How Victorian-style dress became the traditional clothing of Herero women. History of Namibia, ancient tribes, history of South Africa An easy way to feel like a woman

In Namibia and southwest Angola. They are divided into Herero proper (in the area of ​​the White Nosob River and the upper reaches of Swakopa, Mount Waterberh), Mbandiera (Mbandera, Ovambandera - Omaheke region in eastern Namibia), Himba (Ovahimba) and Chimba (Ovachimba, Tjimba) - in the north of the Kaoko plateau and in Angola . The population in Namibia is 157 thousand people, in Angola - 126 thousand people (2006, estimate). They also live in the north-west of Botswana (20 thousand people). They speak the Herero language, as well as Afrikaans and Nama (Namibia), Tswana (Botswana), English (Namibia, Botswana) and Portuguese (Angola). 33% in Namibia, 80% in Botswana and 95% in Angola are Christians (Protestants, Catholics in Angola), the rest retain traditional beliefs.

According to historical legends, around the 16th century, the Herero, led by the chiefs Chiviseua and Kamata, settled between the Zambezi and Okavango rivers, then migrated south to the territory of modern Botswana, after which part went to the north-west of modern Namibia on the Kaoko Plateau; The Herero (mbanderu) who remained in the east said about those who had left: “Wa hererera” - “They decided!” (This is where the Herero self-name comes from). Since the end of the 18th century, they traded with the colonists of the Cape Colony in livestock, meat, leather goods, blacksmithing, and wood carvings. Since the 1840s, Christianity has been spreading thanks to the activities of German missionaries. In the mid-19th century, chiefdoms emerged headed by a chief (omuhona), who ruled with a council of elders, a commander-in-chief (omuhongere omunene) and an ambassador (owatumua). During the Nama (Khoi-Khoin) War of 1863-70, they were united under the military chief Magarero. In 1885, the Herero territory became part of German South-West Africa. The defeat of the Nama and Herero uprising of 1904-07 led to the extermination of up to 75% of the Herero. Having lost the right to own livestock, the Namibian Herero began to graze the livestock of European settlers, engage in farming, become familiar with European culture and accept Christianity. From the late 1960s until 1989, the bantustans of Hereroland and Kaokoland existed. Modern Hereros mainly work for hire in agriculture and in mines, some live in cities, and there are intelligentsia. The Himba and Chimba largely maintain a traditional way of life.

The traditional culture is typical of the nomadic pastoralists of South Africa. The main traditional occupation is cattle breeding (the number of herds reached 4 thousand, the total number of animals by the end of the 19th century was 90 thousand). Women grew millet and sorghum. The traditional settlement, the kraal (onganda), formed a patrilineal lineage and was headed by a hereditary leader (omuhona). The dwelling is a tent made of skins (ozonjua; built mainly by women), clothing is aprons made of tanned goat and sheep skin or the skins of wild animals, longer for women. Jewelry - metal beads and spiral bracelets, necklaces made of ostrich egg shells. Women's dresses of the Victorian type, similar to those worn by the wives and daughters of missionaries, and a headdress made of a scarf tied with the ends up are typical. The main food is milk (omaere), fermented in wooden vessels or wineskins, and on holidays - meat. At the head of the community was an elected headman (mukhona); for the duration of the war, a single leader was elected. The kinship count is double: divided into 20 patri (oruzo) and 6 matrilineal (eanda) clans; property (livestock) was passed down through the female line. Traditional beliefs are the cult of ancestors (mukuru), sacred cows, the supreme gods Njambi Karunga and Omukuru. A sacred fire (okuruo) was constantly burning near the omuhon tent and sacred water was kept, which was used in rituals for the consecration of newborn children. There are known myths (about the first ancestor Mukuru), legends, etc. Initiations, weddings, funerals, and memorial ceremonies are accompanied by dances and chants, in which the influence of church singing can be traced. Masks are made from leather. The sacred center of the Hereros is the city of Okahandya (conquered by the Hereros from the Nama in 1880), the resting place of their ancestors and the storage of the sacred fire.

Lit.: Vivelo F. R. The Herero of westen Botswana. Saint. Paul, 1977; Medeiros S.L. Va-Kwandu: history, kinship, and systems of production of an Herero people of South-West Angola. Lisboa, 1981; Balezin A. S., Pritvorov A. V., Slipchenko S. A. History of Namibia in modern and contemporary times. M., 1993.

The uprising began on January 12, 1904, with the uprising of the Herero tribes under the leadership of Samuel Magarero. The Herero began an uprising, killing about 120 Germans, including women and children. The rebels besieged the administrative center of German South-West Africa, the city of Windhoek. However, having received reinforcements from Germany, the colonialists defeated the rebels at Mount Ognati on April 9, and surrounded them in the Waterberg area on August 11. At the Battle of Waterberg, German troops defeated the main forces of the rebels, whose losses ranged from three to five thousand people.

Britain offered the rebels refuge in Bechuanaland in modern-day Botswana, and several thousand people began crossing the Kalahari Desert. Those who remained were imprisoned in concentration camps and forced to work for German entrepreneurs. Many died from overwork and exhaustion. As the German radio Deutsche Welle noted in 2004, “it was in Namibia that the Germans, for the first time in history, used the method of imprisoning men, women and children in concentration camps. During the colonial war, the Herero tribe was almost completely exterminated and today constitutes only a small proportion of the population in Namibia.”

There are also reports that the remaining tribal women were raped and forced into prostitution. According to a 1985 UN report, German forces destroyed three-quarters of the Herero tribe, reducing its population from 80,000 to 15,000 exhausted refugees. Some of the Herero were destroyed in the battle, the rest retreated into the desert, where most of them died of thirst and hunger. In October, von Trot issued an ultimatum: “All Herero must leave this land. Any Herero found within German territory, whether armed or unarmed, with or without domestic animals, would be shot. I will not accept any more children or women. I will send them back to their fellow tribesmen. I will shoot them." Even the German Chancellor Bülow was indignant and told the emperor that this did not comply with the laws of war. Wilhelm calmly replied: “This corresponds to the laws of war in Africa.”

Those same 30 thousand blacks captured were placed in concentration camps. They built railways, and with the arrival of Dr. Eugen Fischer, they also began to serve as material for his medical experiments. He and Dr. Theodore Mollison trained concentration camp prisoners in methods of sterilization and amputation of healthy body parts. They injected blacks with poisons in varying concentrations, observing which dose would become lethal. Fischer later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he created the department of eugenics and taught there. His best student was considered Joseph Mengele, later notorious as a fanatical doctor.

After the defeat of the Herero, the Nama (Hottentot) tribes rebelled. On October 3, 1904, a Hottentot uprising led by Hendrik Witbooi and Jacob Morenga began in the southern part of the country. For a whole year, Witboy skillfully led the battles. After the death of Witboy on October 29, 1905, the rebels, divided into small groups, continued the guerrilla war until 1907. By the end of the same year, most of the rebels returned to peaceful life, as they were forced to provide food for their families, and the remaining partisan detachments were soon driven beyond the border of modern Namibia - to the Cape Colony, which belonged to the British.

The Herero are an African people living in the territory of modern Namibia (West Africa). The colonialists used the slave labor of this people to mine diamonds and ruthlessly destroyed them. It was in Namibia that the first concentration camps in history appeared. In turn, the Herero rebelled more than once, answering with blood for blood. Namibia became independent in 1990, but the Herero are now considered an endangered tribe due to genocide.

The Herero came to Namibia from the Great Lakes region in the 17th century. Some of them settled in the north-west of the country, now they are called Himba, and some crossed the Orange River. Here the settlers encountered Boers and missionaries. From them the Herero adopted European clothing. This happened in the 18th and 19th centuries. Fashion among Europeans has long changed, but the Herero continue to dress as if many, many years had not passed. Now these clothes look very exotic even in Africa. True, some changes were made to the Herero dresses, removing the corset and adding bright colors. They also changed the headdress - they made a two-cornered hat from a cocked hat, and their hats resemble cow horns. True, ladies became “cuckolds”, and the longer these symbolic horns, the richer the husband. Currently, the Herero live in remote villages in the west of the country, in arid areas near the Kalahari Desert. Previously, these were the lands of the Bushmen, but the Herero have long become masters here. They came here after the bloody war of 1907-1909, miraculously surviving the real genocide perpetrated by the Kaiser’s Germany. Then 65 thousand people were killed. The Germans justified themselves by saying that their they committed inhumane acts in response to the 1903 uprising, when the Herero and Nama killed about 120 Germans, including women and children. By order of Emperor Wilhelm, the rebellious Herero people were driven into the Kalahari Desert by machine gun fire and tens of thousands of people were doomed to death from hunger and thirst in concentration camps. Even the German Chancellor von Bulow was indignant and wrote to the emperor that this did not comply with the laws of war. Wilhelm then replied: “This corresponds to the laws of war in Africa.” Then 16 thousand Herero survived, but, as they say: “Give us two cows and in a couple of years we will have a hundred of them.” One of the richest Herero villages is Oshiyara, with 47 households scattered over 10-15 kilometers. About 600 people live in the village, who keep 4-6 thousand cows and about 5-6 thousand goats. The most common form of transport is a donkey, although some also have horses. On special occasions, the village head wears a military uniform from the time of World War I. He has a watered garden located behind a gigantic fence. There are a couple of beds of carrots, beets, several tomato bushes and a stunted mango tree, but in Oshiyar it is truly a marvel - the Gardens of Babylon. Rich families live in the village. The head of one, Mondi Agim is a very large man with a kind face. True, one of his eyes was knocked out. He bought a tractor, opened the only store in the village, drilled 2 wells and now enjoys life. Agim does not deny water to anyone, despite the fact that water is supplied from its wells using a diesel pump. Every morning for a simple Herero begins with a cup of tea with milk. After drinking tea, the women begin to prepare food and care for the children. Later they make butter from the cream, let the goats and cows out to pasture, clean, wash, and sew. They are helped by workers - Bushmen. These are poor people - they have nothing at all. The main source of food, game, has long been hunted down, so the Bushmen are forced to work for the Herero for a bowl of food. The Hereros say that if it weren’t for them, the Bushmen would have already They died of hunger long ago. Most likely, they fear for their cows and goats, because, driven to despair and hungry, the Bushmen can easily kill a cow and eat it. After all, they have nothing to lose except life. Herero cows represent wealth, which is multiplied and protected in every possible way. At the market, a cow costs at least a thousand dollars. Cows' milk is exchanged for nuts and fruits. There is also an ancient custom - a ban on the consumption of sour milk by women. It is a drink of men, symbolizing the male seed.
In addition to cattle breeding, the Herero plant maize and corn, but only during the rainy season. Only the rich with their own wells have permanent corn fields. Simple Herero live in huts made of cow dung. Construction begins with digging in four small tree trunks. A woven wooden frame made of smaller branches is attached to them. Above - thatched or tin roof. Then walls of manure are applied in three layers. Professionals work only with their hands. In all huts, the owners place wooden sculptures that ward off evil spirits. Inside there is also a fireplace that acts as a heater, stove and smoker to protect against insects. Bread is baked in an iron barrel, in which a door is cut out, placing metal shelves for bread inside. Coals are placed at the bottom of the barrel and on top so that the bread bakes evenly.
Recently, a fashionable house appeared in Oshiyara - made from homemade sandstone bricks. The Herero themselves extract the bricks from local rock. Three people a day extract 120-160 bricks and sell them for 1 Namibian dollar. A person can earn 5-8 US dollars per day, but only 3 people are engaged in such business in the village, even though 80% of the population is unemployed. Herero men prefer to sleep in the shade rather than work to earn their daily bread.
True, dances and songs are held in high esteem in the tribe. The dancing is quite slow, because the dancers have to dance in 5-10 huge skirts. The rhythm is set not by drums, but by ordinary boards, which the matrons tie to one leg and knock them on the ground, producing something like loud rhythmic claps.

Comparing it to the Nazi genocide of the Jews. In 2004, Germany acknowledged having committed genocide in Namibia.

In 1884, after Britain made it clear that it had no interest in the Namibian territories, Germany declared them a protectorate. The colonialists used the slave labor of local tribes, seizing the country's lands and resources (diamonds).

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✪ [Russian subtitles] - On the recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Bundestag

Subtitles

The satirical program “Today Show” (Heute Show), Channel 2 of German Television (ZDF) Since yesterday it has been enshrined on paper: whoever kills up to one and a half million Armenians commits genocide. Since yesterday, the Bundestag has completely officially called what was done by the Turks in 1915 under the supervision of the German Empire. There was a big question, you probably followed it: will we not slam the door in relations with Turkey in this way? But today we must admit: wow, we are brave! We really called genocide genocide ! In my opinion, we were generally the first! After France, Switzerland, Cyprus, Slovakia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Russia, the Vatican, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and Uruguay. Yes, and Uruguay too, I understand me! Everyone except Taka-Tuka Earth and Atlantis! By the way, the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister could not come to this vote on the genocide resolution yesterday. Unfortunately, they had other things planned. Steinmeier, for example, urgently I needed to fly to South America. Although fleeing to South America because of genocide is also in some way a German tradition. Yes! And Gabriel had a meeting with the construction industry, which was also very important! In general, it was a stormy story. Turkish associations wrote threatening letters to deputies on the eve of the vote. There was something like: “Say “genocide” one more time and I’ll call my bros!” Well, or sisters. We demand that all members of parliament be fair and admit that they do not have the right to judge historical events. First of all, this thing in front of you is a microphone, and you don’t have to shout like that! And secondly, you just accidentally admitted that we are talking about historical events. Of course, today's Turkey is not guilty of the murders more than a hundred years ago, but reconciliation and denial cannot be carried out simultaneously. In Turkish textbooks, genocide is indeed still completely denied. In my opinion, for junior grades they write that the Armenians are a people who once lived happily and contentedly in the Ottoman Empire, but one fine day all the Armenians got lost in the forest and have been missing since then. End. That won’t work either, friends! The only thing worth criticizing is the timing of this resolution. Why so late? Now, of course, one gets the impression that the deputies certainly wanted to prove that they were not mincing on Erdogan, who was half-bent before this. Of course, the Turks are terribly unhappy! They insist that this could not have been genocide, after all. .. After all, until 1948 there was no legal definition of genocide. Thus, what happened before cannot be genocide, because there was no such crime. What? Everything that happened before 1948 was not genocide? That's it! We'll know! Yesterday, Turkey, first of all, recalled its ambassador from Berlin, instead of recognizing that it is from us, the Germans, that we can learn a lot from a historical point of view. Welcome to an additional history lesson from Dr. Birte Schneider! Quiet! So, a question for the class: Who committed the first genocide in the twentieth century? Anyone else? Okay, then the fat hyperactive boy is in the front row. I know! It was Türkiye! Yesterday I saw it on TV in the Bundestag, but to Phoenix! Yeah, the fool accidentally switched from “House 2” to “Phoenix” and thinks he learned something! Class! Oliver, due to the fact that 1904, according to my calendar, was earlier than 1915, the first genocide, of course, counts towards Germany. “What?! Where else is this?! I don’t understand!” We then almost completely destroyed the Herero and Nama tribes in the colony of German South-West Africa. Just three weeks ago, victims' associations officially filed a lawsuit against us in The Hague. What?! Have you sued Germany? I haven't heard anything about this at all! And they couldn’t hear it. Almost no one reported this. The German media, unfortunately, were preoccupied with more important topics, such as Horst Seehofer's toy railway or Daniela Katzenberger's planned wedding. Terrible. Terrible. You ask yourself, who in their right mind would agree to marry Katzenberger? So, my friend, listen here: since 2007, in the Bundestag alone there have been 5 proposals to finally recognize the crimes against the Herero as genocide. And every time they were rejected, and with what argument? You'll never guess! I can't guess! The judicial norm of “genocide” appeared only in 1948, and therefore it cannot be extended to earlier events. And no legal claims can be derived from them. Wait a minute! Yes, this is exactly the argument of the Turks! Great! Olya, I’ll now draw a little sun for you in your diary! Look, it even smiles a little! "Oliver figured something out. Yay!" The only German government politician who ever apologized to the victims was in 2004 Wieczorek-Zohl of the SPD. She even cried! And then she had to hear from CSU member Ruk what it was, quote: “...there was an expensive outburst of emotions. Billions of dollars in claims against Germany do not need to be supplied with extra ammunition. "And, in my opinion, “ammunition” in this context is a particularly well-chosen metaphor. Do you understand? For the Turks, at least, we are talking about honor, and Germany just wants to save money. Well, we don’t need that either In addition, President Roman Herzog even earlier, I think in 1989, said that what Germany did to the Herero, quote, “was not good.” Oliver, if after two cans of Red Bull and sausages I vomit in the elevator - - that would be bad. And expelling an entire people into the desert and leaving them there to die is called genocide. “Not good” “Genocide” Is anyone home? So, now the whole class writes the sentence a hundred times: “I never want to explain to others how to correctly recognize genocide before I correctly fail to recognize all my own genocides. Any questions? Eat! I wanted to go back to Katzenberger again... It was Birtha Schneider! Satirical program "Today Show" (Heute Show), Channel 2 of German television (ZDF). Translation - YouTube.com/igakuz I don’t understand, I always got an A in history!

Insurrection

On January 14, 1904, the Herero and Nama, led by Samuel Magarero and Hendrik Witbooi, began an uprising, killing about 120 Germans, including women and children. At this point, a small (700-man) German military corps was in the south of the colony, suppressing another minor uprising, leaving 4,640 German civilian settlers unprotected; while the forces of the rebels amounted to 6-8 thousand people. The total ethnic population of the colony is estimated by various sources from 35-40 to 100 thousand people (the most adequate estimate is 60-80 thousand), of which 80% were Hereros, and the rest were Nama or, as the Germans called them, Hottentots. In May 1904, command of the German forces in South-East Africa passed from the colonial governor Theodor Leutwein to Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha, and on 14 June a German force (Schutztruppe) numbering 14,000 soldiers under his command arrived to suppress the uprising. The expedition was financed by Deutsche Bank and equipped by Voormann. Von Trotha was ordered to “suppress the uprising at all costs,” which was, however, a standard formulation and did not in itself imply the complete destruction of the tribe. Nevertheless, he was more uncompromising than Leutwein, in particular, he was against negotiations with the rebels, which coincided with the position of Kaiser Wilhelm and was one of the reasons for this appointment of von Trotha.

By the beginning of August, the remaining Herero (about 60 thousand people) with their livestock were pushed back to the Waterberg, where von Trotha planned to defeat them in a decisive battle according to the usual German military canons. The Schutztroupe, however, experienced great difficulties in the conditions of a desert area far from the railway. An encirclement was organized, and in the west the German positions were strengthened most strongly, since von Trotha considered the retreat of the Herero in this direction to be the worst-case scenario, which he tried with all his might to avoid. The southeastern direction was the weakest. On August 11, a decisive battle took place, during which, due to uncoordinated actions of German units, almost all Herero managed to escape to the southeast and further east into the Kalahari Desert. Von Trotha was extremely disappointed with this outcome, but wrote in his report that “the attack on the morning of August 11 ended in complete victory.” We can say that in this way he was wishful thinking, and at that time - before the battle - he was not planning mass extermination: there is evidence that he was preparing conditions for holding prisoners.

Persecution and mass extermination in the desert

Since complete victory in the general battle (which was to be the Battle of Waterberg) was not achieved, Trotha ordered the pursuit of the rebels who had gone into the desert in order to force them to fight and still achieve defeat. However, this was fraught with great difficulties for the Schutztruppe, and the Herero moved further and further, so Trota decided to cordon off the borders of habitable territory, leaving the Africans to die in the desert from hunger and thirst. Thus, it was at this stage that the transition from suppression of the uprising to genocide occurred. The reason for this was Trot's fear that the uprising would turn into a sluggish guerrilla war, and any outcome other than the complete defeat of the rebels would be considered a defeat by the German authorities. That is, there were two ways: either the Schutztruppe initiated the battle and won a final victory in it, or they pushed the rebels out of their colony. Since the first could not be achieved, the second path was chosen; Trota resolutely rejected the possibility of negotiations and capitulation. The Herero had the opportunity to gain asylum in the British colony of Bechuanaland in modern-day Botswana, but most died in the desert from hunger and thirst or were killed by German soldiers trying to get there.

The transitional moment was marked by Trot's famous proclamation, published by him on October 2, 1904:

I, the Commander-in-Chief of the German soldiers, convey this message to the Herero people. The Herero no longer belong to Germany. They committed robberies and murders, cut off the noses, ears and other body parts of wounded soldiers, and now, out of cowardice, they refuse to fight. I declare: the one who delivers the captured commander to one of my stations will receive one thousand marks, and the one who delivers Samuel Magerero himself will receive five thousand marks. All Herero people must leave this land. If they don't, I'll force them with my big guns (artillery). Any Herero man found within German territory, whether armed or unarmed, with or without cattle, would be shot. I will not accept any more children or women, but will send them back to their fellow tribesmen or I will shoot them. And this is my word to the Herero people.

This proclamation should be read to our soldiers at roll call, with the addition that the unit that captures the commander will receive due reward, and by "shooting women and children" is meant shooting over their heads to force them to flee. I am confident that after this proclamation we will no longer take male prisoners, but atrocities against women and children will not be tolerated. They run away if you shoot several times in their direction. We must not forget the good reputation of the German soldier.

In fact, at this moment, mass killings of Hereros were already taking place, as a rule, they had already lost the ability to actively resist. There is ample evidence of this, although much of it was used by Britain at the end of the First World War to discredit the image of Germany, so it is not always completely objective.

Concentration camps

Governor Leutwein actively objected to von Trotha's line, and in December 1904 he argued with his superiors that it was more economically profitable to use Herero slave labor than to completely destroy them. The head of the General Staff of the German army, Count Alfred von Schlieffen and other people close to Wilhelm II agreed to this, and soon the remaining ones who surrendered or were captured were imprisoned in concentration camps, where they were forced to work for German entrepreneurs. Thus, the labor of prisoners was used by a private diamond mining company, as well as for the construction of a railway to copper mining areas. Many died from overwork and exhaustion. As the German radio Deutsche Welle noted in 2004, it was in Namibia that the Germans for the first time in history used the method of imprisoning men, women and children in concentration camps.

Consequences and their assessment

During the colonial war, the Herero tribe was almost completely exterminated and today constitutes only a small proportion of the population in Namibia. There are also reports that the remaining tribal women were raped and forced into prostitution. According to a 1985 UN report, German forces destroyed three-quarters of the Herero tribe, reducing its population from 80,000 to 15,000 exhausted refugees.

Germany lost about 1,500 people during the suppression of the uprising. In honor of the fallen German soldiers and to commemorate the complete victory over the Herero, a monument was erected in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, in 1912.

Russian historian-Africanist Apollo Davidson compared the destruction of African tribes with other actions of German troops when Kaiser Wilhelm II gave advice to the German expeditionary force in China: “Give no quarter! Take no prisoners. Kill as much as you can!<…>You must act in such a way that a Chinese will never again dare to look askance at a German.” As Davidson wrote, “by order of the same Emperor Wilhelm, the Herero people, who rebelled against German rule, were driven into the Kalahari Desert by machine gun fire and doomed tens of thousands of people to death from hunger and thirst. Even the German Chancellor von Bülow was indignant and told the emperor that this was not in accordance with the laws waging war. Wilhelm calmly replied: “This corresponds to the laws of war in Africa.”

In world culture

Germany's complex relationship with the Herero tribe is metaphorically described in Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow. In another of his novels, "

Pictures of genocide are difficult for human consciousness to comprehend: charred skeletons in crematoria ovens, ripped open bellies of pregnant women, crushed skulls of children...

Repressing these pictures from memory, from consciousness is a natural defensive reaction of the psyche. However, forgetting history creates the possibility of its repetition.

The term “genocide” came into political use shortly after the Second World War in connection with the investigation of the crimes of fascism and was widely used in UN documents. But the practice of genocide itself probably existed in all known periods of history. It, in particular, was reflected in biblical texts (for example, the destruction of the Canaanite tribes by the ancient Jews, etc.).

Genocide of the Herero and Nama tribes in 1904-1907

One of the first manifestations of an act of genocide in the history of mankind is the genocide of the Herero and Nama tribes, which occurred in 1904-1907, when German troops destroyed 65,000 thousand representatives of the African Herero tribe and 10,000 thousand people from the Nama tribe, this happened against the backdrop of a fire that flared up in Western Europe. African popular uprising. Germany declared Namibia a protectorate country immediately after it realized that it was not interested in its territories, after which the slave labor of Namibians began to be actively used, and their lands were seized for the purpose of exploiting natural resources. At the initial stage, about 60 German settlers were killed; under the leadership of S. Magarero and H. Wittboy, the Herero and Nama tribes killed 120 Germans, including women and children. Under the command of Lothar von Troth, German troops began to suppress the uprising, the number of the German army was 14,000 people. The expedition was financed by Deutsche Bank and equipped by Voormann. In October 1904, von Troth issued an ultimatum: “All Herero must leave this land... Any Herero found within German territory, whether armed or unarmed, with or without domestic animals, will be shot. I will not accept any more children or women. I will send them back to their fellow tribesmen. I will shoot them." At the Battle of Waterberg, German troops defeated the main forces of the rebels, whose losses amounted to 3-5 thousand people. Britain offered the rebels refuge in Bechuanaland in modern-day Botswana, and several thousand people began crossing the Kalahari Desert. Those who remained were imprisoned in concentration camps, forced to work for German entrepreneurs. Many died from overwork and exhaustion. As the German radio Deutsche Welle noted in 2004, “it was in Namibia that the Germans, for the first time in history, used the method of imprisoning men, women and children in concentration camps. During the colonial war, the Herero tribe was almost completely exterminated and today constitutes only a small proportion of the population in Namibia.” There are also reports that the remaining tribal women were raped and forced into prostitution. According to a 1985 UN report, German forces destroyed three-quarters of the Herero tribe, reducing its population from 80,000 to 15,000 exhausted refugees. However, this fact was classified as genocide only in 1985, when it was mentioned in the next UN report, in which this act was compared with the genocide of the Jews, and only in 2004 the commission of genocide on the territory of Namibia was recognized by Germany itself. in October 1904, von Troth put forward an ultimatum, the main idea of ​​which was to force the entire Herero tribe to leave German soil, and any representative of this tribe, if the order was not followed, was simply shot. German troops managed to defeat the rebel forces, with losses amounting to over five thousand people.