Hereroland
{{short description|Former Bantustan in South-West Africa (now Namibia)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox country
|native_name =
|conventional_long_name = Hereroland
|common_name = Hereroland
|status = Bantustan (1968–1980)
Second-tier authority (1989–1989)
|p1 = South West Africa
|flag_p1 = Flag of South Africa 1928-1994.svg
|s1 = Namibia
|flag_s1 = Flag of Namibia.svg
|image_flag =
|image_coat =
|flag =
|image_map =
|image_map_caption = Location of Bantustan (green) within South West Africa (grey)
|image_map2 =
|image_map2_caption = Map of the Bantustan
|national_motto =
|national_anthem =
|capital = Okakarara
|common_languages =
|title_leader =
|leader1 =
|event_start =
|year_start = 1968
|date_start =
|event_end = Re-integrated into Namibia
|year_end = 1989
|date_end = May
|currency = South African rand
}}
{{Infobox ethnonym|root=Herero|person=OmuHerero|people=OvaHerero|language=OtjiHerero|country=Hereroland}}Hereroland was a Bantustan and later a non-geographic ethnic-based second-tier authority, the Representative Authority of the Hereros, in South West Africa (present day Namibia), intended by the apartheid-era government to be a self-governing homeland for the Herero people.
Geography
Hereroland can be found in present-day eastern Namibia and encompassed parts of the Kalahari Desert. The Bantustan was located under Bushmanland and bordered Botswana to the east.{{Cite web |title=Hereroland {{!}} Namib Desert, Wildlife, Culture |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Hereroland |access-date=2024-03-22 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}
Background
=German colonialism=
South-West Africa, present day Namibia, became a German protectorate in 1884 by the decree of Otto von Bismarck.{{Citation |title=Namibia's Media History |date=2008-12-29 |work=Women Journalists in Namibia's Liberation Struggle Women 1985-1990 |pages=23–32 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh9vts1.7 |access-date=2024-03-22 |publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien|doi=10.2307/j.ctvh9vts1.7 |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Steinmetz |first=George |date=January 2003 |title="The Devil's Handwriting": Precolonial Discourse, Ethnographic Acuity, and Cross-Identification in German Colonialism |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0010417503000045 |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=45 |issue=1 |doi=10.1017/s0010417503000045 |doi-broken-date=13 November 2024 |issn=0010-4175}} In 1904, the Herero, under the leadership of Chief Samuel Maharero, rebelled against the German colonisers.{{Cite journal |last=Bargueno |first=D. |date=2012-12-01 |title=Cash for Genocide? The Politics of Memory in the Herero Case for Reparations |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcs053 |journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=394–424 |doi=10.1093/hgs/dcs053 |issn=8756-6583|url-access=subscription }} In reaction to this rebellion, Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha was sent to end the Herero uprising. The German – Herero War, which started in 1904 and lasted until 1907, led to the decimation of the Herero society. It is estimated that the Herero population consisted of roughly 80000 – 100000 Herero people before the German-Herero War, however only roughly 16000 Herero people survived. Between 1904 and 1908, tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people were tortured, starved in the Kalahari desert or shot as retaliation for the Herero rebellion which is known as the Herero genocide.{{Citation |last=Shigwedha |first=Vilho Amukwaya |title=The return of Herero and Nama bones from Germany: the victims' struggle for recognition and recurring genocide memories in Namibia |date=2017-01-05 |work=Human Remains in Society |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9781526107381.003.0009 |access-date=2024-03-22 |publisher=Manchester University Press|doi=10.7228/manchester/9781526107381.003.0009 |isbn=978-1-5261-0738-1 |url-access=subscription }} After this war, the surviving Herero people were prohibited from practising their religion, were barred from possessing livestock or land, as well as unable to have chiefs as per their traditional customs.{{Cite journal |last=GEWALD |first=JAN-BART |date=March 1999 |title=THE ROAD OF THE MAN CALLED LOVE AND THE SACK OF SERO: THE HERERO–GERMAN WAR AND THE EXPORT OF HERERO LABOUR TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN RAND |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021853798007294 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=21–40 |doi=10.1017/s0021853798007294 |hdl=1887/4826 |issn=0021-8537|hdl-access=free }} Most of the survivors were made up of children and women and they were either conscripted to forced labour or were imprisoned in camps.
=South African control=
South African forces took control of the German colony South-West Africa during World War One (1914–1918). This later led to the creation of Bantustans, such as the Hereroland.
Administrative history
=Bantustan (1968–1980)=
{{Plain image with caption|image=Plan Odendaal.png|caption=Allocation of land to Bantustans according to the Odendaal Plan. Hereroland is in the north-east.|width=300}}
Hereroland was established as a geographically defined Bantustan under the Odendaal Plan in 1968.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQFXEAAAQBAJ&dq=hereroland+homeland&pg=PA96|title=Ruling Nature, Controlling People: Nature Conservation, Development and War in North-Eastern Namibia since the 1920s
|year=2018|last=Lenggenhager|first=Luregn|publisher=African Books Collective|isbn=978-3906927015|page=96}} Because of internal strife among different Herero groups, no unified institutions were established for the Herero people until 1980. Two districts of Hereroland (West and East) were formed in 1970. The chief of Hereroland West, Clemens Kapuuo, claimed to be the paramount chief of all Hereros since 1970, but this claim was not recognized by the other Herero groups.{{Cite book|title=A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1972|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofracerela00horr|url-access=registration|publisher=South African Institute of Race Relations|year=1973|pages=[https://archive.org/details/surveyofracerela00horr/page/449 449]}}, {{Cite book|title=A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1975|publisher=South African Institute of Race Relations|year=1976|pages=340}}
=Representative authority (1980–1989)=
Following the Turnhalle Constitutional Conference the system of Bantustans was replaced in 1980 by Representative Authorities which functioned on the basis of ethnicity only and were no longer based on geographically defined areas.
The Representative Authority of the Hereros had executive and legislative competencies, being made up of elected Legislative Assemblies which would appoint Executive Committees led by chairmen.
As second-tier authorities, forming an intermediate tier between central and local government, the representative authorities had responsibility for land tenure, agriculture, education up to primary level, teachers' training, health services, and social welfare and pensions and their Legislative Assemblies had the ability to pass legislation known as Ordinances.https://www.lac.org.na/laws/1982/whi23.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=August 2024}}
The Turnhalle Constitutional Conference and the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance
The Turnhalle Constitutional Conference was called together on 1 September 1975, supported and sponsored by apartheid South Africa.{{Citation |title=States and Namibia's long march to statehood |date=2019-04-22 |work=International Law in Namibia |pages=129–152 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvhn07sv.12 |access-date=2024-03-22 |publisher=Langaa RPCIG|doi=10.2307/j.ctvhn07sv.12 |url-access=subscription }} The target of the Conference was to develop a constitution for South-West Africa, while still being under the control of South Africa.{{Cite journal |last=Whelan |first=Elizabeth M. |date=September 1977 |title=New Council |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00017285-197709000-00010 |journal=Nutrition Today |volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=44 |doi=10.1097/00017285-197709000-00010 |issn=0029-666X|url-access=subscription }} This unique moment in Namibia's history was the first time that leaders and chiefs from different ethnic and tribal groups were allowed to come together and have political discussions about the future of Namibia's constitution. Many religious institutions in Namibia were opposed to this because it was organised by Apartheid South Africa.{{Cite journal |last=Gewald |first=Jan-Bart |date=September 2004 |title=Who killed Clemens Kapuuo? |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305707042000254100 |journal=Journal of Southern African Studies |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=559–576 |doi=10.1080/0305707042000254100 |hdl=1887/4851 |issn=0305-7070|hdl-access=free }} Andre du Pisani, a Namibian political scientist, stated on the involvement of the Herero through the Chief Clemens Kapuuo that:
{{Blockquote|For most local observers Clemens Kapuuo's decision to participate in the Turnhalle constitutional conference came as a surprise, for here was a man openly opposed to South Africa's policies of ethnic fragmentation in Namibia. Furthermore, he had gone so far as to petition South Africa at the United Nations, and had previously rejected the Prime Minister's Advisory Council (the institutional predecessor of the constitutional conference) on the grounds that South Africa had no right to establish such a body.|}}
The South-West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) did not attend this conference due to the lack of autonomy, as well as the United Nations (UN) condemning the creation of the constitution due to the lack of its independence from South Africa. However, while this conference was critiqued by various institutions and political parties, it also was an important step for the constitutional development in Namibia.
Clemens Kapuuo, the chief of the Herero, as well as Dirk Mudge, who was the chairman of the conference and an associate of the white minority rule, formed the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) which was promoted by the apartheid regime in South Africa. The new constitution set up a parliamentary regime, a decentralised government that was based on ethnic authorities, as well as a bill of rights. The UN and SWAPO did not recognise the new South-West African constitution which had been supported by Apartheid South Africa.
South African General Administrator
After the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, South Africa introduced a General Administrator who abolished white representation within the Namibian government, as well as other apartheid laws. In 1985 the last South-West African General Administrator, Louis Pienaar, worked together with Martti Ahtisaari, who worked as a representative of the United Nations, to ensure the transition of the independence for Namibia.{{Cite journal |date=2023-07-13 |title='I beg to be remembered': Lister, Public History and Popular Culture |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781009280723.017 |journal=Decoding Anne Lister |pages=217–268 |doi=10.1017/9781009280723.017|isbn=978-1-009-28072-3 |url-access=subscription }} They accomplished the transition from South African control to agreements on electoral processes and peacekeeping for Namibia in 1989. This change in policy then led to the abolition of the homelands, such as Hereroland, and to the Namibian independence in 1990.
Fight for liberation and transition to independence
In 1960, as part of a liberation movement, the South-West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was created and SWAPO's military, known as the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), started a guerilla war in 1966 which led to the end of the illegal occupation of South Africa over South-West Africa in 1988.
The United Nations (UN) created the United Nations Resolution Plan 435 which implemented democratic elections and the first president Sam Nujoma and his party, the South-West African People's Organisation, was elected in 1989. The independence of Namibia ended after more than 100 years of colonial rule.
Leaders of Hereroland
=Hosea Kutako=
Hosea Kutako was a figurehead of the nationalist resistance against South Africa. Chief Hosea Kuatko was born in 1870 in Okahurimehi and he fought in the German – Herero War (1904 – 1907).{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh9vw19 |title=Building Bridges |date=2010-12-29 |publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien |doi=10.2307/j.ctvh9vw19 |isbn=978-3-905758-45-0 |editor-last=Henrichsen |editor-first=Dag |editor-last2=Jacobson |editor-first2=Naomi |editor-last3=Marshall |editor-first3=Karen}} He later worked various jobs, amongst them as a teacher and a miner. He was appointed as the headman of the Herero tribe in 1917.{{Cite journal |last=McCullers |first=Molly |date=June 2013 |title='The Time of the United Nations in South West Africa is Near': Local Drama and Global Politics in Apartheid-Era Hereroland |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2013.795810 |journal=Journal of Southern African Studies |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=371–389 |doi=10.1080/03057070.2013.795810 |issn=0305-7070|url-access=subscription }} He became a founding member of the South-West African National Union (SWANU), as well as being considered one of the early leaders of Namibia.{{Citation |title=Biography of Chief Hosea Kutako |date=2010-12-29 |work=Building Bridges |pages=111–114 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh9vw19.14 |access-date=2024-03-22 |publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien|doi=10.2307/j.ctvh9vw19.14 |url-access=subscription }} He died at 100 years old in 1970.
=Clemens Kapuuo=
Clemens Kapuuo, who was born on 16 March 1923 in Teufelsbach in Okahandja, was a Namibian nationalist and the successor to Chief Hosea Kutako.{{Citation |title=Political Parties |date=2010-12-29 |work=Building Bridges |pages=110 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh9vw19.13 |access-date=2024-03-22 |publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien|doi=10.2307/j.ctvh9vw19.13 |url-access=subscription }} He went to St Barnabas College and later trained as a teacher. He became one of Hosea Kutako's representatives and secretaries. The new chief and politician fought against colonial rule, however later he became controversial due to his involvement in the Turnhalle Conference in 1975 which was sponsored by apartheid South Africa. On the 27 March 1978 Chief Clemens Kapuuo was assassinated near Windhoek.{{Cite journal |title=farmers-leader-assassinated |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-0564-1162 |access-date=2024-03-22 |website=Human Rights Documents online|doi=10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-0564-1162 |url-access=subscription }} This was a result of the rivalry between the SWAPO, which was supported by the USSR, and the party known as the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, of which Kapuuo was president.{{Citation |last=Tafira |first=Hashi Kenneth |title=The Black Nationalist Movement in Azania |date=2016 |work=Black Nationalist Thought in South Africa |pages=15–42 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58650-6_2 |access-date=2024-03-22 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-58650-6_2 |isbn=978-1-137-59087-9|url-access=subscription }}
=Kuaima Riruako=
Kuaima Riruako, who was born in 1935 at Aminius in Omaheke, became an Ovaherero chief in 1978. He also co-founded the political party known as the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) in 1964. He was forced into exile in 1964, but returned in 1977. Riruako was known for fighting for the restitution and acknowledgment of the Herero genocide from the German government. The chief died at the age of 79 in 2014.
=Thimoteus Tjamuaha=
Thimoteus Tjamuaha was the chairman of the executive committee from December 1980 until September 1984 for the Hereroland.{{Citation |last=Shelef |first=Nadav G. |title=Understanding Homelands |date=2020-07-15 |work=Homelands |pages=8–34 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9780801453489.003.0002 |access-date=2024-03-22 |publisher=Cornell University Press|doi=10.7591/cornell/9780801453489.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-8014-5348-9 |url-access=subscription }}
=Erastus Tjejamba=
Erastus Tjejamba was born in 1936 and twice became the chairman of the executive committee for the Hereroland: the first time was from September 1984 until August 1987 and the second time was from October 1987 until February 1988.
=Gottlob Mbaukua=
Gottlob Hengombe Mbaukua was born in 1935 and was elected as the chairman of the executive committee of the Hereroland from August 1987 until October 1987 and from February 1988 until May 1989. He also worked as a Non-European clerk in 1960.{{Citation |title=United Nations Organisation (1961)
Reparations for the Herero and Nama genocide
For the last couple of decades, the Herero people have been fighting for reparations for the Herero and Nama genocide which led to the death of roughly 80% of the Ovaherero and the death of over 40% of the Nama people, as well as the loss of their lands. In 2004 the German development minister gave an apology for the Herero genocide.{{Citation |last=Sooka |first=Yasmin |title=Can an Apology Ever Be Enough for Crimes of the Past? |date=2022-09-29 |work=Unsettling Apologies |pages=29–52 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781529227956.003.0003 |access-date=2024-03-22 |publisher=Policy Press |doi=10.1332/policypress/9781529227956.003.0003 |isbn=978-1-5292-2795-6|url-access=subscription }} In 2021 the German government agreed to pay 1.1 billion Euros as a ‘gesture of reconciliation’. This was the result of negotiations between the German and Namibian government which started in 2015. The United Nations have criticised both governments because they have not included the Herero and Nama people in the reparation discussions and therefore have violated the rights of the Nama and Herero ethnic groups.{{Cite journal |last1=Imani |first1=Sarah |last2=Theurer |first2=Karina |date=2022-09-05 |title=Reparations for colonial crimes - the negotiations between Germany and Namibia as an example for the ambivalent role of the law in these cases |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42597-022-00076-6 |journal=Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=209–227 |doi=10.1007/s42597-022-00076-6 |issn=2192-1741|url-access=subscription }} Furthermore, the declaration of reconciliation in 2021 has not yet been signed by various Nama and Herero organisations due to the criticism that the reparations will be paid to the Namibian government, rather than directly to the Nama and Herero descendants, as well as their demand to be included in the reparation talks.
See also
References
{{Reflist|refs=
Hereroland (1998) <
Namibia’s History,
The Holocaust Explained
Namibia: AG Pienaar Remembered As a Gentleman (2012)
Bust of Chief Hosea Kutako
Kapuuo, Clemens (2021)
Caryle Murohy, Moderate Political Leader Assassinated in Namibia (1978)
Namibian Homelands,
United Nations Organisation (1961)
Viewpoint: Why Germany's Namibia genocide apology is not enough (2021)
}}
{{Bantustans}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hereroland}}
Category:Bantustans in South West Africa
Category:States and territories established in 1968
Category:States and territories disestablished in 1989