The Herero (meaning "to throw an assegai") people are related to the Bantu people too speak a Bantu language. They live primarily inward Namibia too Republic of Botswana inward southwest Africa too number almost 175,000. They are believed to have got migrated from the Lake Tanganyika expanse inward the eastward during the 18th century.

Beautiful herero women inward their traditonal outfit

Herero adult woman 1900,Namibia,Africa

Legend has it that the Herero ane time left 'a ground of many mountains'. They came to a Pb woods tree where the 2 leaders, Kathu, too his blood brother Nangombe decided to component subdivision ways. Kathu trekked north, patch Nangombe stayed inward Namibia to found the Herero nation. The give-and-take Herero may live derived from okuhera, important 'to throw an assegai'. Indeed they were a fearless too warlike nation, taking on the mightiness of the German linguistic communication empire inward 1904.

A procession of Hereros dressed inward traditional military-style uniforms led past times Uetuesapi Mungendje (center) too Keeper of the Holy Fire Chief Tjipene Keja (left). The cerise accents inward the uniforms dot membership inward the Red Flag faction

Location
Approximately 150,000 Herero live inward Namibia too almost 20,000 inward Botswana. The Herero brand upwards unopen to 7% of Namibia's population. The Herero have got also scattered throughout southern Angola. Oral history has it that the Herero people grouping left the keen lakes part of eastern Africa inward the 1500s. They spent the adjacent 2 centuries migrating to southwestern Africa where they settled inward key Namibia. Things were relatively peaceful for the Herero for the adjacent 150 years or so except for the occasional skirmish with the tribes from the due south who were pushed due north past times South Africans who desired their grazing lands. The Herero are herders too the plains of key Namibia are perfect for grazing the cows that are foundational to their culture.

Herero women wearing traditional Victorian-style dresses too headdress shaped after cattle horns. The headdress symbolizes their human relationship with cattle farming, which is key to the Herero economic scheme too lifestyle

Culture
Inheritance: The Herero of Namibia too Republic of Botswana are unique amid southern Africa's indigenous people inward that they inherit dissimilar things from the mother's too father's families. Residence, religion, too authorization are taken from the father's line, patch the inheritance of wealth is passed through the mother's clan.

Herero woman

Livelihood: Traditionally, the Herero were nomadic pastoralists. Following contact with Europeans inward the mid-19th century, many have got go subsistence farmers, growing grains too raising sheep, cattle, too fowl.

A-herero-woman-with-children-in-traditional-clothing

Marriage: Apparently, non much significance is attached to spousal human relationship inward the Herero group. No personal human relationship exists betwixt a human being too his wife.

They each hold their ain wealth too property. Each human being has several wives, although a married adult woman is non allowed to have got additional husbands. Despite the legalities, many women do have got relationships with other men.

Dress: The striking Herero women's apparel is derived from the Victorian era. German linguistic communication missionaries encouraged the women to have on clothes according to the fashion inward Europe at the time. Until the mid 19th century, Herero people similar others inward southern Africa wore wearable made of leather.

Men too children wore dissimilar kinds of leather aprons, too manly someone heroes wore special pieces of animate beingness fur too other ornaments. Adult women wore 2 leather skirt ieces around their waists, along leather shawl decorated with atomic number 26 beads too a headdress with 3 points on top.

Traditional Owambo Herero dress

Like their African neighbours, the Herero began wearing European trend wearable inward the 1850s, after Europeans missionaries began to settle inward southern Africa. Herero people saw competitor Nama groups too missionaries wearing western clothing. Today items of Herero wearable are soundless named after parts of the leather dress, suggesting that Herero people reckon continuity betwixt the 2 types of apparel codes.

"Herero women too children inward traditional costume; Sehitwa, Ngamiland." (Circa1940)

Many children have on leather aprons when they are non inward school. Men have on mostly shop bought clothes but when they participate inward the annual days of Herero cultural celebration they have on armed services type uniforms too bits of animate beingness fur.

Religion: The Herero believe inward a Supreme Being, called Omukuru, the Great One, or Njambi Karunga. Like the Himba they also have got a holy, ritual give notice which symbolizes life, prosperity too fertility to them. However, the bulk have got been converted to Christianity, although the Herero church, the Oruuano, combines Christian dogma with ancestor worship too magical practices

Herero adult woman cooking

Before the Genocide Was Committed on Hereros
Africa is almost for sure the birthplace of the human species. From it the earliest people ventured into Asia too and so across the long-vanished ground brace to the Americas, or across the Pacific isle chains to Australasia. They also spread to the lands due north of the Mediterranean Sea.

Many thousands of years subsequently their European descendants gained glory too wealth past times rediscovering the southern hemisphere, too plundering it. They – nosotros – have got oft treated it, too its inhabitants, with brutality, indifference too contempt. White Europeans forced dark Africans to go slaves. White Europeans deprived dark people of their homes too communities too cultures.

White Europeans sent their missionaries to modify dark people’s faith to their own. And inward the 19th century white Europeans began moving into Africa to occupy the ground as well. The ground was desirable for itself: it provided novel territory, novel possessions too novel trade, both for individuals too their countries. The ground had other values, too: it provided bases for farther take-overs too farther armed services threats; and, higher upwards all, it contained riches.

Hereros inward their hut before the war

Along the coastline of Namibia runs the Namib desert, a 1,200 mile long strip of unwelcoming sand dunes too barren rock. Behind it is the key mount plateau, too eastward of that the Kalahari desert. Namibia’s scarcest commodity is water: this is a ground of petty rainfall, too the rivers don’t ever run. But the really sand of the Skeleton Coast is the dust of gemstones; uranium, tin too tungsten tin live mined inward the key Namib, too copper inward the north; too inward the due south at that topographic point are diamonds.

Namibia also has gold, silver, lithium, too natural gas. For most of the region’s history, exclusively metallic was of involvement to the native tribes. These tribes lived too traded together to a greater extent than or less peacefully, each with their ain particular way of living, wherever the ground was fertile enough. The San were nomads, hunters too gatherers. The Damara hunted too worked copper. The Ovambo grew crops inward the north, where at that topographic point was to a greater extent than rain, but also worked inward metal. The Nama too the Herero were livestock farmers, too they were the 2 main tribes inward the 1840s when the Germans (first missionaries, too so settlers, too so soldiers) began arriving inward South West Africa.

Herero - Near old German linguistic communication mission cemetery inward Okahandja - Otjozondjupa Region - 1900

Before the Germans, exclusively a few Europeans had visited it: explorers, traders too sailors. They opened upwards merchandise outlets for ivory too cattle; they also brought inward firearms, with which they traded for Namib treasures. Later, large guns too European armed services systems were introduced. The tribes at nowadays settled their disputes with lethal violence: corruption of a peaceful civilization was nether way.

Hendrik Witbooi (sitting on the chair) with fighters of the Nama tribe, ca 1904-1905

During The Berlin Conference of 1888 FRG was awarded South West Africa (what is at nowadays called Namibia). The Germans made South West Africa their ain colony, too settlers moved in, followed past times a armed services governor who knew petty almost running a colony too nix at all almost Africa. Major Theodor Leutwein began past times playing off the Nama too Herero tribes against each other. More too to a greater extent than white settlers arrived, pushing tribesmen off their cattle-grazing lands with bribes too unreliable deals. The Namib’s diamonds were discovered, attracting yet to a greater extent than incomers with a lust for wealth.

German colonial administrator Theodor Gotthilf Leutwein (seated left) too Herero Supreme Chief Maharero - 1895

Tribal cattle-farmers had other problems, too: a cattle-virus (rinderpest) epidemic inward the belatedly 1890s killed much of their livestock. The colonists offered the Herero assist on credit. As a final result the farmers amassed large debts, too when they couldn’t pay them off the colonists merely seized what cattle were left. In Jan 1904, the Herero, desperate to find their livelihoods, rebelled. Under their leader Samuel Maherero they began to laid on the numerous German linguistic communication outposts. Chief Maharero gave really specific instructions that exclusively farmers, traders too soldiers would live attacked. He explicitly stated that missionaries, Britons too Boers were non to live harmed. In most cases, the Herero warriors followed Maharero's instructions to the missive of the alphabet - sparing women, children, missionaries too non-Germans. The Herero cutting telegraph wires, destroyed railway lines, stole cattle too overran smaller armed services stations. Initially almost 150 Germans were killed, which provoked colonial outrage. The mere fact the 'savages' had the audacity to challenge white claims of superiority too lands inward 'their colony', enhanced racist attitudes which had ever been rife with the settler population.

Chief Samuel Maherero, the leader of Herero tribe

At the same time, the Nama chief, Hendrik Witbooi, wrote a missive of the alphabet to Theodor Leutwein, telling him what the native Africans thought of their invaders, who had taken their land, deprived them of their rights to pasture their animals on it, used upwards the scanty H2O supplies, too imposed alien laws too taxes. His hope was that Leutwein would recognise the injustice too do something almost it.

Chief Witbooi of the Namaq Tribe

THE GERMAN COLONIAL WAR OF ANNIHILATION AGAINST THE HERERO NATION
“I, the keen full general of the German linguistic communication soldiers, send this missive of the alphabet to the Herero people. The Hereros are no longer German linguistic communication subjects. They have got murdered too robbed, they have got cutting off the ears too noses too privy parts of wounded soldiers, too they are at nowadays also cowardly to fight. I say to the nation: Any someone who delivers ane of the Herero captains as a captive to a armed services post volition have 1,000 Marks. The ane who hands over Samuel volition have 5,000 Marks. All Herero must go out the country. If they do not, I volition strength them with cannons to do so. Within the German linguistic communication frontier every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, volition live shot. I volition non take over whatever to a greater extent than women too children, but I volition either drive them dorsum to your people or have got them fired on. These are my words to the Herero people. The keen General of the Mighty Kaiser, von Trotha.”

On nine September 2001, the Herero People's Reparations Corporation lodged a claim inward a civil courtroom inward the U.S. District of Columbia. The claim was directed against the Federal Republic of Germany, inward the someone of
the German linguistic communication unusual minister, Joschka Fischer, for crimes against humanity, slavery, forced labor, violations of international law, too genocide.

909.

Ninety-seven years earlier, on n Jan 1904, inward a modest too dusty town inward key Namibia, the maiden of all genocide of the twentieth Century began with the eruption of the Herero—German war.' By the time
hostilities ended, the bulk of the Herero had been killed, driven off their land, robbed of their cattle, too banished to near-certain decease in the sandy wastes of the Omaheke desert.

The survivors, mostly women and children, were incarcerated inward concentration camps too topographic point to work as forced laborers (Gewald, 1995; 1999: 141—91). Throughout the twentieth Century, Herero survivors too their descendants have got struggled to gain recognition too compensation for the law-breaking committed against them.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Hereros numbered approximately 80,00020 in Hereroland (also known as South West Africa, today Namibia), where the German colonial enterprise lasted from 1884 to 1919. The German merchant Adolf Lideritz purchased the harbor of

Angra Pequena and its surrounding lands, located on the southern coast of present-day Namibia, in 1883 and began calling for German linguistic communication protection. The next year, FRG declared Lideritz's ground a protectorate. The Herero Nation, seeking military support in conflicts with the Nama, another indigenous nation in the region, entered into a treaty of friendship and protection with the German linguistic communication government inward 1885. The German linguistic communication colonial policy of split too dominion saw governor Theodore Leutwein inward 1894 recognise Samuel Maherero, a faction to the vacant Herero throne too a preferred educated human being of affairs who sold lands to Germans, rather than the to a greater extent than traditional Asas Rirua, as successor to Chief Tjamuaha of the Hereros. The Herero Nation withdrew from the treaty when the Germans were unable to provide the expected military assistance." The treaty was later revived and a further peace agreement was concluded in 1894, but the German linguistic communication colonial administration did not "exercise sovereignty over the territory as it was internationally demarcated" until 1907. The maiden of all Herero uprising on March fourteen 1897 failed, but 7 years later, Samuel Maherero, sobered past times the land-grabbing of the Germans, rose with his people at Okahandja inward May 1904, killing every German linguistic communication farmer too trader they could too seizing 25 000 caput of cattle. .Nonetheless, Germany retained power in South West Africa until 1919, when it lost its colonies as a result of World War I. This Part details the German linguistic communication colonial administration's war of annihilation against the Hereros at the beginning of the twentieth century too establishes that this ship constituted a cast of genocide.

Herero family

Beginning of the German-Herero War
In 1904 FRG began a state of war of annihilation against the Hereros in retaliation for the Hereros' resistance against the German linguistic communication colonial administration's oppressive treatment. The German-Herero War was one of the world's bloodiest conflicts occurring between 1815 and 1914. From the beginning of the war, many Germans supported the total annihilation of the Hereros.

Two days after the Hereros began resisting the colonial administration, the German Colonial League's Executive Committee released apamphlet calling for a swift and harsh response. A letter written by a German missionary to his colleagues captures the violent take in among Germans in Hereroland supporting the annihilation of the Hereros:
"The Germans are consumed with inexpiable hatred and a terrible
thirst for revenge, one might even say they are thirsting for the
blood of the Herero[s]. All you hear these days is "make a clean
sweep, hang them, shoot them to the last man, give no quarter." I
shudder to think what may happen in the months ahead. The
Germans volition doubtless exact a grim vengeance."

The diaries, letters, too photographs of contemporaries graphically portray the indiscriminate shootings, hangings, too beatings which were the monastic tell of the day. Missionary Elger, stationed inward the settlement of
Karibib, described the mode inward which Herero prisoners were treated:
Things proceeded inward a especially brutal manner. Herero prisoners were terribly
maltreated, whether they were guüty or non guilty. About 4 Herero were
taken prisoner, because they were supposed to have got killed a railway worker
(Lehmann, Habis). The courtroom martial ordered them to live freed too declared
them to live non guilty. However ane could non release them as they bore too
many marks of shameful abuse [Schandlicher Misshandlung] on their bodies. For
example, people had beaten an oculus out of one. After the courtroom martial had
declared them to live innocent, some of the Germans exterior right away resumed
the abuse with the words, 'the courtroom has declared you lot to live innocent,
nosotros yet want to string you lot up."

Battle of okahandja on Hereros

Some German linguistic communication politicians did oppose the policy of annihilation. In March 1904 August Bebel, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, objected inward the German linguistic communication parliament to German linguistic communication troops' brutal handling of
the Hereros. Likewise, Theodor Leutwein, the German linguistic communication governor of South West Africa, criticized the annihilation on economical grounds, arguing that Herero laborers were necessary for the success of the colonial enterprise.

Herero fighters with their weapons

In Apr 1904, three months after the state of war began, the German linguistic communication Emperor Wilhelm II appointed Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha as commander-in-chief of the German forces in South West Africa. Von Trotha had already become well known for his brutal suppression of indigenous
resistance efforts inward the 1896 East African Wahehe Rebellion and the 1900-1901 Boxer Rebellion in China. By November 1904 von Trotha had informed Governor Leutwein that "[h]is Majesty the Emperor only said that he expected me to crunch the rebellion past times fair agency or foul," and that "[i]t was and remains my policy to apply this force by unmitigated terrorism too even cruelty. I shall destroy the rebellious tribes by shedding rivers of blood too money.

Governor Theodore Leutwein with the captain of the namaque (Orlam) Hendrik Witbooi (left) too the leader of the Herero Mahahero Samuel (right)

The Extermination Order
Under the command of von Trotha, the German army sought to engineer a crushing defeat of the Herero inward the vicinity of the Waterberg (Pool, 1979: 210—11). In keeping with von Moltke's principles of separate deployment too encirclement, von Trotha sent his armies to annihilate the Herero at the Waterberg. Or, as he topographic point it inward his own words:
My initial programme for the Operation, which I ever adhered to, was to encircle the
masses of Hereros at Waterberg, too to annihilate these masses with a simultaneous
blow, too so to found diverse stations to hunt downwardly too disarm the
splinter groups who escaped, subsequently to lay hands on the captains past times putting prize
coin on their heads too formally to judgement them to death. (von Trotha's
diaries cited inward Pool, 1991: 251).

On xi August, the battle of Hamakari at the Waterberg took place. The Herero were defeated too fled inward a southeasterly management into the dry desert sands of the Kalahari, known to the Herero as the Omaheke. It is estimated that upwards to 2000 pastoralist Herero escaped eastward inward modest numbers into the Kalahari desert, into what was too so the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (Botswana). Included was Samuel Maharero, the Herero leader. His people arrived with petty or no cattle too became subservient to the Tswana - Bechwana chieftain of Sekgathôlê a Letsholathêbê. Von Trotha promptly translated his intention to destroy the Hereros into official policy. On Oct 2, 1904, von Trotha issued an annihilation order stipulating:
The Herero people must ... go out the land. If the public does non do this I
will strength them with the Groot Rohr [cannon]. Within the German linguistic communication borders
every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, volition live shot. I will
no longer take women too children, I volition drive them dorsum to their people
or I volition allow them live shot at.
These are my words to the Herero people.
[Signed] The keen General of the mighty German linguistic communication Kaiser."

Captured too photographed Herero

H5N1 number of authors have got sought to deny or at to the lowest degree downplay the existence too implications of Trotha's proclamation, which has become known as the extermination monastic tell (Vernkhtungsbefehl) . However, Trotha's
ain words, inward his diary too elsewhere, dot that hè understood the implications of his announcement füll well. On the twenty-four hours the proclamation was issued, Trotha wrote inward a letter:
I believe that the land as such should live annihilated, or, if this was not
possible past times tactical measures, have got to live expelled from the ground past times operative
agency too farther detailed treatment. This volition live possible if the water-holes
from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied. The constant motion of our
troops volition enable us to observe the modest groups of the land who have got moved
back westwards too destroy them gradually....

My intimate knowledge of many key African tribes (Bantu too others)
has everywhere convinced me of the necessity that the Negro does non respect
treaties but exclusively brute force. (Pool, 1991: 272-4)"

Chained hereros

An official written report sent 2 days subsequently past times von Trotha to the main of the army general staff underlined the intent of the extermination order:
'The crucial question for me was how to bring the state of war against the
Herero [Nation] to a close.... As I see it, the nation must be
destroyed as such .... I ordered the warriors... to be
court-marshalled and hanged and all women and children who
sought shelter here to be driven back into the sandveld [the
Kalahari Desert] .... To accept women and children who are for
the most component subdivision sick, poses a grave endangerment to the force, and to feed them
is out of the question. For this reason, I deem it wiser for the entire
land to perish .... This uprising is and remains the beginning of
a racial struggle . . ."

Boys inward chains

The day after the Germans announced the extermination order, they forced thirty Herero prisoners, including women too children, to spotter the hanging of the Hereros who had been sentenced to death.' The German officials read the extermination order to the prisoners, handed out printed
copies, and drove them into the Kalahari Desert." The hangings marked the beginning of the German efforts, led by von Trotha, to destroy the Hereros.

Von Trotha's correspondence confirms that the German-Herero War was a state of war of annihilation expressly intended to wipe out the Hereros. In a letter to Governor Leutwein on Oct 27, 1904, he wrote, "That [Herero] nation must vanish from the face of the earth.'' Governor Leutwein responded to this missive of the alphabet past times requesting permission from the German linguistic communication Foreign Office to allow the Hereros to surrender, writing that "[a]ccording to reliable sources, a number of Herero[s] have offered to submit." The writings of von Trotha's subordinate officers in Hereroland also provide evidence of von Trotha's intent to annihilate the Hereros.

General Lothar von Trotha (front right) too Governor Theodor Leutwein (front left) with officers inward Windhoek (German Southwest Africa), 1904

In Nov 1904 the Foreign Office recalled Leutwein to Germany, and Lothar von Trotha replaced him as governor of South West Africa. Although Leutwein's recall quieted his criticism of von Trotha's tactics, opposition to von Trotha's extermination policy increased. Missionaries, members of the Colonial Department, and others criticized von Trotha's plan. Imperial Chancellor Bernhard von Billow wrote to Emperor Wilhelm II requesting permission to revoke von Trotha's Extermination
Order.

The request stated four reasons: (1) inconsistency of the plan to annihilate the Hereros with Christianity and humanity, (2) impossibility of success, (3) economic detriment to the colonial enterprise by depriving it of its "productive forces," and (4) establishment of a policy that was "demeaning to [Germany's] standing among the civilized nations of the world."
I followed their spoor too found numerous wells which presented a terrifying
sight. Cattle which had died of thirst lay scattered around the wells. These cattle
had reached the wells but at that topographic point had non been plenty fourth dimension to H2O them. The
Herero fled ahead of us into the Sandveld. Again too ane time to a greater extent than this terrible scène
kept repeating itself. With fevernt unloosen energy the men had worked at opening the
wells; yet the H2O became ever sparser, too wells ever to a greater extent than rare. They
fled from ane good to the adjacent too lost virtually all their cattle too a large
number of their people. The people shrank into modest remnants who continually fall
into our hands [unsere Gewalt kamen]; sections of the people escaped now too
subsequently through the Sandveld into English linguistic communication territory [present-day Botswana]. It was a
policy as gruesome as it was senseless, to hammer the people so much; nosotros could
have got soundless saved many of them too their rieh herds, if nosotros had pardoned too taken
them upwards again; they had been punished enough. I suggested this to General von Trotha,
but he wanted their total extermination. (von Estorff, 1979: 117; author's translation)

On December 8, 1904, the Emperor rescinded the Extermination Order. However, the decision was narrowly tailored and did not prohibit future genocidal acts. Instead it only required that "mercy" be included among the colonial administration's possible policy options. The general' staff wrote, "His Majesty has not forbidden you to fire on the Herero[s].... But the possibility of showing mercy, ruled out by the proclamation of 2 October [the Extermination Order], is ... to be restored again. In addition, the rescission of the Order did not officially disapprove of von Trotha or his tactics. Indeed, the following year Emperor Wilhelm II awarded von Trotha a medal of honor for his work in South West Africa.

By late 1905, an estimated 8,800 Herero were confined inward camps, working on various armed services too civilian projects scattered across German linguistic communication South West Africa (Berichte der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschafi, 1906: 10). Missionary sources furnish us with eyewitness accounts of conditions inward the camps.

Missionaries stationed inward the Herero Konzentrationslager reported to their superiors inward FRG on the extensive too unchecked rape, beatings and execution of surrendered Herero past times German linguistic communication soldiers (Gewald, 1999: 184-204). Missionary Kuhlmann spoke of the please of settler women witnessing the drawn-out public hangings of captured Herero inward Windhoek. At ane such hanging, a drooling Herero fighting for his life was berated: 'You swine, wipe your muzzle' (Oermann, 1998: 113—14). In Karibib,
missionary Elger wrote:
And too so the scattered Herero returned from the Sandfeld. Everywhere they
popped upwards — non inward their original areas - to submit themselves as prisoners.
What did the wretched people human face like?! Some of them had been starved to
skeletons with hollow eyes, powerless too hopeless, afflicted past times serious diseases,
particularly with dysentery. In the settlements they were placed inward large kraals,

too at that topographic point they lay, without blankets too some without clothing, inward the tropical
ram on the marsh-like ground. Here decease reaped a harvest! Those who had
some semblance of unloosen energy naturally had to work—
It was a terrible misery with the people; they died inward droves. Once 24 came
together, some of them carried. In the adjacent hr ane died, inward the level the
second, inward the maiden of all calendar week a total of 10 - all [lost] to dysentery - the people had
lost all their unloosen energy too all their volition to live
Hardly cheering cases were those where people were handed inward to live healed
from the effects of extreme mistreatment [schwerer Misshandlungen]: at that topographic point were
bad cases with these."

Slave Labor too Concentration Camps

This Deutsch Süd-Wes Afrika trading bill of fare was made past times the German linguistic communication chocolate maker Hartwig & Vogel, Dresden. It specifically named too included a "Hottentot Hut" with "Herero Mother too Child" placed to the front end of the "Windhoek Castle". Compare the scene to the reality of the "Windhoek Castle" with the German linguistic communication concentration decease army camp shown to the bill of fare upper right.

*The Namas who supported the Hereros get were also non spared at all. The Nama led past times Hendrick Witbooi, had fought with the Germans against the Herero. Regardless, von Trotha turned his murderous attending to him, sending Witbooi, Cornelius Fredericks too other chiefs the next message; The Nama who pick out non to give upwards too lets himself live seen inward the German linguistic communication expanse volition live shot until all are exterminated. Those who at the start of the rebellion committed murder against whites, or have got commanded that whites live murdered have got past times law, forfeited their lives. As for the few non defeated, it volition fare with them as it fared with the Herero, who inward their blindness also believed that they could brand successful state of war against the powerful German linguistic communication Emperor too the keen German linguistic communication people. I inquire you, where are the Herero today? Approximately 10 one one thousand Nama were annihilated during the ensuing battles patch 9000 were confined to concentration camps.

Hendrik Witbooi (Center)

Hendrik Witbooi was killed. In September 1906, Cornelius Fredericks too the fighters of Witbooi surrendered too were sent to Shark Island. Death inward the army camp was meticulously recorded. Solders were tasked with naming the dead too recording numbers. Their records present that of the 1795 Nama prisoners who had arrived, exclusively 763 were live inward April. One one one thousand 30 2 had died. The detailed tape shows that of the living, 123 were inward such poor wellness they would before long die. By 1908 when the camps were closed, affliction too malnutrition had killed upwards to 80% of all prisoners who had entered Shark Island - including Namaqua main Cornelius Fredericks. (Hendrick Witbooi had been killed inward battle.)*

Shark Island Death Camp

Captured too chained Herero/namas

Even after the Emperor rescinded the Extermination Order, the German colonial administration continued to decimate the Hereros past times forcing Herero prisoners of state of war into slave-labor and concentration camps. The German Imperial Chancellor, Prince von Bilow, ordered the creation
of concentration camps in Hereroland in 1904." By late May 1905 the Germans had taken 8,040 Herero prisoners of war, of whom more than three-quarters were women and children." The Germans immediately shipped the prisoners to slave-labor camps, where they worked under grueling conditions
' and were subjected to medical experiments.' According to ane account, conditions inside the camps were brutal: "[Prisoners of war] were placed behind double rows of barbed wire fencing.... and housed in pathetic [jammerlichen] structures constructed out of uncomplicated sacking and planks, in such a manner that in one construction 30 to 50 people were forced to rest without distinction as to age and sex. From early morning until late at night, on weekdays as good as on Sundays and holidays, they had to work under the clubs of raw overseers... until they broke down.... Like cattle, hundreds were driven to decease and similar cattle they were buried. In Windhoek, the majuscule of the territory, a separate army camp was created in which Herero women were kept specifically for the sexual gratification of German troops.

people are related to the Bantu people too speak a Bantu linguistic communication Info For You HERERO PEOPLE: THE FEARLESS AND WAR-LIKE AFRICAN TRIBE THAT SUFFERED THE WORLD`S FIRST HOLOCAUST AT THE HANDS OF GERMANS

Concentration Camp for captured Herero beside the Alte Feste inward Windhoek, ca 1904-1908

Anthropologist Wilhelm Waldeyer received Herero trunk parts from the concentration camps. They were shipped to Berlin past times doctors Dansauer, Jungels, Mayer too Zöllner, too so studied past times him too his students.

The zoologist Leonard Schultze complained of the difficulty collecting animate beingness specimens inward the wild because of the fighting. However, he noted the fighting presented opportunities for 'physical anthropology'. He said; 'I could brand utilization of the victims of the state of war too take parts from fresh native corpses, which made a welcome add-on to the study of the living body. Imprisoned Hottentots were oft available to me'.

Herero/nama heads used for experiment past times the Germans

("[Clamp prisoners were transformed into human subjects for various laboratory experiments designed to confirm the racial inferiority of dark peoples. These experiments were overseen by Dr. Eugen Fischer who became the senior geneticist of the Nazi regime.").[M]edical experiments were also conducted at that topographic point past times (literally) the teachers of Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz "Angel of Death" [forty] years later."). He studied too made tests with the heads of 778 Herero too Nama dead prisoners of war. Severed heads were preserved - numbered too labeled as Hottentotte - the German linguistic communication colonial yell for the Nama. He used 'research' to evidence the dark race is inferior to the Germanic - Aryan race. By measuring skulls - facial features too oculus colors - Fischer too his protégés sought to evidence the native races were inferior - too as he topographic point it - animals. Fischer's work influenced Nazi physicians and German linguistic communication medical experiments in concentration camps. Fischer's volume on his research in Namibia, The Principles of Human Heredity too Race Hygiene, "went on to become one of Hitler's favorite reads." He later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, and one of his prominent students was Josef Mengele, "the notorious doc who performed genetic experiments on Jewish children at the Auschwitz concentration camp." ("Here [in German South West Africa] the first concentration camps were laid up, too 30 years before Hitler the cult of the German master race was practiced." "Concentration camps were neither a Russian invention nor a German one. They were first established in 1896 by Spaniards in Republic of Cuba .. The German linguistic communication colonial powers... contributed to the history of the concentration camp by introducing the thought of forced labor "
.The mortality charge per unit of measurement was extremely high: more than 12% of the Hereros serving as slave labor for railroad construction died inward a catamenia of vi weeks

. Sexual serfdom: Two adolescent Herero girls posing naked were photographed past times a German linguistic communication soldier. PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF JUTTA ANA DOBLER

In the settlement of Windhoek, missionary Meier described the status of Herero who came to the sickbay run past times the mission. His words provide some thought of what occurred inward the Windhoek camp:
How oft these poorest, those who deserved pity, came staggering! Many of
them, who could no longer move, were brought on stretchers, most of them
unconscious; however, those who could soundless think were glad that the hard
supervision of the ... guards inward the Kraal too their Shambok [rawhide whip] ...
had for the fourth dimension beingness been left behind'.
The Germans killed all Hereros who tried to escape the inhuman conditions in the camps right away and without mercy. The brutal living and working conditions in the camps constituted a policy decision on the part of Germany. Vice Governor Hans Tecklenburg commented on the high mortality charge per unit of measurement inward the camps in a letter to the Colonial Department stating, "[t]he more the Herero people experience personally the consequences of the rebellion, the less will be their desire-and that of generations to come-to stage another uprising.... [T]he ordeal they are now undergoing is bound to have a
to a greater extent than lasting effect.
Felix von Luschan, managing director of the Ethnology Museum inward Berlin, was an ethnologist obsessed with collecting human skulls too skeletons. He drew upwards guidelines for travelers to German linguistic communication colonies, instructing them how to pack skulls, skeletons too human brains for shipment. This 'currently respected director' boasted, you lot could acquire a human skeleton for a slice of soap.

One twelvemonth after the extermination state of war began, Felix Luschan asked a notorious racist past times the yell of Lieutenant Ralf Zürn 'commander of Okahandja', if he was aware of whatever way inward which the Museum mightiness collect a larger number Herero skulls? The Lieutenant had already supplied him with a skull, wrote dorsum maxim this would live possible 'since inward the concentration camps taking too preserving the skulls of Herero prisoners of state of war volition live to a greater extent than readily possible than inward the country, where at that topographic point is ever a danger of offending the ritual feelings of the natives'.

Soldiers began to merchandise inward the skulls of dead Herero too Nama people. They sold them to scientists, museums too universities dorsum inward FRG who advertized for them. The practise was so widespread that this postcard was made showing soldiers packing skulls - as normal colonial life.

Part of the postcard was reproduced inward volume form. The text higher upwards to a greater extent than or less reads; Herero skulls were packed into boxes past times German linguistic communication South-West-Africa troops, to live sent to the pathologic institute inward Berlin, so that they mightiness live used for scientific measurements. Herero women removed meat, peel too pilus cast the skulls using pieces of broken glass. The skulls were from Herero's killed inward activity or of those hung.

The brutality against the Hereros continued as Friedrich von Lindequist succeeded von Trotha as governor of South West Africa.Under von Lindequist, German military hostilities ceased briefly from
Dec 1905 until mid-1906. Despite the pause inward armed services strikes, von Lindequist established concentration camps in Dec 1905 for Hereros who had surrendered to Germans. By May 1906, the Germans had captured 14,769 Hereros: 4,137 men, 5,989 women, too 4,643 children.Two months later, von Lindequist wrote to the Colonial Department that "[t]he northern and central parts of the country, in particular Hereroland proper, are virtually devoid of Herero[s].... Those still roaming about will consider themselves lucky if they come upwards to no harm.

Starved Hereros who survived their escape through the arid desert of Omaheke.

The German's annihilation campaign was brutal too successful. When the Germans did not shoot or hang Herero prisoners of war, they drove them into the desert. The Germans tattooed survivors "GH, Gefangene Herero (imprisoned Herero[s])" and forced them into slave-labor and concentration camps. " By the end of the state of war in 1907, "the Herero people as such was annihilated."

German linguistic communication soldiers hanging Heroro too namas

Shootings,three German linguistic communication soldiers shoot against a tied African

In just a few years, the Germans killed more than 65,000 of the 80,000 Hereros: they slaughtered them in battle, poisoned them, tortured them to death, trapped them inward their huts and burned them to death, too drove them into the Kalahari Desert to die of hunger and thirst. As the following Part illustrates, Germany's massacre of the Hereros differs from many other atrocities perpetrated by European colonizers against indigenous Africans because its express purpose was annihilation.

The Herero camps were formally abolished inward 1908.Thereafter, the Herero were confined inside a tangled spider web of legislation that sought to control every aspect of the lives of all dark people living inward German linguistic communication South West.
Africa (GSWA). Within the areas of German linguistic communication control, all Africans over the age of 8 were ordered to have on metallic passes. These passes, which were embossed with royal crown, magisterial district, too labor number, were used to facilitate German linguistic communication command of labor. In addition, Herero were prohibited from owning ground too cattle, the 2 foundations of what had been a fellowship based on pastoralism.

herero in chains

The 'Blue Book'
At the outbreak of the First World War, South African forces nether British command invaded GSWA too successfully defeated the much-vaunted German army. As the state of war progressed, it became clear that the victorious parties had no intention of allowing FRG to retain its colonies. To this end, from at to the lowest degree 1915 onwards British colonial officials were instructed to get together materials which would strengthen the British Empires claims to Germany's colonies.
In Namibia, this chore was made much easier past times the existence of an extremely well-organized too detailed regime archive which awaited the incoming armed services direction in Windhoek. It contained chillingly detailed accounts too reports on the manner inward which GSWA settlers, too the colony's administration, had dealt with the country's original inhabitants. Apart from files dealing with the incarceration of Herero inward concentration camps too their distribution among settlers too private companies, the archives also contained a series of files on the excesses of settlers who had flogged Herero too Nama workers. Glass-plate negatives detailed the torn too rotting backs of women flogged for alleged insubordination, too pages upon pages of courtroom transcripts detailed the brutal lashing of laborers.

The combination of dry out testimony taken from the German linguistic communication archives in Windhoek, along with a serial of painstakingly detailed statements given under oath past times surviving Namibians, formed the ground of ane of the most shocking documents of colonial history. The Report on the Natives of SouthWest Africa too their Treatment past times FRG (London, 1918), to a greater extent than oft than non referred to as the 'Blue Book,' remains an indispensable source document on the nature of German linguistic communication colonial dominion inward Namibia. It is beyond interrogation thatthese materials effectively scuttled whatever attempts past times FRG to retain control over its one-time colonies, too Namibia inward particular. In Article 119 of the Versailles Treaty, FRG was declared unfit to regulation colonies,
too was forced to renounce 'in favor of the Principal Allied too Associated Powers all her rights too titles over her oversea possessions.' In addition, under Article 22 of the novel League of Nations charter, Namibia was held to live 'inhabited past times peoples non yet able to stand upwards past times themselves nether the strenuous conditions of the modern world,' too thus was deemed a territory that could 'be best administered nether the laws of the Mandatory [the Union of South Africa] as integral portions of its territory.' Accordingly, Namibia was placed nether the jurisdiction of South Africa (see du Pisani, 1985: 76).
Though the 'Blue Book' is ane of the primary documents detailing the injustices perpetrated against the Herero too Nama peoples of Namibia, it was non used to ensure that Herero would have compensation. Instead, the 'Blue Book' served to ensure that Namibian territory would live granted to South Africa to administer as a mandated territory. Far from the Herero receiving their ground back, the novel South African direction forced them to settle on marginal lands inward reserves established on the fringes of the Omaheke, the desert into which they had been driven inward the past.The novel South African direction continued the policies initiated by its German linguistic communication predecessor. The lands previously occupied past times the Herero
continued to live reserved for white settlement, too inward the years after World War I the South African direction pursued an aggressive policy of ground settlement for white Afrikaans-speaking immigrants from Angola and South Africa. In short, the injustices described with stark clarity in the 'Blue Book' were dismissed inward the interests of white settler unity.

White settler unity too the 'Blue Book'
Nonetheless, the existence of the 'Blue Book' came to bedevil settler politics nether the South African mandate. German linguistic communication settlers called for the "Blue Book' to live banned too all extant copies destroyed. In 1925, the first all-white election for a legislative assembly took place. Representatives of the German linguistic communication settler party, the Deutsche Bund inward Südwestafrika, opposed settler parties allied to the Union of South Africa. Anxious to
maintain a working human relationship with the settler bloc inward the legislative assembly, the South African administrator, A.J. Werth, acceded to settler demands for the abolition of the 'Blue Book.' Thus, inward 1926, ane Mr Strauch, a fellow member of the legislative assembly, tabled a displace stating that the 'Blue Book' 'only has the important of a war-instrument and that the time has come upwards to topographic point this musical instrument out of Operation too to impound and destroy all copies of this Blue Book, which may live found inward the official records too inward public libraries of this Territory.'
The displace passed, too legislation came into effect inward all territories administered past times the Union of South Africa banning distribution of the 'Blue Book.' Copies were no longer made available to the public, were
removed from libraries, too were destroyed. In the residue of the British Empire, copies of the 'Blue Book' were transferred to the Foreign Office. Even inward wartime UK of Britain too Northern Republic of Ireland as belatedly as 1941, inward answer to a asking from the
Ministry of Information, it was noted that 'no re-create may live issued without authorization of the librarian.' Strauch, too his boyfriend members of the Deutscher Bund, consciously used the Herero genocide — or rather the recorded role of German settlers too soldiers inward it - to topographic point pressure level on the South African administration. As Strauch noted, passing the displace hè had proposed 'would... withdraw ane of the most serious obstacles to mutual trust too cooperation inward this ground [Namibia].' In his view,'the honour of Germany had been attacked inward the most public mode too it was correct that the attack should live repudiated inward an every bit public fashion.... The defence of the honour of ones ground was a solemn duty imposed upon all sons of that country.' The validity of Strauchs claims went unquestioned by the assembly, too for sure no Herero take in of the events was allowed an airing. The subjective arguments of Strauch too his compatriots thus sought to obscure the past times inward the involvement of preserving their ain privileged topographic point as settlers. The hope of peaceful cooperation with the German settler Community was uppermost inward the minds of South Africa's
administrators. Strauchs claim that 'the Germans were laid upwards too anxious to cooperate inward the edifice upwards of South West but they could non do so.

Seeking to deny the past
In the run-up to Namibian independence inward 1990, Brigitte Lau, a historian well known for her uncompromising stand upwards against South African colonial rule inward Namibia, published an article that shocked too surprised many of her colleagues. In her article, she stated: There is absolutely no evidence... that the Herero perished or were used on a large scale as "slave laborers"' (Lau, 1989: 5). Furthermore, Lau argued that the Vernichtungsbefehl issued past times General Lothar vonTrotha, commanding officeholder of German forces inward Namibia at the time, 'was a successful endeavour at psychological warfare never followed inward deed' (Lau, 1989: 5).

Lieutenant von Durling - German linguistic communication Death Camp at Shark Island

In addition, Lau sought to problematize the term Vernichtung past times arguing that it did non imply extermination.
Finally, she argued that the ground for much of the allegations of genocide past times German linguistic communication soldiers inward Namibia, the 1904 'Report of the Treatment of Natives past times Germany' (sic), was 'an English linguistic communication slice of state of war propaganda
with no credibility whatsoever' (Lau, 1989: s). Needless to say, Lau's article exploded similar a bombshell amid the modest Community of scholars specializing inward Namibian history (Lau, 1989: 4—8).

Hereros inward Shark Island German linguistic communication Death (Concentration) Camp

With hindsight, too on the ground of subsequently conversations, it became clear that Lau wished to displace the academie community away from what she saw as its unjust fascination with the Herero—German war. Instead, she argued, historians should concentrate on what she considered to live the more destructive colonial dominion of South Africa inward Namibia. Yet again, the genocide that Imperial FRG perpretrated upon the Herero was being negated too denied inward the interests of contemporary politics.

Click either epitome for larger resolution pictures.

Shark Island Death Camp - Photography past times Lieutenant von Durling

Nevertheless, Lau's article, lately republished inward German, continues to have repercussions that extend far beyond Namibian history. On the electronic website of the Traditionsverband ehemaliger Schutz und Uberseetruppen (Traditional association of the one-time protectorate too overseas forces), an organization that seeks to preserve too glorify the retention of Germany's colonial armies, Laus article is predictablyacclaimed. In addition, the Traditionsverband directs readers to 'Wiedergutmachung am der Volk der Herero?' (Restitution for the Herero People?), an article that denies von Trotha harboured whatever genocidal intentions, too seeks to dismiss Herero claims for reparation.

Hanged Hereros

Michael Scott too Herero representations to the UN
To the members of the white settler community, it may have got looked as if the endeavour to destroy too rewrite the past times according to their own preferences had succeeded. For a number of years after 1926, nix was
heard of the Herero genocide. Within the territory, Herero had been forced to withdraw to the newly established Native reserves, where they refrained from straight articulating demands that related to the genocide (Gewald, 2OOi).This is non to say that the genocide was no longer of any importance to Herero fellowship - far front end it. Instead, Herero fellowship turned in upon itself, seeking äs far äs possible to refrain from whatever interaction with the colonial state. References to the genocide perpetrated against the Herero surfaced from fourth dimension to fourth dimension inward unexpected places, yet the acre of study was no longer component subdivision too packet of the colonial discourse.

In the aftermath of World War II, the South African regime undertook steps to comprise Namibia as the 5th province of the Union ofSouth Africa. To this end, inward 1946 a serial of carefully structured meetings
were held with the African population of the territory. As the newly formed United Nations had taken over from the League of Nations, Namibia, as a mandated territory, feil ane time to a greater extent than nether South African jurisdiction, with United Nations oversight. It was widely hoped that the colonially appointed too recognized leaders of Namibias African populations would give their sanction to South Africa's programme to comprise Namibia. However, this was non to be. The events of 1904—08 ane time to a greater extent than became key to the concerns of settlers too the colonial direction with the arrival of the Rev. Michael Scott inward Windhoek inward 1947. In conjunction with
Herero leaders, Scott used the atrocities perpetrated inward the Herero genocide as a weapon against the incorporation of Namibia into South Africa. In the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, the füll extent of which was still exclusively just outset to live understood, an before genocide inflicted by the fathers of the Nazi perpetrators made for powerful political ammunition (Emmett, 1999: 253).
Throughout most of 1948, Michael Scott lived inward a tent along the Gammans river, just beyond the old location of Windhoek. Here hè met and entertained township residents, many of whom had experienced the
horrors of German linguistic communication dominion firsthand (Troup, 1950: 173—80). Scott could not fail to have got his attending drawn to the Herero genocide. Here, inward a nutshell, Scott held, were the heart inequities of colonial rule: a people had been driven off their land, slaughtered, banished to live inward barren homelands — too soundless they held no rights. This concise presentation of history served to item the injustice suffered past times the Herero, at the hands non exclusively of Imperial Germany, but of the mandated power, South Africa.

surrounded Herero

An article entitled 'Michael Scott too the Hereros,' published inward The New Statesman too Nation inward 1949, aptly summarized Scotts take in of Namibian history:
"Then came the German linguistic communication colonists, hungry for land; too finally von Trotha, a
genera! whom Hitler would have got delighted to honour.... In 1904 hè issued the
'Extermination Order.' All Hereros whether man, adult woman or kid were to be
killed. An orgy of looting, torture, too massacre followed. To read the records
is just similar reading the accounts of the obliteration of Poland, except that the
Germans had non gas chambers then, but killed babies with their ain hands,
or burned sick old women inward their huts. The tribe broke too fled The
majority, all but 15 one one thousand out of 90 thousand, were hacked to pieces
past times the Germans or died of thirst.'
The cite of von Trotha s 'extermination order' clearly indicates that Scott had managed to gain access to a re-create of the 'Blue Book.' Scott's history also made explicit the link betwixt the horrors perpetrated past times the
Nazis too the activities of Imperial Germany's forces inward Namibia, a link that continues to generate considerable academic interest. In addition, Scott explored how the South Africans had betrayed the Herero:
In the 1914 war, lured past times British promises that native lands would live returned,
the desert remnant trekked back. But inward 1918 they met non the British as the
Mandatory Power, but the South Africans, who never for a 2nd considered
giving them dorsum their tribal lands. Some pastures were left to the German
settlers who remained. More went to the Afrikaner settlers.
Throughout 1948 too 1949, inward the human face of constant harassment, Scott sought to convey conditions inward Namibia to the attending of the world. Eventually, inward Nov 1949, the United Nations granted Scott an official
hearing. Clearly, this did non stand upwards him inward practiced stead with South African officialdom. In the months next Scott's hearing, a crusade was initiated past times the colonial authorities inward Namibia, seeking to cast aspersions
on Scott's statements. Vihfied inward the press, Scott continued to live supported past times Herero, many of whom recalled the events of 1904-08 to justify their faith inward the reverend. One such Herero, who signed his missive of the alphabet 'A
Native who has been deprived of his ground from 1904—1950,' noted: 'I want to emphasise that the Information given past times the Rev. Michael Scott at UNO is what truly happened inward S.WA. too was obtained from the best reliable sources' (Windhoek Advertiser, 1950). Shortly after, Scott, already the victim of constant harassment, was declared a prohibited immigrant and prevented from ever returning to Namibia.

Regaining the international stage
It is inward the context of the higher upwards events that on 22 August 1999, Dr Kuaima Riaruako, the self-appointed paramount main too manly someone monarch of all of the Herero, proclaimed that the 'Herero nation' as a whole had decided
to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) inward The Hague in order to lay a accuse of genocide against the German linguistic communication state, calling for reparations for the slaughter too other atrocities inflicted on the Herero.
At the time, Riaruako s declaration ruffled a few feathers inward Namibia itself. German diplomats inward Windhoek emailed colleagues inward Bonn/Berlin to look into the issue. Two days later, a clinically worded declaration past times a
spokesperson of the World Court topographic point everyone, with the exception of Riaruako, at ease: 'Only states may live parties inward contentious cases before the ICJ too thence submit cases to it against other states.'

In the absence of a formal apology, the telephone telephone for state of war reparations from the Federal Republic of FRG has go to a greater extent than vociferous. Government inaction, the continued extensive presence of German linguistic communication tourists, settlers, businesses too farms, too continued marginalization of the Herero lend increasing legitimacy to the Herero claims. This novel visibility was evident with the launch of 2 courtroom cases inward the U.S. District of Columbia. With the back upwards of Afro-American organizations, the 'Herero People's Reparations Corporation' (HPRC) was established as a corporation, in keeping with the laws of the District of Columbia, too the courtroom cases were launched inward its name. Three German linguistic communication companies, Deutsche Bank AG, Terex Corporation (Orenstein und Koppel), too Woermann Line (Deutsch Afrika Linien), •were charged, along with the Federal Republic of FRG (in the someone of its unusual minister, Joschka Fischer). The introductory paragraph of the accuse reads as follows:
the Federal Republic of FRG ('Defendant' or 'Germany'), inward a brutal alliance with German linguistic communication multi-national corporations, relentlessly pursued the enslavement too the genocidal devastation of the Herero Tribe inward Southwest Africa, now Namibia. Foreshadowing with chilling precision the irredeemable horror of the European Holocaust exclusively decades later, the Defendant formed a German commercial enterprise which cold-bloodedly employed explicitly sanctioned extermination, the devastation of tribal civilization too social organization, concentration camps, forced labor, medical experimentation too the exploitation of women too children inward monastic tell to advance their mutual fiscal interests.

The Federal Republic of Germany, as the legal successor to Imperial Germany, is responsible for what happened inward the yell of the Kaiser in Namibia. Genocide was perpetrated; thousands of people were topographic point to
go as forced laborers; thousands were subjected to all mode of abuse. People were robbed of their land, possessions, too livestock, too driven forever from their ancestral lands. It is hard to say what cast recompense in this egregious instance should take; but a uncomplicated apology would live a beginning.

Over 60 years agone FRG began a procedure too credence too apology for the Holocaust inward the 2nd world war. Fifteen years before Hitler joined the Nazi Party, FRG killed 1000's inward the African decease camps of the Kaisers army. This fact makes a myth out of the post state of war foundation FRG it was supposedly built on. Make no error - the ghosts of the Herero too Nama volition non go away. of Germanic input made NO dent on 21st century Herero too Nama graves. These proceed to reverberate the foundations of Herero too Nama pastoral culture, which von Trotha - Fischer too the Kaiser intended to annihilate.

The calls past times the Namibian Hereros for reparation too courtroom activity has non yielded pismire fruitful dividends from the German linguistic communication authorities that caused keen inhumane handling to the Namibian Hereros. H5N1 recent delegation of Namibians Herero leaders to FRG for the skull of hereros that were sent to FRG for experimentation were ill-treated past times their German linguistic communication hosts. They were left inward the coming together past times their german counter-parts whiles the Herero delegations were soundless talking. FRG has made it abundantly clear that the evolution assist they have got been given to Namibia since independence is for the do goodness of all Namibians including Hereros too Namas that suffered nether their repressive colonial era.
The German linguistic communication proceed to deny the inhuman treatment/genocide committed against the Hereros. However, expressed regret for the incident. H5N1 declaration issued past times German linguistic communication Deputy Foreign Minister, Cornelia Pieper in conclusion calendar month read, "We Germans admit too take this heavy legacy too the ensuing moral too historical responsibleness to Namibia.

"The German linguistic communication Government is fulfilling this duty through especially unopen bilateral cooperation - too evolution cooperation - with Namibia," it continued.

Pieper added, "I would also similar to limited my ain personal deep regret too shame for what was done to the ancestors of the tribal representatives at nowadays inward Berlin."

For his part, the CEO of Charite University Hospital, Professor Karl Max Einhaupl, apologized to the Namibian delegation nowadays at the ceremony inward Berlin for the role played past times German linguistic communication scientists.

"With this stair nosotros confront to an inglorious chapter of German linguistic communication history," he said. "As a medical doc too scientist myself, it is especially painful for me to realize that fifty-fifty physicians worked inward the service of this early on cast of racism."

Peter said historians at nowadays take hold that much of the inquiry undertaken past times these early on scientists was a precursor to Nazi ideology too is at nowadays universally acknowledged as a "perverse" science.

Descendants of the von Trotha household unit of measurement travelled to Omaruru Namibia at the invitation of Herero Supreme Chief Alfons Maharero inward 2007, whose grandad Samuel Maharero led the Herero uprising inward 1904. The von Trotha household unit of measurement publicly apologized for Lothar von Trotha's brutal cruelty to this people. Wolf-Thilo von Trotha said; "We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed of the terrible events that took identify 100 years ago". Well they should be! So also should live countless generations of von Trotha's to come... Imagine that ane hundred years before their visit, too undisclosed German linguistic communication soldier was reported to have got said of the massacres;

(http://scholars.law.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1299&context=facpub)
(https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/4853/ASC-1293873-001.pdf?sequence=1)
http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%20Herero%20and%20Namaqua%20Genocide.htm

GENOCIDE SKULLS RETURNED TO NAMIBIA

Content provided past times AFP

This skull along with xix others were brought to Berlin past times German linguistic communication soldiers after the Herero too Namaqua Genocide that occured betwixt 1904 too 1907.

Germany volition confront to a bloody chapter of its colonial past times Fri when it hands dorsum 20 skulls spirited away after what many historians telephone telephone the maiden of all genocide of the 20th century.

A delegation of 55 Namibians is inward Berlin to attend the solemn ceremony to have the remains which they hope volition live just a maiden of all stair toward a greater reckoning with Germany's brief but brutal African adventure a century ago.

"We have got come upwards to maiden of all too foremost to have the mortal human remains of our forefathers too mothers too to homecoming them to the ground of their ancestors," delegation fellow member Ueriuka Festus Tjikuua told reporters inward Berlin.

He said the mission intended to "extend a mitt of friendship" to Germans too encourage a dialogue "with the total participation too involvement of the representatives of the descendants of those that suffered heavily nether dreadful too atrocious German linguistic communication colonial rule".

Herero adult woman washing inward her traditional dress. despite the Genocide they are soundless strong.

The skulls are amid an estimated 300 taken to FRG after a massacre of indigenous Namibians at the start of the in conclusion century during an anti-colonial uprising inward what was too so called South West Africa, which Berlin ruled from 1884 to 1915.

Incensed past times German linguistic communication settlers stealing their land, cattle too women, the Herero people launched a revolt inward Jan 1904 with warriors butchering 123 German linguistic communication civilians over several days. The Nama tribe joined the uprising inward 1905.

The royal German linguistic communication colonial rulers responded ruthlessly. General Lothar von Trotha signed a notorious extermination monastic tell against the Hereros.

Herero woman

Rounded upwards inward prison theatre camps, captured Namas too Hereros died from malnutrition too severe weather. Dozens were beheaded after their decease too their skulls sent to German linguistic communication researchers inward Berlin for "scientific" experiments.

Up to 80,000 Hereros lived inward Namibia when the uprising began. Afterwards, exclusively 15,000 were left.

Settlement Site Skulls Hint at Mass Cannibalism

Over time, the skulls gathered dust inward the German linguistic communication archives until 3 years agone when a German linguistic communication reporter uncovered them at the Medical History Museum of the Charite infirmary inward Berlin, too at Freiburg University inward the southwest.

So far, 47 skulls have got been found at the Charite too almost a dozen to a greater extent than inward Freiburg.

Herero adult woman waving

The publicity around their uncovering prompted Herero too Nama leaders to inquire the Namibian regime to seek their return. After 3 years of talks, the delegation arrived inward Berlin Sunday.

"The skulls volition live handed over to the Namibian regime inward a ceremony that reflects their historical too cultural importance," a unusual ministry building spokeswoman said, adding that Deputy Foreign Minister Cornelia Pieper would take part.

Charite spokeswoman Claudia Peter said the purported "research" on the skulls performed past times German linguistic communication scientists had been rooted inward the perverse racial theories that subsequently planted the seeds for the Nazis' genocidal ideology.

"They thought that they could evidence that sure peoples were worth less than they were," she told AFP. "What these anthropologists did to these people was incorrect too their descendants are soundless suffering for it."

Herero African adult woman with traditional clothing, hairstyle too jewelry, Namibia, South Africa, too Botswana

German researchers have got at nowadays determined the part from which the skulls came as good as the gender activity too historic catamenia of the victims but say at that topographic point is no hope of learning their identity or get of death.

The Namibian representatives volition homecoming domicile Tuesday with a memorial service planned inward the majuscule Windhoek the next twenty-four hours to welcome the xi Nama too nine Herero skulls, which volition go on display inward a local museum.

The remains derived from 4 women, 15 men too a boy.

Ida Hoffmann, a one-time parliamentarian, said the delegation hoped to laid out a dialogue with the German linguistic communication side that could eventually Pb to direct reparation payments for the victims' descendants.

"I am hither inward FRG today to collect the remains of my ancestors. These skulls are but ane component subdivision of human dignity. But the interrogation remains: what of the other parts," she told reporters.

Germany has repeatedly refused reparations, maxim that its 600 1000000 euros ($818 million) inward evolution assist since Namibia's independence inward 1990 was "for the do goodness of all Namibians".(http://news.discovery.com/history/germany-return-skulls-namibia-genocide0110930.html).