They sealed the waterholes.
General von Trotha knew that thousands of people with no water, in the Omaheke Desert, would not survive. He didn’t need to shoot every man, woman, and child. He just needed to cut off the exits and poison the waterholes.
“Born of rusted sands and salted tears. Into a land of bones and strangers.”
That image – rusted sands, salted tears – is what the Omaheke looked like by 1904. A landscape that had been home became a killing field without a single shot.
The Herero didn’t all die in battle. Many died of thirst in what became a forced march across the Omaheke, also known as the Kalahari.
Eight days until Remembrance Day. This is the history that Mama Namibia was written to give a face to. Not a statistic. A face. A name. Jahohora.
What do you believe Germany and Namibia still owe each other today?