Country: Namibia

Group: Nama

Code Finalized: 2/16/2020

Team: Sophia Agne (lead), Rayna Castillo, Kimberly Prete

Content Warning: genocide, sexual assault, medical experiments

Approximate Time Period: 1904-1908

The Nama compose one of the largest Khoekhoe ethnic groups in Southern Namibia (Veenu, 2007). However, their populations were decimated during the German colonial period. At the top of the 19th century, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck annexed Southwest Africa and declared it a German colony (Gross, 2015). German forces began seizing the land and cattle of the Nama, and as a result, several conflicts arose. These conflicts hit a climax in 1904 when the Herero and Nama joined forces to rebel against German occupation (Ochab, 2018). In response, the German government ordered a retaliation that resulted in the deaths of nearly half the Nama population (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2018). The German military forces deliberately tried to eradicate the Nama people through, “forced labor, malnutrition, sexual violence, medical experiments and disease in concentration camps” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2018). The mass-killing of Nama people is regarded as the first genocide of the 20st century. Our team would give the data a score of 3, there were multiple reputable sources available.

Sources

  1. Herero and Nama Genocide. (n.d.). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved February 8, 2020, from https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/herero-and-nama-genocide
  2. Nielson, B., & Mads. (2017). Selective Memory: British Perceptions of the Herero-Nama Genocide. 1904-1908 and 1918. Journal of Southern African Studies, 43(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2017.1286843
  3. Ochab, E. (2018, May 24). The Herero-Nama Genocide: The Story of a Recognized Crime, Apologies Issued and Silence Ever Since. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2018/05/24/the-herero-nama-genocide-the-story-of-a-recognized-crime-apologies-issued-and-silence-ever-since/#62bec0a06d8c
  4. Smith, H. (2008). The Continuities of German History: Nation, Religion, and Race Across the Long Nineteenth Century (1st ed.). Cambridge University Fresh.
  5. Veenu, S. (2007). Nama. In Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nama-people