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Christian Conversion and Colonial “Native Policy”: The Role of Missionaries in Formulating Reservation Policy in German Southwest Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2021
Abstract
This article examines how German Protestant missionaries to the Herero people influenced colonial “native policy” in German Southwest Africa in the years leading up to the Colonial War of 1904 to 1907. By the late 1890s, burgeoning European settlement increasingly displaced the Herero from their traditional territory. While colonial officials promoted more settlement, missionaries had developed a concept of conversion that linked Christianization with living in self-sufficient agricultural communities, and hoped to place limits on Herero displacement. Thus, missionaries and colonial officials engaged in protracted political negotiations over the creation of inalienable “native reservations” for the Herero. I show that missionaries’ model of Herero conversion prompted them to promote an alternative mode of settler colonialism that would make room in Southwest Africa for self-sufficient Herero settlements. Prior to the Colonial War, missionaries succeeded in convincing the colonial government to begin creating reservations, thus shaping colonial policy according to missionary priorities.
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- Copyright © Central European History Society of the American Historical Association, 2021
Footnotes
I would like to thank Adam Blackler, Lauren Whitnah, and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on this article. Funding from Northwest Nazarene University supported research for this article.
References
1 Vereinte evangelische Mission-Wuppertal (VEM) Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft (RMG) 2.660, excerpt from letter, Dannert to Schreiber, February 26, 1902, attachment to 1902 Conference Protocol.
2 VEM RMG 2.660, excerpt from letter, Dannert to Schreiber, February 26, 1902, attachment to 1902 Conference Protocol.
3 VEM RMG 2.660, excerpt from letter, Dannert to Schreiber, February 26, 1902, attachment to 1902 Conference Protocol.
4 According to Jürgen Osterhammel, one of the principal purposes of European colonial states was “to secure control over the subjugated peoples.” Jürgen Osterhammel, Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview, trans. Shelley L. Frisch (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997), 57. Of course, individuals and groups outside the state can also express and pursue colonial desires. A number of scholars of settler colonialism point to mission work as inherently colonial. Lorenzo Veracini, for example, considers efforts to sedentarize Indigenous people by restricting their movements—which describes the Rhenish missionaries’ efforts to establish Herero reservations—as a “transfer by coerced lifestyle change,” a tactic meant to bring about the disappearance of indigenous populations. Lorenzo Veracini, Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 44. Likewise, Patrick Wolfe considers “religious conversion, resocialization in total institutions such as missions or boarding schools” and other assimilationist efforts as parts of the “logic of elimination.” Wolfe, Patrick, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Genocide Research 8, no. 4 (2006): 388CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Thoralf Klein, on the other hand, argues that although “the way mission societies managed their indigenous congregations” displayed “intrinsic colonial qualities,” missionary work and colonialism were “irreducible phenomena.” Klein, Thoralf, “The Other German Colonialism: Power, Conflict, and Resistance in a German-Speaking Mission in China, ca. 1850–1920,” in German Colonialism Revisited: African, Asian, and Oceanic Experiences, ed. Berman, Nina, Mühlhahn, Klaus, and Nganang, Patrice (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2014), 161Google Scholar.
5 George Steinmetz notes that the colonial administration used the term native policy (Eingeborenenpolitik) only after 1904, but critiques scholars’ “nominalist” use of the term that simply follows the colonial administration's practice. George Steinmetz, The Devil's Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 142–43. In this article, I use the term native policy to refer to colonial policies that were intended to alter the conditions of life for Africans in the colony in order to facilitate greater state surveillance and control over them.
6 Susanne Zantop, Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770–1870 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997); Sara Friedrichsmeyer, Sara Lennox, and Susanne Zantop, ed., The Imperialist Imagination: German Colonialism and Its Legacy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998); Birthe Kundrus, ed., Phantasiereich. Zur Kulturgeschichte des deutschen Kolonialismus (Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2003); Steinmetz, The Devil's Handwriting; Michael Perraudin and Jürgen Zimmerer, eds., German Colonialism and National Identity (New York: Routledge, 2011); John Phillip Short, Magic Lantern Empire: Colonialism and Society in Germany (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012); Jeff Bowersox, Raising Germans in the Age of Empire: Youth and Colonial Culture, 1871–1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); Bradley Naranch and Geoff Eley, eds., German Colonialism in a Global Age (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014); Nina Berman, Klaus Mühlhahn, and Patrice Nganang, eds., German Colonialism Revisited (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2014); Sebastian Conrad, Globalisierung und Nation im Deutschen Kaiserreich (München: C.H. Beck Verlag, 2006); Daniel Joseph Walther, Creating Germans Abroad: Cultural Politics and National Identity in Namibia (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002); Krista O'Donnell, Renate Bridenthal, and Nancy Reagin, eds., The Heimat Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005); Isabel Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004); Jürgen Zimmerer, Deutsche Herrschaft über Afrikaner. Staatlicher Machtanspruch und Wirklichkeit im kolonialen Namibia (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2004); Jürgen Zimmerer and Joachim Zeller, eds., Völkermord in Deutsch-Südwestafrika. Der Kolonialkrieg (1904–1908) in Namibia und seine Folgen (Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 2003); Jürgen Zimmerer, Von Windhuk nach Auschwitz?. Beiträge zum Verhältnis von Kolonialismus und Holocaust (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2011); Susanne Kuss, Deutsches Militär auf kolonialen Kreigsschauplätzen. Eskalation von Gewalt zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag, 2012); and Fitzpatrick, Matthew P., “Colonialism, Postcolonialism, and Decolonization,” Central European History 51, no. 1 (March 2018): 83–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Bismark und der Imperialismus (Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1969); L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan, The Rulers of German Africa, 1884–1914 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977); Woodruff D. Smith, The German Colonial Empire (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978); Wilfried Westphal, Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien (Munich: C. Bertelsmann, 1984); Horst Gründer, Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien (Paderborn: Schöningh, 1985). For historiography specific to German Southwest Africa, see Helmut Bley, Kolonialherrschaft und Sozialstruktur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, 1894–1914 (Hamburg: Leibniz-Verlag, 1968), translated as South-West Africa under German Rule, 1894–1914, trans. Hugh Ridley (Evanston, IL: Northwest University Press, 1971), and Horst Drechsler, Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft: Der Kampf der Herero und Nama gegen den deutschen Imperialismus (1884–1915) (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1984).
8 Historians of Africa, of course, have developed a rich literature examining how Indigenous communities responded to Christianity and exercised their own prerogatives in German colonies. See, for example, Marcia Wright, German Missions in Tanganyika, 1891–1941: Lutherans and Moravians in the Southern Highlands (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971); Jan-Bart Gewald, Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia, 1890–1923 (Oxford: James Currey, 1999); and Meredith McKittrick, To Dwell Secure: Generation, Christianity and Colonialism in Ovamboland (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002). See also Prein, Philipp, “Guns and Top Hats: African Resistance in German South West Africa, 1907–1915,” Journal of Southern African Studies 20, no. 1 (March 1994), 99–121CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Blackler, Adam, “From Boondoggle to Settlement Colony: Hendrik Witbooi and the Evolution of Germany's Imperial Project in Southwest Africa, 1884–1894,” Central European History 50, no. 4 (December 2017): 449–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 Horst Gründer, Christliche Mission und deutscher Imperialismus. Eine politische Geschichte ihrer Beziehungen während der deutschen Kolonialzeit (1884–1914) unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Afrikas und Chinas (Paderborn: Schöningh, 1982); Klaus J. Bade, Friedrich Fabri und der Imperialismus in der Bismarckzeit. Revolution, Depression, Expansion (Freiburg i. B.: Atlantis, 1975); Heinrich Loth, Kolonialismus unter der Kutte (Berlin: Dietz, 1960); Heinrich Loth, Die christliche Mission in Südwestafrika. Zur destruktiven Rolle der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft beim Prozess der Staatsbildung in Südwestafrika (1842–1893) (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1963); Nicole Glocke, Zur Geschichte der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft in Deutsch-Südwestafrika unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Kolonialkrieges von 1904 bis 1907 (Bochum: N Brockmeyer, 1997).
10 Thorsten Altena, “Ein Häuflein Christen mitten in der Heidenwelt des dunklen Erdteils”. Zum Selbst- und Fremdverständnis protestantischer Missionare im kolonialen Afrika, 1884–1918 (Münster: Waxmann, 2003); Ulrich van der Heyden and Holger Stoecker, eds., Mission und Macht im Wandel politischer Orientierung. Europäische Missionsgesellschaften in politischen Spannungsfeldern in Africa und Asien zwischen 1800 und 1945 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2005); Sara Pugach, Africa in Translation: A History of Colonial Linguistics in Germany and Beyond, 1814–1945 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012); Best, Jeremy, “Godly, International, and Independent: German Protestant Missionary Loyalties before World War I,” Central European History 47, no. 3 (September 2014): 585–611CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Habermas, Rebekka, “Colonies in the Countryside: Doing Mission in Imperial Germany,” Journal of Social History 50, no. 3 (2017): 502–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 Nils Oermann has produced perhaps the most granular critical study of mission work and colonial politics in Southwest Africa in recent years, yet he tends to categorize missionaries as either “pro-African” or “patriotic,” a dichotomy that obscures rather than clarifies the complexity of the relations between missionaries and the colonial state as it developed over time; Nils Ole Oermann, Mission, Church and State Relations in South West Africa under German Rule (1884–1915) (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999).
12 See, for example, missionaries’ portrayal of their own conversions in their Lebensläufe, VEM RMG 551, VEM RMG 552 and VEM RMG 553.
13 Instruktion und Allgemeine Bestimmungen für die Sendboten der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft (Barmen, 1885), 18.
14 Instruktion und Allgemeine Bestimmungen für die Sendboten der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft (Barmen, 1885), 19.
15 See, for example, a Rhenish Mission reflection on the fate of this goal after the Colonial War, VEM RMG 2.621, “Was der südwestafrikanische Aufstand der Rheinischen Mission nahm und gab.” No author or date; marginal notation suggests Mission Inspector Johannes Spiecker in 1911 or 1912.
16 Lothar Engel argues that in practice during the colonial period, missionaries made no real distinction between individual conversion (Einzelbekehrung) and “national” conversion (Volksbekehrung). Lothar Engel, Die Stellung der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft zu den politischen und gesellschaftlichen Verhältnissen Südwestafrikas und ihr Beitrag zur dortigen kirchlichen Entwicklung bis zum Nama-Herero-Aufstand 1904–1907 (PhD diss., Universität Hamburg, 1972), 40, 310–11. My argument here, however, emphasizes that missionaries had structured conversion in an inescapably collective way by linking it to a life of sedentary agriculture.
17 Brian Stanley, “Christianity and Civilization in English Evangelical Mission Thought, 1792–1857,” in Christian Missions and the Enlightenment, ed. Brian Stanley (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2001), 187.
18 August Schreiber, Cultur und Mission in ihrem Einfluß auf die Naturvölker (Barmen, 1882), 2.
19 Schreiber, Cultur und Mission in ihrem Einfluß auf die Naturvölker.
20 VEM RMG 2.613, part 2, Freerk Meyer, Referat: “Eine Characteristik unserer Herero-Mission,“ 1886, attachment to Damraland Conference Protocol, Otjikango, September 19–26, 1886. Emphasis in original.
21 VEM RMG 2.516, Friedrich Bernsmann, Referat: “Wie ist die Thatsache zu erklären, daß unsere Evangelisten und Schullehrer, besonders die im Augustineum ausgebildeten, bis jetzt wenig den gehegten Erwartungen entsprochen haben?” March 28, 1902. Elsewhere missionaries categorized what they saw as general moral failures or deficiencies as “national sins” or “national flaws.”
22 VEM RMG 2.516. Emphasis in original.
23 VEM RMG 1.644a, letter from Irle, Lang, and Kuhlmann to Rhenish Mission Deputation, November 11, 1899.
24 Osterhammel, Colonialism, 57.
25 Bundesarchiv-Berlin (BArch) Reichskolonialamt (RKA) 1001/1218, letter from von François to Caprivi, November 22, 1892.
26 On the size of the German administration, see Oermann, Mission, Church and State Relations in South West Africa under German Rule (1884–1915), 57.
27 Bley, South-West Africa under German Rule, 1894–1914, 6–7. Bley outlines a comprehensive account of Leutwein's policies, particularly as they related to African groups, in his chapter, “Leutwein's Political System,” in Bley, South-West Africa under German Rule, 1894–1914, 3–70.
28 Theodor Leutwein, Elf Jahre Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika (Windhoek, Namibia: Namibia Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, 1997), 62–65. Gewald notes that five additional men were tried in relation to the murder and sentenced to other forms of punishment. Jan-Bart Gewald, Towards Redemption: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia between 1890 and 1923 (Leiden: CNWS Publications, 1996), 89–90.
29 Leutwein, Elf Jahre, Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, 222.
30 BArch RKA 1001/2083, letter from Leutwein to Golinelli, November 7, 1898.
31 “Instruktion für die Bezirkshauptmannschaften, Militär- und Polizeidistrikte sowie die detachierten Feldkompagnien,” in Leutwein, Elf Jahre Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, 553.
32 Bley, South-West Africa under German Rule, 1894–1914, 117–18.
33 Gewald, Herero Heroes, 41.
34 John K. Noyes, “Nomadic Landscapes and the Colonial Frontier: The Problem of Nomadism in German South West Africa,” in Colonial Frontiers: Indigenous-European Encounters in Settler Societies, ed. Lynette Russel (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001), 211.
35 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, April 2, 1897.
36 The missionaries and other Europeans referred to the north-central part of Southwest Africa that traditionally had been controlled by the Herero as Hereroland, and sometimes as Damaraland.
37 Birthe Kundrus, Moderne Imperialisten: Das Kaiserreich im Spiegel seiner Kolonien (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2003), 54–55.
38 Bley, South-West Africa under German Rule, 1894–1914, 22–23.
39 Bley, South-West Africa under German Rule, 1894–1914, 22.
40 Zimmerer, Deutsche Herrschaft über Afrikaner, 25.
41 Quoted in Bley, South-West Africa under German Rule, 1894–1914, 68.
42 Oermann, Mission, Church and State Relations in South West Africa under German Rule (1884–1915), 77.
43 Berichte der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft (BRMG), April 1896, 100. “Hereroland. Zur allgemeinen Lage.”
44 Gewald, Herero Heroes, 129. Settlement statistics for years 1897 through 1902 from BArch RKA 1001/6457, “Statistik der weißen Bevölkerung.”
45 BRMG, March 1903, 81. “Neueste Nachrichten.”
46 BRMG, March 1903, 81. “Neueste Nachrichten.”
47 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Schreiber to Stübel, Oct. 14, 1901.
48 For the pastoral letter to the Herero congregations, BRMG, August 1902, 234. “Bilder aus der Arbeit im Hereroland (Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika).”
49 VEM RMG 2.657, petition to Governor Leutwein from Herero Conference, attachment to Herero Conference Protocol, 1899.
50 Quoted in Steinmetz, The Devil's Handwriting, 188.
51 “Verordnung, betreffend die Gerichsbarkeit über die Eingeborenen des Schutzgebiets einschließlich der Bastards in bürgerlichen Rechtsstreitigkeiten” and “Rundschreiben an sämtliche Bezirkshauptmannschaften,” in Leutwein, Elf Jahre Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, 561–63. On the cancellation of the ordinance, see BArch RKA 1001/2117, “Denkschrift über Eingeborenen-Politik und Hereroaufstand in Deutsch-Südwestafrika.”
52 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Rhenish Mission Deputation to Stübel, April 21, 1902.
53 VEM RMG 2.615, Herero Conference Protocol, Waterberg, 28 April–7 May 1901.
54 See, for example, Lothar Engel, who argues that the Mission saw any system that brought order as de facto legitimate. Lothar Engel, “Die Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft und die deutsche Kolonialherrschaft in Südwestafrika 1884–1915,” in Imperialismus und Kolonialmission: Kaiserliches Deutschland und koloniales Imperium, ed. Klaus J. Bade (Wiesbaden: Steiner Verlag, 1982), 150–51. J. Lukas de Vries also sees Lutheran “Two Kingdoms” theology as a reason for the missionaries’ failure to question the colonial project on a fundamental level. J. Lukas de Vries, Mission and Colonialism in Namibia (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1978).
55 VEM RMG 2.615, Rhenish Mission Deputation to Hereroland Conference, late 1899 (no exact date).
56 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from von François to Caprivi, November 22, 1892.
57 André Saenger, “Land Policy of the Rhenish Mission Society in German South West Africa from 1890 to 1904: The Effects of the Rietmond-Kalkfontein case,” in The German Protestant Church in Colonial Southern Africa: The Impact of Overseas Work from the Beginnings until the 1920, ed. Hanns Lessing, Julia Besten, Tilman Dedering, Christian Hohmann, and Lize Kriel (Wiesbaden: Herrassowitz Verlag, 2012), 542–47.
58 Saenger, “Land Policy of the Rhenish Mission Society in German South West Africa from 1890 to 1904,” 542.
59 Saenger, “Land Policy of the Rhenish Mission Society in German South West Africa from 1890 to 1904,” 542–47.
60 Leutwein, Elf Jahre Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, 271.
61 On the mission's preferences for owning reservation land, see BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Schreiber to Richthofen, January 26, 1897; VEM RMG 14, Rhenish Mission Deputation Meeting Protocol, February 8, 1897. For the Imperial Ordinance, see Deutsches Kolonialblatt, April 15, 1898, 199–200.
62 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, April 2, 1897.
63 Leutwein, Elf Jahre Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, 271.
64 Glocke, Zur Geschichte der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft in Deutsch-Südwestafrika unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Kolonialkrieges von 1904 bis 1907, 111–12.
65 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Schreiber to Richthofen, January 26, 1897.
66 BRMG 1903, 166, quoted in Glocke, Zur Geschichte der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft in Deutsch-Südwestafrika unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Kolonialkrieges von 1904 bis 1907, 112.
67 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Schreiber to Stübel, October 14, 1901.
68 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Rhenish Mission Deputation to Stübel, April 21, 1902.
69 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Rhenish Mission Deputation to Stübel, October 14, 1901.
70 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Schreiber to Stübel, Barmen, February 12, 1901.
71 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Rhenish Mission Deputation to Stübel, October 14, 1901.
72 VEM RMG 14, Rhenish Mission Deputation Meeting Notes, March 10, 1902.
73 BArch RKA 1001/1218, Rhenish Mission Deputation to Stübel, April 21, 1902.
74 Steinmetz, The Devil's Handwriting, 18.
75 VEM RMG 2.523, Waterberg Station Report to Rhenish Mission Deputation, May 6, 28 and 30, 1899.
76 BArch Kaiserliches Gouvernement in Deutsch-Südwestafrika (R 151 F)/W.II.E.9 vol. 1, German translation of contract, Otjozondjupa, May 29, 1899, signed by Kambazembi, his sons Kaonjongoa and Salatiel, witnesses Johannes and Eliphas, and, representing the Christian community, missionary Eich and the elders Philemon and Timotheus.
77 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.9 vol. 1, letter from Lt. Eggers to Imperial Government in Windhoek, December 13, 1899.
78 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.9 vol. 1, letter from Lt. Eggers to Imperial Government in Windhoek, December 13, 1899.
79 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.9 vol. 1, letter from Lt. Eggers to Imperial Government in Windhoek, December 13, 1899.
80 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.9 vol. 1, letter from Lt. Eggers to Imperial Government in Windhoek, December 13, 1899.
81 BArch RKA 1001/1218, Rhenish Mission Deputation to Stübel, April 21, 1902.
82 BArch RKA 1001/1218, Rhenish Mission Deputation to Stübel, April 21, 1902.
83 BArch RKA 1001/1218, Report by First Lieutenant and Divisional Commander Kuhn, Berlin, February 19, 1902.
84 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Colonial Department, April 18, 1901.
85 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Colonial Department, April 18, 1901.
86 Oermann, Mission, Church and State Relations in South West Africa under German Rule (1884–1915), 88.
87 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Colonial Department, April 18, 1901.
88 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Colonial Department, April 18, 1901.
89 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Colonial Department, April 18, 1901.
90 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Colonial Department, April 18, 1901.
91 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Leutwein to Colonial Department, April 18, 1901.
92 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Rhenish Mission Deputation to Stübel, October 14, 1901.
93 BArch RKA 1001/1218, letter from Colonial Department to Schreiber, November 27, 1901.
94 BArch RKA 1001/1218, “Zur Verhandlung steht die Frage der Schaffung von Eingeborenen-Reservaten in Hereroland” (copy), Berlin, November 14, 1902.
95 BArch RKA 1001/1218, “Zur Verhandlung steht die Frage der Schaffung von Eingeborenen-Reservaten in Hereroland” (copy), Berlin, November 14, 1902.
96 BArch RKA 1001/1218, “Zur Verhandlung steht die Frage der Schaffung von Eingeborenen-Reservaten in Hereroland” (copy), Berlin, November 14, 1902.
97 BArch RKA 1001/1218, “Zur Verhandlung steht die Frage der Schaffung von Eingeborenen-Reservaten in Hereroland” (copy), Berlin, November 14, 1902.
98 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.9 vol. 1, letter from Eich to Imperial Government, September 11, 1899.
99 N. Mossolow, Waterberg: On the History of the Mission Station Otjozondjupa, the Kambazembi Tribe and Hereroland (Windhoek, Namibia: John Meinert Ltd., 1993), 30–32.
100 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.9 vol. 1, letter from Streitwolf to Imperial Government, December 7, 1901.
101 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.9 vol. 1, letter from Streitwolf to Imperial Government, December 7, 1901. Emphasis in original.
102 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.4 vol. 1, circular from Leutwein to Divisional Command Karibib-Otjimbingue and District Office Omaruru, January 31, 1902.
103 VEM RMG 2.660, letter from Diehl to Schreiber, Okahandja, October 22, 1903.
104 VEM RMG 2.660, letter from Diehl to Schreiber, Okahandja, October 22, 1903.
105 Gewald, Herero Heroes, 147.
106 VEM RMG 2.615, Hereroland Conference Protocol, Omaruru, April 20–28, 1902.
107 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.4 vol. 1, letter from Olpp to Leutwein, Otjimbingue, August 16, 1902.
108 Gewald, Herero Heroes, 141–46. Gewald's chapter “Ovita Ovia Zürn, Zürn's War“ lays out Gewald's argument for German initiation of the war, against the hitherto prevailing explanation that viewed the war as originally a revolt against German rule.
109 Gewald, Herero Heroes, 191.
110 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.10 vol. 1, Note added by Richter on February 8, 1904, to a report from Kuhn to Imperial Government, Karibib, November 14, 1903.
111 BArch R 151 F/W.II.E.4 vol. 1, copy of letter from Leutwein to Colonial Department, June 28, 1904.
112 VEM RMG 2.620, Friedrich Bernsmann, “Sind Eingebornen-Reservaten erwünscht?“ Otjimbingue, September, 1906. The minutes for the conference meeting at which Bernsmann presented his essay indicate that all of the missionaries agreed that reservations were no long feasible or desirable. VEM RMG 2.616, Hereroland Conference Protocol, Otjimbingue, September 15–26, 1906.
113 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 25.
114 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 25, and Bley, South-West Africa under German Rule, 1894–1914, 159.
115 Olusoga, David and Erichsen, Casper W, The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism (London: Faber and Faber, 2010), 138Google Scholar.
116 For a comprehensive account of the development and implementation of this system of control, see Zimmerer, Deutsche Herrschaft über Afrikaner.