The Herero Genocide (1904-1908)

The Herero Genocide (1904-1908)

Between the years 1904 and 1908, the German Empire waged war against the Nama, San, and the Herero in Namibia, by then commonly known as the German southwest Africa (Baer). It was during the period when Namibia was a German colony before the English colonists took over after World War I. The war began in 1904 after the Herero uprising against the brutal German rules. The leader of the German colonial forces issued an official extermination order, which led to the loss of land and property by many citizens of Namibia. Following the uprising, the German soldiers drove to the villages occupied by Herero and killed many innocent people, including women and children. The play by “We are proud to present… ” by Jackie Sibblies Drury represents the circumstances, effects, and the end of the Herero genocide in Namibia.

The title of the play reveals the difficulty of the project that Jackie prepares to illustrate the genocide of Herero. The play has the title, “We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, between the Years 1884-1915)” (Willis, 201). Usually, most of the scriptwriters chose a simple and straight to the point topic to the audience. However, Jackie chose an unwieldy title, preparing the audience for a unique experience. The title indicates the expected information from the play as it includes the central theme, ‘About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly known as Southwest Africa.’ (Drury)

The settings at the beginning of the play represent the theme of genocide, with six actors who come up with a theater piece representing the genocide in the German colony in South West Africa during the beginning of the 20^th century (Hatton, 715). The actors enter the room while doing different things such as munching chips, on small talks, others on a bike. The beginning scene presents a world where everything is normal. The actors seem to lead a healthy life as they make small talks and limber on the day to day activities. These actors greet each other and hug, which indicates that they are in a jovial mood. The opening scene represents the kind of life that the San, Herero, and Nam lead before the genocide. Before the invasion of the Germans in Namibia, the Herero led peaceful lives. In was after the Germans landed in the country that their way of life changed.

Jack begins the play with an introductory lecture from the actors, which paves the way for the events in the play (Drury). In the introduction, the actors narrate the circumstances leading to the genocide of the Herero in Namibia. The audience has an overview of the Namibia genocide through the introductory lecture. The use of audiovisual in the lecture improves the understanding of the history of Namibia. The introduction prepares the audience for the war and the killings of the Herero people.

Jackie uses the theme of racism in the play to bring out the causes of the Herero genocide. The characters in the play use the names which detonate their skin color, such as ‘black man’ ‘black woman’ ‘white man.’ The official extermination order operated based on race. The Germans had power over the Africans, thus could acquire their land and cattle. Any African man who occupied land belonging to a German would be hanged. Any German person who took property belonging to an African had the right to own. The play shows that racism was the leading cause of the Genocide in Namibia. The German colony discriminated Africans and favored Germans. It was the threat of being overthrown by the Africans that the German soldiers massacred the Africans in Herero. The theme of the Herero Genocide has been represented through the naming of the characters according to their races.

Jackie uses bloody facts while writing the script, which supports the theme of genocide (Fisher, 175). For example, “the general issues an extermination order” “Eighty percent of the Herero have been exterminated. Those that survived the camps were used as a source of unpaid labor by the German settlers. And in this way, the German regime continued…” (Drury). The word extermination refers to the mass killing of animals or people. The use of the word in the play shows the nature of the circumstances surrounding the genocide of the Herero. The Germans had the practice of favoring one tribe over another. The forced labor and the tribalism contributed to the uprising of the Herero. Consequently, the slaughtering of people led to the Herero Genocide. Jackie achieves the goal of explaining the genocide to the audience through the use of cruel terms and phrases.

Jackie uses technology to help the audience understand the Herero genocide in Namibia. The application of audiovisual is evident in the opening scenes of the play. The technology helps the audience understand the history of Namibia. Through technology, the audience has a clear image of the location and countries bordering Namibia. The modernist and post-modernist practices in a theatrical context aim at turning spectators into actors (Willis). The contemporary performance and visual art show the aspect taken by the text-based theatre. The current theater practices emphasize on the use of visual and audio aids to help the audience understand the theme of the play.

The actors use the little knowledge that they have on the colonization of Namibia by Germans to develop the topic of genocide. The actors use letters that narrate people’s experiences during the German rule. At some point in the play, the actors seem to have contradicting views on the issue. During the show, the black actors get angry over the fact that the white actors think they are making up the genocide story (Magelssen, 576). According to the white actors, the letters do not provide enough proof that the genocide occurred. The white actors who play as the oppressors, disregard the accusations by the black actors, the victims, that they suffered mass killing during the reign of the Germans. As a result, the black actors let the white actors tell their version of the story. A discussion arises from which version of the story should be used in the play. The argument on sticking to the historical perspective of the Herero genocide threatens the flexibility of the play. One of the white actors claims that the letters are unreliable since they do not describe the native perspective of the genocide. The letters are one-sided, giving only the view of the foreigners in the country. These arguments in the play make it interesting for the audience. The use of letters to describe the genocide in Namibia is a primary source that improves on the accuracy of the story.

The play is a representation of the history of Africans in Namibia, which includes the genocide of Herero (Mboti, 320). Jackie writes the play concentrating on the historical perspective of the African nations. The use of the issue of colonization helps in constructing the theme of genocide. The genocide of Herero emerges from the colonization of Namibia by the Germans. Greed contributed to the division of the Namibia tribes and the declaration of the order of extermination. The play shows the unity of the African nations despite being colonized and controlled by the Germans. The Germans saw the unity as a threat to their authority in Namibia. Thus, the attempt to divide the Namibia people into tribal lines. When the division failed, the Germans used force to kill the Herero. The play brings out the unity of the African tribes in Namibia. The setting of the play in the early twentieth century indicates that it addresses an issue that took place a particular period in history.

The introduction lecture of the play shows that the oppression of the Africans in Namibia by the Germans ended after its acquisition by the English people (Aragay and Enric). The play shows that the Africans in Namibia were always under oppression from one colonial master to the other. During the era of the German rule, while the Germans killed the Herero, some of them were capture and worked as slaves. The Herero genocide portrays the white person as a ruthless person while the black person is oppressed. The constant abuse of power by the white people in Africa is a way to trace the history of racial discrimination. The Herero genocide shows the extent to which the white people would go to keep their power. The actors illustrate the violence in the play, which is a reflection of the genocide of the Herero. Although the ending of the play is not as expected, Jackie shows the end of the German oppression on the Africans.

In conclusion, Jackie illustrates the issue of the Herero genocide in Namibia by taking the audience through the causes and the ending of the genocide. The use of race-sensitive names to refer to actors shows the theme of racism that the Germans exploited to separate the Africans. The introductory lecture gives the audience a background of Namibia, which paves the way for the play. The letters from individuals who had the German rule experience in Namibia offer primary information. Jackie’s play represents many themes, especially on the history of Africans. However, the Herero genocide remains to be the dominant topic in the play.

Work Cited

Aragay, Mireia, and Enric Monforte. “Introduction: Theatre and Spectatorship–Meditations on Participation, Agency, and Trust.” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English 4.1           (2016): 3-20.

Baer, Elizabeth R. The Genocidal Gaze: From German Southwest Africa to the Third Reich. Wayne State University Press, 2017.

Drury, Jackie Sibblies. We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915. A&C Black, 2014.

Fisher, Tony. “Thinking without Authority: performance philosophy as the democracy of thought.” Performance Philosophy 1.1 (2015): 175-184.

Hatton, Oona. “We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-       1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury.” Theatre Journal 67.4 (2015): 713-716.

Magelssen, Scott. “Theatricality, Dark Tourism, and Ethical Spectatorship: Absent Others by Emma Willis.” Theatre Journal 67.3 (2015): 576-577.

Mboti, Nyasha. “To show the world as it is, or as it is not: The gaze of Hollywood films about Africa.” African Identities 8.4 (2010): 317-332.

Willis, Emma. “Metatheatre and Dramaturgies of Reception in Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud to Present…” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, vol. 4, no. 1, 2016, pp. 196-211.

Willis, Emma. “Third term and dramatic character-‘it are going to have to remain complicated’.” “Theatre and Spectatorship” 24th Annual Conference of the German Society for   Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English (CDE). 2015.