I will not accept any more children or women, but I will send them back to my compatriots or I will shoot them. And this is my word to the Herero people.

This proclamation is to be read out to our soldiers at roll call, with the addition that the unit that captures the commander will receive a proper reward, and by "shooting at women and children" should be understood to be shooting over their heads to make them flee. I am sure that after this proclamation we will not take any more male captives, but atrocities against women and children are unacceptable. They run away when fired multiple times in their direction. We must not forget the good reputation of the German soldier.

In fact, at that moment there were already massacres of the Herero, who, as a rule, had already lost the ability to actively resist. There is ample evidence for this, although most of it was used by Britain at the end of the First World War to discredit the image of Germany, so it is not always completely objective.

concentration camps

Governor Leutwein strongly objected to von Troth's line, and in December 1904 he made the argument to his superiors that it was more economically advantageous to use slave labor for the Herero than to exterminate them completely. The head of the General Staff of the German army, Count Alfred von Schlieffen and other people close to Wilhelm II agreed with this, and soon the remaining surrendered or captured were imprisoned in concentration camps, where they were forced to work for German entrepreneurs. Thus, the labor of prisoners was used by a private diamond mining company, as well as for the construction of a railway to copper mining areas. Many died from overwork and exhaustion. As the German radio Deutsche Welle noted in 2004, it was in Namibia that the Germans for the first time in history used the method of keeping imprisoned men, women and children in concentration camps.

Consequences and their assessment

During the colonial war, the Herero tribe was almost completely exterminated and today constitutes only a small fraction of the population in Namibia. There is also evidence that the remaining tribal women were raped and forced into prostitution. According to a UN report from 1985, German troops destroyed three-quarters of the Herero tribe, as a result of which its number was reduced from 80,000 to 15,000 depleted refugees.

Germany lost about 1,500 people in the course of the suppression of the uprising. In honor of the dead German soldiers and to commemorate the complete victory over the Herero in 1912, a monument was erected in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.

The Russian Africanist historian Apollon Davidson compared the destruction of African tribes with other actions of the German troops, when Kaiser Wilhelm II gave advice to the German expeditionary force in China: “Give no mercy! Take no prisoners. Kill as much as you can!<…>You must act in such a way that the Chinese will never again dare to look askance at the German. As Davidson wrote, “on the orders of the same emperor Wilhelm, the Herero people, who rebelled against German domination, were driven into the Kalahari desert with machine gun fire and doomed tens of thousands of people to death from hunger and thirst. waging war. Wilhelm calmly replied: "It corresponds to the laws of war in Africa."

In world culture

Germany's complex relationship with the Herero tribe is described metaphorically in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. In another of his novels,

More than a century after the dramatic events that unfolded in South West Africa at the beginning of the 20th century, the German authorities expressed their readiness to apologize to the people of Namibia and recognize the actions of the colonial administration of German South West Africa as genocide of the local Herero and Nama peoples. Recall that in 1904-1908. in South-West Africa, German troops killed more than 75 thousand people - representatives of the Herero and Nama peoples. The actions of the colonial troops were in the nature of genocide, but until recently, Germany still refused to recognize the suppression of rebellious African tribes as genocide. Now the German leadership is negotiating with the authorities of Namibia, as a result of which a joint statement is planned by the governments and parliaments of the two countries, characterizing the events of the early twentieth century as the Herero and Nama genocide.

The topic of the Herero and Nama genocide surfaced after the Bundestag approved a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Empire. Then Metin Kyulyunk, representing the Justice and Development Party (the ruling party of Turkey) in the Turkish parliament, said that he was going to submit a bill on the recognition of the genocide of the indigenous peoples of Namibia by Germany at the beginning of the 20th century for consideration by his fellow deputies. Apparently, the idea of ​​the Turkish MP was supported by an impressive Turkish lobby in Germany itself. Now the German government has no choice but to recognize the events in Namibia as genocide. True, the representative of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Savsan Shebli, said that recognizing the destruction of the Herero and Nama as genocide does not mean that the FRG will make any payments to the affected country, that is, the Namibian people.

As is known, Germany, together with Italy and Japan, entered the struggle for the colonial division of the world relatively late. However, already in the 1880s - 1890s. she managed to acquire a number of colonial possessions in Africa and Oceania. One of Germany's most important acquisitions was South West Africa. In 1883, the German entrepreneur Adolf Luderitz acquired land on the coast of modern Namibia from the leaders of local tribes, and in 1884 the right of Germany to own these territories was recognized by Great Britain. South-West Africa with desert and semi-desert territories was sparsely populated, and the German authorities, having decided to follow the example of the Boers in South Africa, began to encourage the migration of German colonists to South-West Africa.

The colonists, taking advantage of the advantages in armament and organization, began to select the most suitable for Agriculture land from the local Herero and Nama tribes. The Herero and Nama are the main indigenous peoples of South West Africa. The Herero speak the Ochigerero language, which is a Bantu language. Currently, the Herero live in Namibia, as well as in Botswana, Angola and South Africa. The number of Herero is about 240 thousand people. It is possible that if it were not for the German colonization of South-West Africa, there would have been much more of them - German troops destroyed 80% of the Herero people. Nama is one of the groups of Hottentots belonging to the so-called Khoisan peoples - natives of South Africa, belonging to a special capoid race. The Nama live in southern and northern Namibia, in the Northern Cape of South Africa, and in Botswana. Currently, the number of Nama reaches 324 thousand people, 246 thousand of them live in Namibia.

Herero and the Nama were engaged in cattle breeding, and the German colonists who came to South-West Africa, with the permission of the colonial administration, took away the best pasture lands from them. Since 1890, Samuel Magarero (1856-1923) has held the post of supreme leader of the Herero people. In 1890, when the German expansion in South-West Africa was just beginning, Magarero signed an agreement "on protection and friendship" with the German authorities. However, then the leader realized what the colonization of South West Africa was fraught with for his people. Naturally, the German authorities were out of reach for the Herero leader, so the leader's anger was directed at the German colonists - farmers who seized the best pasture lands. On January 12, 1903, Samuel Magarero raised the Herero in revolt. The rebels killed 123 people, including women and children, and laid siege to Windhoek, the capital of German South West Africa.

Initially, the actions of the German colonial authorities to confront the rebels were not successful. The commander of the German troops was the governor of the colony T. Leitwein, who was subordinate to very few troops. German troops suffered heavy losses both from the actions of the rebels and from the typhus epidemic. In the end, Berlin removed Leitwein from command of the colonial forces. It was also decided to separate the posts of the governor and the commander-in-chief of the troops, since a good manager is not always a good military leader (as, indeed, vice versa).

To suppress the Herero uprising in South West Africa, an expeditionary force of the German army was sent under the command of Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha. Adrian Dietrich Lothar von Trotha (1848-1920) was one of the most experienced German generals of that time, his service experience for 1904 was almost forty years - he joined the Prussian army in 1865. During the Franco-Prussian War, he received the Iron Cross for his valor. General von Trotha was considered a "specialist" in colonial wars - in 1894 he participated in the suppression of the Maji-Maji uprising in German East Africa, in 1900 he commanded the 1st East Asian Infantry Brigade during the suppression of the Yihetuan uprising in China.

On May 3, 1904, von Trotha was appointed commander-in-chief of the German troops in South-West Africa, and on June 11, 1904, he, at the head of attached military units, arrived in the colony. Von Trotha had 8 cavalry battalions, 3 machine-gun companies and 8 artillery batteries at his disposal. Von Trotha did not count on the colonial troops much, although the units manned by the natives were used as auxiliary forces. In mid-July 1904, von Trotha's troops began to advance towards the Herero lands. The superior forces of Africans advanced to meet the Germans - about 25-30 thousand people. True, one must understand that the Herero went on a campaign with their families, that is, the number of warriors was much smaller. It should be noted that almost all Herero warriors by that time already had firearms, but the rebels had no cavalry and artillery.

On the border of the Omaheke Desert, the forces of the opponents met. The battle unfolded on August 11 on the slopes of the Waterberg mountain range. Despite the superiority of the Germans in armament, the Herero successfully attacked the German troops. The situation reached the point of a bayonet fight, and von Troth was forced to throw all his strength into the defense of the artillery pieces. As a result, although the Herero clearly outnumbered the Germans, the organization, discipline and combat skills of the German soldiers did their job. The rebel attacks were repulsed, after which artillery fire was opened on the positions of the Herero. Chief Samuel Magerero decided to retreat to the desert regions. The losses of the German side in the battle of Waterberg amounted to 26 people killed (including 5 officers) and 60 wounded (including 7 officers). Among the Herero, the main losses fell not so much on the battle as on the painful passage through the desert. German troops pursued the retreating Herero, shooting them with machine guns. The actions of the command even caused a negative assessment from the German Chancellor Benhard von Bülow, who was indignant and told the Kaiser that the behavior of the German troops did not comply with the laws of warfare. To this, Kaiser Wilhelm II replied that such actions corresponded to the laws of war in Africa. During the transition through the desert, 2/3 of the total number of Herero died. The Herero fled to the territory of neighboring Bechuanaland, a British colony. Now it is the independent country of Botswana. A reward of five thousand marks was promised for Magerero's head, but he hid in Bechuanaland with the remnants of his tribe and lived safely to old age.

Lieutenant-General von Trotha, in turn, issued the infamous “liquidation” order, which effectively called for the genocide of the Herero people. All Herero were ordered to leave German South-West Africa under pain of physical destruction. Any Herero caught within the colony was ordered to be shot. All pasture land of the Herero went to the German colonists.

However, the concept of the total destruction of the Herero, put forward by General von Trotha, was actively challenged by Governor Leitwein. He believed that it was much more profitable for Germany to turn the Herero into slaves by imprisoning them in concentration camps than simply to destroy them. In the end, the chief of the general staff of the German army, General Count Alfred von Schlieffen, agreed with Leitwein's point of view. Those of the Herero who did not leave the colony were sent to concentration camps, where they were actually used as slaves. Many Herero died in the construction of copper mines and the railway. As a result of the actions of the German troops, the Herero people were almost completely destroyed and now the Herero make up only a small part of the inhabitants of Namibia.

However, following the Herero, in October 1904, the Nama tribes of the Hottentots revolted in the southern part of German South-West Africa. The Nama uprising was led by Hendrik Witboi (1840-1905). The third son of the tribal leader Moses Kido Witbooy, back in 1892-1893. Hendrik fought against the German colonialists, but then, like Samuel Magerero, in 1894 he concluded an agreement "on protection and friendship" with the Germans. But, in the end, Witboy also made sure that the German colonization does not bring anything good for the Hottentots. It should be noted that Witboy managed to develop a fairly effective tactic to counter the German troops. The Hottentot rebels used the classic "hit and run" method of guerrilla warfare, avoiding direct clashes with German military units. Thanks to this tactic, which was more beneficial to the African rebels than the actions of Samuel Magherero, who undertook a head-on collision with German troops, the Hottentot uprising lasted almost three years. In 1905, Hendrik Witboi himself died. After his death, the leadership of the Nama detachments was carried out by Jacob Morenga (1875-1907). He came from a mixed family of Nama and Herero, worked in a copper mine, and in 1903 created a rebel detachment. Morenga's partisans successfully attacked the Germans and even forced the German unit to retreat in the battle of Hartebestmünde. In the end, British troops from the neighboring Cape Province came out against the Hottentots, in a battle with which on September 20, 1907, the partisan detachment was destroyed, and Jacob Morenga himself was killed. Currently, Hendrik Witboj and Jacob Morenga (pictured) are considered Namibian national heroes.

Like the Herero, the Nama people suffered greatly from the actions of the German authorities. Researchers estimate that a third of the Nama people died. Historians estimate the losses of the Nama during the war with the German troops at least 40 thousand people. Many of the Hottentots were also imprisoned in concentration camps and used as slaves. It should be noted that it was South-West Africa that became the first testing ground where the German authorities tried the methods of genocide of objectionable peoples. In South West Africa, concentration camps were also created for the first time, in which all the men, women and children of the Herero were imprisoned.

During the First World War, the territory of German South-West Africa was occupied by the troops of the Union of South Africa - the British dominion. Now German settlers and soldiers found themselves in camps near Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg, although the South African authorities treated them very gently, without even taking away weapons from prisoners of war. In 1920, South West Africa, as a mandated territory, was transferred to the control of the Union of South Africa. The South African authorities turned out to be no less cruel towards the local population than the Germans. In 1946, the UN refused to satisfy the request of the SA to include South West Africa in the union, after which the SA refused to transfer this territory to the control of the UN. In 1966, an armed struggle for independence unfolded in South West Africa, in which SWAPO, the People's Organization of South West Africa, played a leading role, supported by Soviet Union and a number of other socialist states. In the end, on March 21, 1990, the independence of Namibia from South Africa was proclaimed.

It was after independence was achieved that the issue of recognizing Germany's actions in South-West Africa in 1904-1908 began to be actively worked out. genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples. Back in 1985, a UN report was published, which emphasized that as a result of the actions of the German troops, the Herero people lost three-quarters of their numbers, decreasing from 80,000 to 15,000 people. After the independence of Namibia, the leader of the Herero tribe, Riruako Kuaima (1935-2014), appealed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The leader accused Germany of the Herero genocide and demanded compensation for the Herero people, following the example of paying Jews. Although Riruako Kuaima died in 2014, his actions were not in vain - in the end, two years after the death of the Herero leader, known for his uncompromising position on the issue of genocide, Germany nevertheless agreed to recognize the colonial policy in South West Africa as the Herero genocide, but so far no compensation.

The uprising began on January 12, 1904 with the performance of the Herero tribes led by Samuel Magarero. The Herero started an uprising, killing about 120 Germans, including women and children. The rebels laid siege to the administrative center of German South-West Africa, the city of Windhoek. However, having received reinforcements from Germany, the colonialists defeated the rebels on April 9 near Mount Onyati, and on August 11 surrounded them in the Waterberg area. In the Battle of Waterberg, German troops defeated the main forces of the rebels, whose losses amounted to three to five thousand people. Britain offered the rebels refuge in Bechuanaland in what is now Botswana, and several thousand people began to cross the Kalahari Desert. The rest were imprisoned in concentration camps, forced to work for German entrepreneurs. Many died from overwork and exhaustion. As the German radio Deutsche Welle noted in 2004, “It was in Namibia that the Germans for the first time in history used the method of keeping imprisoned men, women and children in concentration camps. During the colonial war, the Herero tribe was almost completely exterminated and today constitutes only a small fraction of the population in Namibia. There is also evidence that the remaining tribal women were raped and forced into prostitution. According to a 1985 UN report, German troops massacred three-quarters of the Herero tribe, reducing their numbers from 80,000 to 15,000 depleted refugees. Part of the Herero was destroyed in battle, the rest retreated into the desert, where most of them died of thirst and hunger. In October, von Troth issued an ultimatum: “All Herero must leave this land. Any Herero found within German possessions, whether armed or unarmed, with or without pets, would be shot. I will not accept any more children or women. I will send them back to my compatriots. I will shoot them." Even the German Chancellor Bülow was indignant and told the emperor that this was not in accordance with the laws of warfare. Wilhelm calmly replied: "It corresponds to the laws of war in Africa"
Those same 30,000 Negroes taken prisoner were placed in concentration camps. They built railroads, and with the arrival of Dr. Eugen Fischer, they also served as material for his medical experiments. He, as well as Dr. Theodore Mollison, practiced methods of sterilization and amputation of healthy parts of the body on concentration camp prisoners. They injected blacks with poisons in various concentrations, observing which dose would become lethal. Later, Fischer became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he created the department of eugenics and taught at it. Josef Mengele, later infamous as a savage doctor, was considered his best student.
Already after the defeat of the Herero, the Nama tribes (Hottentots) revolted. On October 3, 1904, an uprising of the Hottentots led by Hendrik Witboi and Jacob Morenga began in the southern part of the country. For a whole year, Witboy skillfully led the battles. After the death of Vitboy on October 29, 1905, the rebels, divided into small groups, continued the guerrilla war until 1907. By the end of the same year, most of the rebels returned to civilian life, as they were forced to provide food for their families, and the remaining partisan detachments were soon forced out of the border of modern Namibia - to the Cape Colony, which belonged to the British.
Herero near their huts

Indigenous peoples of German South West Africa with their traditional weapons and national dress

Soldiers of the colonial troops with a machine gun during an exercise

Governor of German South West Africa Theodor von Leutwein and Herero leader Samuel Magarero

Hendrik Witboi and Theodor von Leutwein in 1896

Governor Theodor von Leutwein with Hendrik Witboy (left) and Herero leader Samuel Magarero (right)

Lieutenant Techow informs command of a possible Herero uprising and mobilization of troops in northern German South West Africa
"200 armed Herero horsemen were seen on the night of January 11, 1904..."

Troops march to put down the uprising

General Lothar von Troth (front right) and Governor Theodor von Leutwein (front left) with employees in Windhoek (German South West Africa), 1904

Military camp, circa 1904

In the camp

Lieutenant Paul Leutwein in the military uniform of the colonial troops of South West Africa, circa 1904-1905

Herero prison camp near Alte Feste in Windhoek, circa 1904-1908

Captured Herero

Herero survivors passing through the desert.

Hendrik Witboy

Hendrik Witboj (sitting on a chair) with Nama fighters, circa 1904-1905