![]() That the German settlers and a high-ranking officer like General von Trotha would hold to these ‘superior race’, ‘survival-of-the-fittest-through-“cleansing”-of-the-weakest’ views is hardly surprising. Only following this cleansing can something new emerge, which will remain.” 5 ![]() I destroy the African tribes with streams of blood and streams of money. Von Trotha’s written goal was: “I believe that the nation as such should be exterminated.” 4 He stated: “The exercise of violence and crass terrorism and even with gruesomeness was and is my policy. Von Trotha was renowned for the ruthless efficiency with which he had helped to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. Von Trotha was renowned for the ruthless efficiency with which he had helped to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, and to quash resistance to his nation’s occupation of German East Africa (today’s Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania). Kaiser Wilhelm II dispatched 14,000 troops to the region under the command of Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha. The response of the Berlin government to this insurrection by a colonized people who had dared to resist the might of the German nation was fast and ruthless. On 12 January 1904, fighting broke out between Herero tribesmen and the settlers, in the town of Okahandja, where there was a German fort. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that an uprising occurred. The Herero were regularly referred to as ‘baboons’ the men were commonly beaten to death for minor infringements, and the women were made sex slaves by the soldiers and settlers. Of this period, the Governor, Theodor Leutwein, wrote that the German settlers had an ‘inborn feeling of belonging to a superior race’. German settlers quickly ran roughshod over the historical rights and claims of the Herero tribal inhabitants, and for the next 20 years plundered their lands, houses and livestock. ![]() How terribly sad it was to learn that 100 years ago, their great-grandparents had been the victims of the first genocide of the 20 th century.ĭuring the colonial land-grab of African countries by European nations after the 1884–85 Berlin Conference, 2 Germany annexed Namibia, then known as South-West Africa. Their women wear colourful, voluminous Victorian-style dresses and hats, and the men wear uniforms on ceremonial occasions. Like most visitors to Namibia, 1 one of the memorable pictures I carried away was of the noble-looking Herero people. The gaiety of this photo showing the colourful dresses and unusual headwear of today’s Herero women is in stark contrast to the torment their predecessors went through. ![]()
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