Timelines

Namibia had been a German colony since 1884. Around 12,000 white German settlers colonized the area by 1914, driving out the indigenous population. The indigenous population was systematically exploited, discriminated against, and disenfranchised. Many lost their land and paid high taxes, which particularly affected the Herero, who depended on grazing land. In January 1904, the Herero uprising begins in Osona. Around 8,000 Herero besiege military stations, block railway lines, and raid trading posts. The uprising takes the German colonialists by surprise, whose troops are initially outnumbered. In May 1904, German troops under Lothar von Trotha are reinforced to wage a war of extermination. In August 1904, the Herero were driven into the Omaheke Desert by German troops, where most of them starved or died of thirst. Hendrik Witbooi called for a Nama uprising, which lasted until 1908 and was violently suppressed. Hundreds of Herero and Nama are shot in retaliation. Concentration camps are set up, where the survivors are forced to perform hard labor. At least half of the internees die. Of the estimated 80,000 Herero in 1904, only about 15,000 survive until 1911, and of the 20,000 Nama, about half. The Maji Maji uprising in German East Africa (now Tanzania) from 1905 to 1907 claimed around 300,000 victims. Although many historians classify the war of extermination as genocide, the German government does not recognize this and refuses to pay compensation. The bones of Herero and Nama people were brought to Germany for racist research, some of them before the genocide. In 2011, the Charité hospital handed over 20 skulls to a Namibian delegation, followed by another handover in 2014. The descendants of the victims demand recognition as genocide, admission of guilt, and the return of the bones, of which about 3,000 are believed to be in German institutions.