Maharero

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Maharero (c1820-1890) was a leader of the Herero people of what is now Namibia, and the father of Samuel Maharero.

[edit] Biography

Maharero, also known as Kamaharero, was born about 1820 at Okahandja, the son of Tjamuaha and Otjoruzumo. In 1843 he went with his father to Windhoek to stay with Jonker Afrikaner, whose vassal Tjamuaha was.

When Jonker Afrikaner died, he was succeeded by Christiaan Afrikaner, and Tjamuaha died soon afterwards, on 1861-08-18. Maharero rebelled against the Afrikaners, and at a battle at Otjimbingwe Christiaan Afrikaner was killed.

Christiaan's successor, Jan Jonker Afrikaner did not want to allow the Hereros to escape from his overlordship, and so hostilities continued for several years.

Some traders at Otjimbingwe, notably C.J. Andersson and Frederick Green, considered that the war was bad for trade, and took a hand in organising and leading the Herero army. Green led a force that captured most of the Afrikaners cattle, and on 1864-06-22 there was a decisive battle in which Jan Jonker Afrikaner's forces were defeated.

Dispensing with the services of the traders, Maharero won more battles, and took control of Damaraland, and even sent his forces into Namaqualand. Eventually in 1870 a peace was brokered by C.H. Hahn, a missionary of the Rhenish Missionary Society.

In the decade that followed, many more white traders entered Damaraland, mostly from the Cap-e Colony. Maharero complained to the governor of the Cape Colony about Boers entering the eastern part of the territory. The Cape government sent the Palgrave Commission, and later annexed Walvis Bay in 1878, though this was not actually part of Maharero's territory.

In 1880 there were renewed hostilities between Maharero and Jan Jonker Afrikaner. What was originally a dispute over grazing escalated into a pogrom against all Nama living in Maharero's territory, and over 200 were killed. One who escaped with his life was Hendrik Witbooi, who thereafter led the opposition to Maharero.

Maharero was induced by H.E. Gǒring to place himself under German protection in 1885, but when the Germans failed to protect him from the Nama attacks. Maharero then reopened negotiations with the government of the Cape Colony and repudiated his treaty with the Germans. But by that time the Scramble for Africa was under way, and the Cape Colony government was powerless to intervene, even if it had wanted to. The European powers had by then recognised South West Africa as a German sphere of influence. Maharero then reaffirmed the treaty with the Germans in May 1890, shortly before his death on 1890-10-05.

[edit] Bibliography

• (1972) Dictionary of South African Biography, Vol II. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council. ISBN 0-624-00369-8. 

• Gewald, Jan-Bart (1999). Herero heroes: a socio-political history of the Herero of Namibia 1890-1923. Oxford: James Currey. ISBN 0-85255-749-3.