Country: Namibia

Group: Herero

Date Finalized: 9/26/2022

Team: Lauren Pokar (Lead), Dave Hammerle, Nichole Dahlen

Content Warning: genocide, rape, ethnic cleansing

Approximate Time Period: 1903-1915

The Herero are a Bantu ethnic group dispersed across Namibia, Angola, and Botswana, constituting about 6% of Namibia’s population today (Collelo, 1991; Minority Rights Group, 2007). From 1904-1908, during ongoing German colonization in the area of German South West Africa, now present-day Namibia, the German Empire executed an act of genocide against Herero and Nama peoples as a means of ethnic extermination and collective punishment (Oltermann, 2021). German colonists killed 50-80% of the Herero population within four years, where Herero women were specific targets of rape and sexual violence while held captive in concentration camps (Moshenberg, 2012). In 1915, the Germans surrendered to South African troops, resulting in the closure of concentration camps and the migration of Herero to surrounding countries (Minority Rights Group, 2007; Collelo, 1991). The UN classified the atrocities as an act of genocide in 1985. In 2015, Germans took responsibility for their acts and began their repatriation process, including sending stolen items and Herero skulls back to Namibia (BBC News, 2019).

Data Quality: Data quality for sexual assault against the Herero in Nambia is rated a 3/3 due to the strong amount of evidence gathered from both nonprofit organizations and peer-reviewed research.

Sources

  1. BBC News. (2019). Germany to return Portuguese Stone Cross to Namibia BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-15127992
  2. Collelo, T. (1991). Angola: A Country Study. Ovambo, Nyaneka-Humbe, Herero, and Others. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. http://countrystudies.us/angola/64.htm
  3. Minority Rights Group International. (2007). Herero in Namibia. Accessed 26 September 2022 at https://www.refworld.org/docid/4954ce36c.html
  4. Moshenberg, D. (2012, October 23). Namibia: Herero women challenge German amnesia. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/23/namibia-herero-german-land
  5. Philip Oltermann. (May 28, 2021). Germany agrees to pay Namibia €1.1bn over historical Herero-Nama genocide. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/28/germany-agrees-to-pay-namibia-11bn-over-historical-herero-nama-genocide