Due to the mass European colonization of Africa, genocides were quite common, either by the colonists directly or the race dynamics they created post-departure. In the case of Namibia, the Germans were directly responsible for the mass murder of thousands of Herero men, women, and children.
In the early winter of 1904, the Herero population attacked a German settlement in retaliation for the oppressive policies the Germans had implemented. Around 123 settlers were killed in the attack. This attack, although successful, would prove deadly for the Herero over the next few years.
The Germans slowly overtook the Herero with their superior technology, denying negotiations for surrender in search of retribution. In the battle of Waterberg, between 3,000-5,000 Herero soldiers were killed. However, most Hereros were able to escape to the nearby Omaheke desert.
As thousands of Herero soldiers along with women and children crossed the desert, the German Schutztruppe relentlessly pursued, taking pot shots and poisoning wells along the way. In October 1904, German Commander Lothar von Trotha ordered the murder of every male Herero within German borders.
By the next month, the German government had gotten word of Trotha’s inhumane policy, instead ordering the incarceration of Hereros in internment camps. However, by this point, thousands of Herero had already been slaughtered.
In these incarceration camps, such as shark island, the mortality rate was somewhere between 47-74%. Prisoners were subjected to horrendous hygienic conditions and brutal medical experiments.
In 1905, the Nama organized an uprising against the Germans that also saw them executed or incarcerated over the next two years. In total, around 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama were killed by the Germans in Namibia.
The Germans kept the Herero Nama genocide under wraps for years until the British government posted their findings of the account in 1918. Recently the German government has moved to make reparations and deliver a formal apology to the descendants of the victims and possible monetary compensation for the region.