All events · The World Wars

The Herero and Nama Genocide in German South West Africa

1904–1908 · Sub-Saharan Africa

Displacement Territory Seized Mass Killing Sexual Violence Killing was the defining act

Displaced

80,000

Most of the Herero population, generally put at 60,000-80,000 before the war, was driven from its grazing lands; survivors were dispersed into camps, into German farms and mines as forced labourers, or across the border into British Bechuanaland, where several thousand remained. Nama communities were deported to camps including Shark Island at Luederitz. The figures rest on German colonial and missionary records and on the 1918 British 'Blue Book' report, and on later demographic reconstruction.

Share of the population affected

80%

of the Herero and Nama populations of German South West Africa before the 1904 war, 1904

Killed

34,000–100,000

direct killing

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What happened

After Herero communities rose against land seizure and settler abuses in January 1904, German forces defeated them at the Waterberg in August and pursued survivors into the waterless Omaheke, sealing the water holes. On 2 October 1904 von Trotha issued a proclamation ordering that Herero found in German territory be fired upon; a similar campaign followed against the Nama from 1905. Survivors were held in camps, the worst of them on Shark Island at Luederitz, where mortality was extreme, and were set to forced labour on railways, farms and in mines. On 28 May 2021 the German government, in a joint declaration with Namibia, stated that it would officially call the events 'what they were from today's perspective: a genocide', and pledged 1.1 billion euros over thirty years for reconstruction and development, while stating that legal claims to compensation cannot be derived from the declaration. Ovaherero and Nama traditional authorities have rejected the declaration's terms and its exclusion of their representatives from the negotiations.

Parties

The German colonial army under Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha drove Herero communities into the Omaheke desert, issued an extermination proclamation, and held Herero and Nama survivors in labour and death camps while expropriating their land and cattle

Disputed

Germany accepts the description 'genocide' only 'from today's perspective' and denies that it creates a legal obligation to pay reparations, arguing the 1948 Genocide Convention is not retroactive; Ovaherero and Nama representatives dispute both that position and the legitimacy of a settlement negotiated between two governments without them, and the pre-war population figures on which the death estimates rest are themselves debated.

The denominator

German colonial estimates and the 1985 UN Whitaker Report give roughly 80,000 Herero and 20,000 Nama before the war, though estimates for the Herero range from 60,000 to 100,000. The 1911 colonial census counted about 15,000 Herero and 9,800 Nama, implying that 50-80 per cent of the Herero and about half the Nama died, in the Omaheke desert, in the concentration camps at Shark Island and elsewhere, or in flight to Bechuanaland.

The affected figure is close to the whole pre-war population because the campaign, the camps and the expropriation of Herero and Nama land and cattle applied to both peoples in their entirety.

Where the baseline comes from

Herero and Nama genocide — Wikipediaopen-edited
German South West Africa — Wikipediaopen-edited

On the death toll

The most commonly cited figures, repeated in the German government's 2021 statements and in press accounts of them, are about 65,000 Herero and at least 10,000 Nama dead; Britannica states that roughly 75 percent of the Herero population died. Lower estimates follow authors who argue the pre-war Herero population was smaller than the German colonial estimate of 80,000; higher ones include deaths in the camps and in flight through the Omaheke. Deaths came from shooting, from thirst and starvation in the desert, and from disease, exhaustion and abuse in the camps.

Documented forms of violence

Mass KillingSummary ExecutionStarvation and SiegeForced LabourArbitrary DetentionSexual ViolenceDestruction of Property

Von Trotha's proclamation, the sealing of the desert water holes, the camps at Shark Island and Windhoek, forced labour and sexual violence against detained women are documented in German colonial and missionary archives and in the 1918 British Blue Book, and are summarised by Britannica and in the scholarship underlying Germany's 2021 declaration.

Formal findings

Government of the Federal Republic of Germany (Joint Declaration with the Republic of Namibia) (2021) — Germany acknowledged the 1904-08 events in German South West Africa as, in Foreign Minister Heiko Maas's words, 'what they were from today's perspective: a genocide', and pledged 1.1 billion euros over thirty years, while stating that legal claims to compensation cannot be derived from the declaration. — source
German Bundestag (2004) — In 2004 the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development apologised at Waterberg for the killings; the Bundestag debated and rejected reparations claims, and Germany's position that no legal liability arises has been maintained since, a stance analysed and criticised in the Bonn University international-law commentary. — source