Namibia GenocideEnraged by the Herero rebellion, General Von Trotha issued a proclamation that proved disastrous for the Herero.
“I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this letter to the Herero nation. The Hereros are no longer German subjects… I say so to the nation. Any person who delivers one of the Herero captains as a captive to a military post will receive 1,000 Marks. The one who hands over Samuel Maharero will receive 5,000 Marks. All Herero must leave the country. If they do not I will force them with cannons to do so. Within the German borders, every Herero, with or without weapons, with or without cattle will be shot. I no longer shelter women and children. This is my message to the Herero nation.” The following day he explained his plan in a letter. This is some of what he said: “I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated or if this is possible, they must be expelled from the country. This will be possible if the waterholes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied. The constant movement of our troops will enable us to find the small groups of the nation who have moved back westward and to destroy them gradually. ”
Some went northward into Ovamboland. Many died in the desert trying to cross the border into Botswana. Samuel Maharero’s followers fled east into the desert and went into exile in that country. Von Trotha’s policy of genocide was so successful that by 1905 about 75 to 80 percent of the Herero population had been wiped out through war and starvation. From 70,000 the Herero population fell to about 16,000. Those Herero who remained in South West Africa faced a deliberate policy of the colonial government to disperse the Herero people. The Herero could no longer own land and cattle. They had nowhere to live and no means of livelihood. They became refugees in their own country. Many of them were held as prisoners of war. The government forced men, women and children to work for the German settlers. They broke up families by sending husbands, wives and children to work in places far apart from each other. A man might not see his wife or children for many years at a time. The land that formerly belonged to the various Namibian communities now came under complete control of the Germans who called the area a Police Zone. The Germans issued many repressive laws and regulations governing the social and economic lives of the people of Namibia.
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