“…the Herero and the Nama did not prove quite as ‘inferior’ as the German occupiers thought. For years they stubbornly resisted being driven off their lands into the desert to die, despite huge loss of life at the hands of the Schutztruppe (colonial army) and their ‘cleansing patrols’.

But by 1905 the survivors were weary and weakened. The final straw came when the Kaiser issued an imperial decree expropriating the African lands.

Most of the Africans surrendered and were rounded up into concentration camps to build the colony’s new railways – gruelling work where men were routinely beaten and women workers systematically raped. on one section of the line, two-thirds of the prisoners died in 18 months.” Continue reading →