Namibia (1904-1908)
The lands of present-day Namibia were home to several tribes, including the Herero and Nama. The Nama had lived there since before recorded history, while the Herero arrived sometime in 16th century. Although both tribes encountered Europeans earlier, colonization firmly took hold in 19th century with the arrival of German missionaries.
The colony became known as German Southwest Africa. Germany used the land to farm cattle, which it exported to Europe to feed its growing population. This led to several disenfranchising agreements between the colonial forces and the Herero and Nama, which had both resisted German rule. Between 1904 and 1908, Germany perpetrated the first genocide of the 20th century by attempting to annihilate the Herero and Nama peoples.
In 1903, the Herero rose up against German colonial rule. German General Lothar von Trotha openly framed the revolt as a “race war” directing troops to kill all Herero men and to drive women and children into the desert. The genocide began in January 1904, when Chief Samuel Maharero led the Herero in a rebellion against colonizers who had dispossessed them of their land and forced them to work on it.
The response was swift and devastating. During the first year, colonial officials recruited Nama soldiers to fight against the Herero, exploiting historical animosity between the two peoples. German forces shot refugees, poisoned wells, and cut off access to water, causing mass death from thirst, starvation, and exhaustion as families attempted to reach British Bechuanaland (present-day Botswana).
Later in 1904, the Nama joined the rebellion. The German response mirrored the brutality shown to the Herero: villages were burned, and thousands were imprisoned in concentration camps. The most notorious was Shark Island, off the coast of Namibia, where both Herero and Nama prisoners were held. Cattle were confiscated, destroying a primarily pastural way of life that had existed for centuries. Beatings, starvation, disease, sexual violence, and forced restraint formed a deliberate system of subjugation and exploitation.
By 1908, German colonial forces had murdered as many as 80,000 Herero, roughly 80 percent of their population, and 10,000 Nama, roughly 50 percent of their population. The Vernichtungskrieg, or war of annihilation, in Namibia became a blueprint for Nazi Germany, which incorporated many of these methods of torture, imprisonment, and mass murder during the Holocaust.
For over a century, Germany largely ignored this history. In 2021, it formally recognized the genocide and issued an apology, offering “programs for reconstruction and development” as a “reconciliatory gesture.” However, the Herero and Nama communities largely rejected these efforts, having never been consulted about the nature and types of effective financial, judicial, and meaningful reparations that were proposed by Germany.
Despite Germany’s recognition, the work of Herero and Namibian activists continues to this day. Many also point to the loss of land and property as an ongoing legacy of the genocide as 75 percent of Namibia’s most productive farmland is still owned by the 1 percent German-Namibian population.