22. The Brutal German Regime in South West Africa
In the 1880s, Imperial Germany established a colony in South West Africa, today’s Namibia. The region was home to African pastoralists such as the Nama people, who numbered about 20,000, and the Herero, a tribal group of about 75,000 cattle herders. The German colonists ruled with a heavy hand and horrific brutality that stood out even amidst the brutal norms of European colonization. A German commander in charge of the region’s conquest stated it in 1888: “only uncompromising brutality will lead to victory“.
The African natives’ livestock and best lands were confiscated and given to German settlers, and the Africans themselves were frequently seized and used as slave labor. Racial discrimination was rife, and most German settlers viewed the natives as a source of cheap labor, while others simply called for their extermination. The Africans’ resentment was further exacerbated by the frequent rape of native women and girls by settlers – a crime that the German authorities rarely addressed, let alone punished.
