In July 2015, the German government officially called the events a "genocide" and "part of a race war". However, it has refused to consider reparations!!!!! SHAME ON GERMANY!!
The Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of racial extermination and collective punishment that the German Empire undertook in German South West Africa (now Namibia) against the Ovaherero and the Nama. It is considered the first genocide of the 20th century.
It took place between 1904 and 1908.
In January 1904, the Herero people, led by Samuel Maharero and Nama led by Captain Hendrik Witbooi, rebelled against German colonial rule. In August, German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Ovaherero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of dehydration. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans, only to suffer a similar fate.
Between 24,000 and 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Namas died.
The first phase of the genocide was characterized by widespread death from starvation and dehydration due to the prevention of the retreating Herero from leaving the Namib Desert by German forces. Once defeated, thousands of Hereros and Namas were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of diseases, abuse, and exhaustion.
In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest attempts at genocide in the 20th century. In 2004, the German government recognized and apologized for the events, but ruled out financial compensation for the victims' descendants.
