page_title: Herero and Namaqua genocide
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Herero and Namaqua genocide / Background
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Herero-Aufstand Zentralbild Generalleutnant Lothar von Trotha (GND 117636908), der Oberkommandierende der Schutztruppe in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, mit seinem Stabe in Keetmanshoop während des Herero-Aufstandes 1904. 8932-05 Abgebildete Personen: stehend von links: Oberleutnant von Trotha (Kommandant Hauptquartier) - Stabsveterinär Rakette - Oberleutnant Gundel (2.Tel.-Abt.) sitzend von links: Hauptmann v. Lettow-Vorbeck (1.Adjutant) - Hauptmann Bayer (Generalstab) - Colonel Trench (britischer Militärattaché) - Generalleutnant von Trotha - Leutnant von Goßler (Ordonnanz-Offizier) - Intendant Nachtigall - Major von Redern (Chef des Stabes) - Hauptmann von Bosse (2.Adjutant)
context_page_description: The Herero and Nama genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century, waged by the German Empire against the Ovaherero, the Nama, and the San in German South West Africa. It occurred between 1904 and 1908.
  In January 1904, the Herero people who were led by Samuel Maharero and the Nama people who were led by Captain Hendrik Witbooi rebelled against German colonial rule. On January 12, they massacred more than 100 German men in the area of Okahandja, though sparing women and children. In August, German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Ovaherero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of dehydration. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans, only to suffer a similar fate.
  Between 24,000 and 100,000 Hereros, 10,000 Nama and an unknown number of San died in the genocide. The first phase of the genocide was characterized by widespread death from starvation and dehydration, due to the prevention of the Herero from leaving the Namib Desert by German forces. Once defeated, thousands of Hereros and Namas were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of diseases, abuse, and exhaustion.
context_section_description: The original inhabitants of what is now Namibia were the Bushmen and the Hottentots, both of whom were Hunter-gatherers who spoke dialects of the Khoisan language.
  Herero, who spoke a Bantu language, were originally a group of cattle herders who migrated into what is now Namibia during the mid-18th century. The Herero seized vast swaths of the arable upper plateaus which were ideal for cattle grazing. Agricultural duties, which were minimal, were assigned to enslaved Hottentots and Bushmen. Over the rest of the 18th century, the Herero slowly drove the Hottentots into the dry, rugged hills to the South and East.
  According to Robert Gaudi, "The newcomers, much taller and more fiercely warlike than the indigenous Khoisan people's, were possessed of the fierceness that comes from basing one's way of life on a single source: everything they valued, all wealth and personal happiness, had to do with cattle. Regarding the care and protection of their herds, the Herero showed themselves utterly merciless, and far more 'savage' than the Hottentots had ever been. Because of their dominant ways and elegant bearing, the few Europeans who encountered Herero tribesmen in the early days regarded them as the region's 'natural aristocrats.'"
  By the time of the Scramble for Africa, the area occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland. The Nama were pastorals and traders and lived to the South of the Herero.
  In 1883, Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz, a German merchant, purchased a stretch of coast near the Angra Pequena bay from the reigning chief. The terms of the purchase were fraudulent, but the German government nonetheless established a protectorate over it. At that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for white settlement.
  Chief of the neighbouring Herero, Maharero rose to power by uniting all the Herero. Faced with repeated attacks by the Khowesin, a clan of the Khoikhoi under Hendrik Witbooi, he signed a protection treaty on 21 October 1885 with Imperial Germany's colonial governor Heinrich Ernst Göring (father of World War I flying ace and Nazi Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring) but did not cede the land of the Herero. This treaty was renounced in 1888 due to lack of German support against Witbooi but it was reinstated in 1890.
  The Herero leaders repeatedly complained about violation of this treaty, as Herero women and girls were raped by German soldiers, a crime that the German authorities were reluctant to punish.
  In 1890 Maharero's son, Samuel, signed a great deal of land over to the Germans in return for helping him to ascend to the Ovaherero throne, and to subsequently be established as paramount chief. German involvement in ethnic fighting ended in tenuous peace in 1894. In that year, Theodor Leutwein became governor of the territory, which underwent a period of rapid development, while the German government sent the Schutztruppe (imperial colonial troops) to pacify the region.
caption: Central figure Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha, the Oberbefehlshaber (Supreme Commander) of the protection force in German South West Africa, in Keetmanshoop during the Herero uprising, 1904.
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