The Cost - African: Nobody really knows as to how many Hereros perished during the
The estimates of the Herero population before
the conflict vary:
(1) In 1874 the Rhenish Missionary,
Reverend Irle claimed there were between 70,000 to 80,000 Hereroes
and a further 20,000 Mbanderu. This was based on hearsay and
followed by a guess.
(2) In 1876 The British Special Commissioner To Tribes North of
the Orange River W. Coates Palgrave spent some time in 'Namibia' and
reported that there were about 73,000 Hereos and 13,000 Mbanderus.
At no time did Palgrave undertake any form of census, his report
being founded on that of the Missionaries.
(3) In 1895 The Germans were
steadily increasing and organizing the knowledge base of their
colony when Lt. Eggers submitted his account that there were a total
of some 45,000 Hereros under Maharero at Okahandja and a Kambazembi
at the Waterberg.
(4) In 1902 Oberleutnant Streiwolf
estimated Maharero to have 15,000 followers and Kambazembi to have
only 8,000; making a total of 23,000
In May 1904
according to Governor Leutwein there were about 60,000 Hereros.
Following the Herero - Nama war
Dr. Paul Rohrbach the German commissioner for colonization gave the
lower estimation of a probable 40,000 Hereros along with their
The Herero arrived at the
Waterberg towards the end of an exceptionally good rainy season. Von
Trotha writes that by August the land had been grazed-out by the
Herero cattle. The nagging question is. "Would the waterholes have
been able to supply enough water for 80,000 people plus all of their
live-stock from the month of April to August?"
but was it possible to
accommodate all of these people plus their live-stock at the
Waterberg in the non-rainy season.
Samuel Maharero: The distance, 'as the crow flies' from the
Waterberg to the village of Tsau, just north of Lake Ngami in north
western British Bechuanaland (Botswana) is about 620km, and it was
to here that Samuel Maharero with a small and loyal group were
reported to have arrived in early December 1904. By August of the
following year there numbers had swelled to about 200, including 75
men. The British recorded that by the end of 1905 a total of 1,175
Hereros had settled in Bechuanaland.
Samuel lived as an exile at Tsau until 1907
from where he moved to the Transvaal settling on the farm
Groenfontein, about 112km north-west of Potgietersrus. In 1913 the
Native Land Act was passed in South Africa which prevented blacks
from living outside of an existing Bantu reserved area. Groenfontein
was directly affected and Samuel had to move to to Werkendam near
Nylstroom. In 1919 Samuel asked the Authorities at Mafeking for
permission to return and reside in Bechuanaland. In 1922
Samuel along with a small group of his loyal
subjects settled at Mahalapye in the Ngwato reserve. For last
remaining few months of his life he lived in Serowe, where he died
on 14 March 1923. His body was eventually transferred to Okahandja
where he was buried on 26 August 1923. The reverend Dr. Vedder held the
The Prisoners of War:
By the 11 January 1905, and one year from Samuel
Maharero's announcement for hostilities to begin the Germans had
taken prisoner 8,889 Herero men, women and children. Those captured
were branded with the letters GH (gefangene Herero). The physical
condition of virtually all of the Hereros taken captive was poor
owing to the ordeal they had suffered. The conditions in the
concentration / labour camps were a death warrant for the majority.
Many were shipped south to work as slave labour on the Luderitz -
Keetmanshoop railway line. The deaths of the Herero camp inmates is
not recorded, but of the 1,800 Hottentot (Nama) prisoners
transferred to the Shark Island (Luderitz) camp only 245 survived.
The Hereros Who Survived:
(1). Apart from those taken into captivity as
Prisoner of War the Rhenish Missionary Society had brought in as
many as 12,500 from the veld.
(2). An estimated 800 to 1,000 sought shelter
within the British enclave of Walvis Bay.
(3). It is not known how many Hereros made their
way into British Bechuanaland (Botswana) figures range from 1,175 to
(4). An unknown number remained in German South
West Africa undetected.
(5). German Government records showed that in 1912
as many as 19,721 Hereros were living within the borders of the
Question Of Genocide ?
The counting of Africa's dead, even in modern times, appears to be
an exercise that would confound the best of arithmeticians. The
recent systematic starvation to death and murder of some 1 million
Sudanese failed to be categorized as Genocide by the African Nations,
which could prompt us to question, "Of what value is an African life
when killed by an African, as opposed to that when killed by a
Whether the number who perished
at the Waterberg and during the following flight into the Omaheke
was 60,000 or less is debatable, but there can be no denial that the
Herero as a Nation of people along with their culture and great
cattle herds had been cruelly and systematically destroyed, and
their lands parceled off as booty. But this was an event that happened in
'Darkest Africa', and was far removed from the
fashionable coffee salons of Berlin's Kurfurstendamm. But, within the
short period of 40 years, and much closer to 'The Fatherland', the crematoriums at dozens of German
death camps throughout Eastern Europe were working hard and efficiently in an attempt to
conceal the evidence of yet another and even greater holocaust.