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Who colonized Namibia?

Southern Africa — the powers that ruled Namibia, the dates, and what independence did and did not change.

In short

Who colonized Namibia?

Germany, then South Africa. German South West Africa was established in 1884 and carried out the twentieth century's first genocide against the Herero and Nama; South Africa ruled from 1915 until independence on 21 March 1990.

Namibia carries the first genocide of the twentieth century. General von Trotha's 1904 extermination order drove the Herero into the Omaheke desert and closed the waterholes behind them.

Reference

Who ruled Namibia, and when

before 1884
Herero, Nama, Ovambo and Damara polities
1884–1915
German South West Africa
1915–1990
South African mandate and occupation

At a glance

Key facts

Colonising powers
Germany, South Africa
Independence
21 March 1990
Herero killed
Roughly 80% of the population, 1904–08
Nama killed
Roughly 50% of the population
Recognition
Germany acknowledged the genocide in 2021, offering development funds

Chronology

Key dates

  1. 1884

    Germany declares a protectorate.

  2. 1904

    Von Trotha's extermination order against the Herero.

  3. 1904–08

    Genocide; Shark Island and other camps.

  4. 1915

    South Africa occupies the territory.

  5. 1966–89

    Liberation war led by SWAPO.

  6. 2021

    Germany formally recognises the genocide.

Context

What the record shows

The camps that followed, including Shark Island, combined forced labour with medical experimentation — practices later echoed in Europe.

Questions

Frequently asked

Who colonised Namibia?
Germany from 1884 to 1915, then South Africa until independence in 1990.
What was the Herero and Nama genocide?
The systematic extermination of the Herero and Nama peoples by German colonial forces between 1904 and 1908, killing roughly 80% of Herero and 50% of Nama.
When did Namibia become independent?
21 March 1990.

Read on

Related in the archive

References

Sources — colonial Namibia

  1. [1]Bartolomé de las Casas, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (Seville, 1552).
  2. [2]Noble David Cook, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650 (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
  3. [3]Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America (Monthly Review Press, 1971; English 1973).
  4. [4]Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost (Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
  5. [5]Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa (Random House, 1991).
  6. [6]Shashi Tharoor, Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India (Hurst, 2017).
  7. [7]Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (Henry Holt, 2005).
  8. [8]Alfred W. McCoy, Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State (Wisconsin, 2009).
  9. [9]Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019).
  10. [10]Jürgen Zimmerer, "The birth of the Ostland out of the spirit of colonialism", Patterns of Prejudice 39:2 (2005), on the German South-West Africa → Holocaust lineage.
  11. [11]Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bogle-L'Ouverture, 1972).
  12. [12]Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I (1867), Chapter 31 ("Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist").

All works cited in good faith for documentary, educational and critical use. Errors and omissions: contact the archive.