History of Namibia
Africa
Africa is most definitely thought out to be the birthplace of each descendant of the human species living on earth today. From the origin of Africa, the earliest people to live on Earth ventured into Asia, across the long-vanished land bridge to the Americas, across the Pacific island chains to Australasia, as well as the lands north of the Mediterranean Sea. Many thousands of years later, due to their adventures across the Earth, European descendants were able to gained glory and wealth by rediscovering the southern hemisphere, and digging it up to rediscover the past. These descendents, after there new advancements of power, thought it out to be okay to treat the native inhabitants of Africa with brutality, indifference and disrespect. White Europeans then disrupted the African life with their thoughts of hierarchy. Some of these acts included the force of making the black Africans to become slaves, depriving black people of their homes, communities and cultures by sweeping through their lands with complete destruction, changing African natives religion to fit their own, as well as occupying their territory. The African soil contained much desirability, this land contained endless opportunities of new territory, new possessions and new trade, both for individuals and their countries, which is why these investors thought of these lands to be so desirable. Not only did this land have endless opportunities of power, yet it also contained other valuables of riches as well.
Namibia
Along the coastline of Namibia runs the Namib desert, a 1,200 mile long strip of unwelcoming sand dunes and barren rock. Behind it is the central mountain plateau, and east of that the Kalahari desert. Namibia's scarcest commodity is water: this is a country of little rainfall, and the rivers don't always run. But the very sand of the Skeleton Coast is the dust of gemstones; uranium, tin and tungsten can be mined in the central Namib, and copper in the north; and in the south there are diamonds. Namibia also has gold, silver, lithium, and natural gas. For most of the region's history, only metal was of interest to the native tribes. These tribes lived and traded together more or less peacefully, each with their own particular way of living, wherever the land was fertile enough. The San were nomads, hunters and gatherers. The Damara hunted and worked copper. The Ovambo grew crops in the north, where there was more rain, but also worked in metal. The Nama and the Herero were livestock farmers, and they were the two main tribes in the 1840s when the Germans (first missionaries, then settlers, the soldiers) began arriving in South West Africa.
Before the Germans, only a few Europeans had visited it: explorers, traders and sailors. They opened up trade outlets for ivory and cattle; they also brought in firearms, with which they traded for Namib treasures. Later, big guns and European military systems were introduced. The tribes now settled their disputes with lethal violence: corruption of a peaceful culture was under way.
In the 1880s Germany made South West Africa their own colony, and settlers moved in, followed by a military governor who knew little about running a colony and nothing at all about Africa. Major Theodor Leutwein began by playing off the Nama and Herero tribes against each other. More and more white settlers arrived, pushing tribesmen off their cattle-grazing lands with bribes and unreliable deals. The Namibian diamonds were discovered, attracting yet more incomers with a lust for wealth.
Tribal cattle-farmers had other problems, too: a cattle-virus epidemic in the late 1890s killed much of their livestock. The colonists offered the Herero aid on credit. As a result the farmers amassed large debts, and when they couldn't pay them off the colonists simply seized what cattle were left. In January 1904, the Herero, desperate to regain their livelihoods, rebelled. Under their leader Samuel Maharero they began to attack the numerous German outposts. They killed German men, but spared women, children, missionaries, and the English or Boer farmers whose support they didn't want to lose.
At the same time, the Nama chief, Hendrik Witbooi, wrote a letter to Theodor Leutwein, telling him what the native Africans thought of their invaders, who had taken their land, deprived them of their rights to pasture their animals on it, used up the scanty water supplies, and imposed alien laws and taxes. His hope was that Leutwein would recognise the injustice and do something about it.