Title: Samuel Maharero
Author: Gerhard Pool
Genre: Biography, History
Publisher: Gamsberg Macmillan Publishers
Windhoek, Namibia, 1991
0868487385 / ISBN 0-86848-738-5
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 359 pages, several b/w photographs and map sketches
Good. Minimal shelfwear. Inside like new.
During the German colonial era (1884-1915), Hendrik Witbooi and Samuel Maharero, two indigenous leaders with totally divergent natures, dominated the history of Namibia. Much has already been written about Hendrik Witbooi.
To date, however, no comprehensive scientific or even popular work about Samuel Maharero the person has, to my knowledge, been published. In practically every work concerning the history of the German colonial administration in Namibia, attention is focused on Samuel Maharero's role during the period 1890 to 1904. The forces that formed this man's personality and directed his outlook on life during the preceding almost 40 years are largely ignored.
The same is true of the 19 years he continued to live after 1904. During the first approximately 50 years of Samuel's life, the Hereros' were involved in a struggle to hold their own, first against their fellow-countrymen and then against German colonialism. Samuel Maharero's role in this struggle varied from that of spectator in the beginning to that of principal actor at the end. Samuel Maharero, by his own actions as well as due to factors outside his control, was finally forced to choose the direction in which he would lead his people, in a country that had become the target of German colonialism.
He had one of two choices: he could co-operate with the Germans in the hope that a dispensation would develop in which the Herero nation would finally have to relinquish control over its own affairs, but would at least be assured of its continued existence; or he could try to end the German colonial administration by means of violence. Each of these two possibilities was fraught with great personal danger for him. Who was Samuel Maharero and what drove him to plunge the Herero nation into a military conflict with Germany? Possible answers to these questions may be found in the history of the Hereros from about 1830.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
BORN IN SUBJUGATION
STORMY TEENS
IN HIS BROTHER'S SHADOW: 1872 -1880
ENTER THE GERMAN EAGLE : 1880 -1890
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CHIEFTAINSHIP
A SHAKY POWERBASE: 1892 -1893
THE STRUGGLE FOR CHIEFTAINSHIP FLARES UP AGAIN
OWN INTEREST ABOVE NATIONAL INTEREST
EASTERN HEREROLAND: THE APPROACHING CONFLICT
UNDISPUTED CHIEF - NIKODEMUS IS ELIMINATED
THE SPIRIT IS WILLING BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK
"WHERE MUST ALL THESE PEOPl^GO?"
THE DECISION TO FIGHT
"RISE UP AND LET THE WHOLE OF AFRICA FIGHT AGAINST THE GERMANS"
MILITARY STRATEGY: SURPRISE AND SIEGE
SURVIVAL OF THE FIRST GERMAN ONSLAUGHT
LOTHAR VON TROTHA: A FORMIDABLE OPPONENT
SAMUEL ESCAPES AT WATERBERG - AUGUST 1904
THE OMAHEKE: A NATION ALMOST PERISHES
SAMUEL'S SOJOURN IN BECHUANALAND
SAMUEL SETTLES IN THE TRANSVAAL
BACK ON HIS OWN SOIL
SAMUEL MAHARERO: LOOKING BACK
ANNEXURE: A HERERO VERSION OF THIS HISTORY
SOURCES
INDEX
