Herero Heroes

[Terrance]

At the end of the Herero-German war a majority of the Herero
in GSWA were professed Christians and lived in POW camps.
Some of them were starved to skeletons with hollow eyes,
powerless and hopeless, afflicted by serious diseases,
particularly with dysentery, Here death reaped
harvest...they died in droves...lack of care, exhaustion
from hard labor, feelingless Germans and their Shambok
[rawhide whip].  The POWs were put to work on various
civilian and military projects. Had it not been for the
missionaries many more would have died. Most Herero
converted to Christianity, the Catholics and the Lutherans
clashed and fought over the  Herero evangelists and the
Herero souls. The denominations were divided. Why did the
Herero convert? To argue that the Herero became Christians
because they had to or for secular gains does not quite do
justice to the personal professions of faith expressed by
the Herero, they converted for a variety of reasons,
including protection and information, but also for identity
and solace. 
Also, those Herero that did not have this protection were
more likely to be considered war criminals and were hanged,
though Christian converts were also executed, many of these
believed that their fates were very much the same as the
sufferings described in the  Old Testament or that the
Father had called them to be murdered by soldiers as they
had been taught his own son Jesus had been murdered. Love
slaves were so common. concubines, and boys, catamites,
paramours, whatever term you prefer. 

How many Herero boys were taken to Germany by German
soldiers? 

After the war substantial numbers of orphans were taken into
German military service as bambusen. It was so common for
German officers to have bambusen that the Woreman line had
special reduced transport prices  for 'Boys' returning to
Germany with their masters. 

Eric Rosenbloom wrote:
> 
> The Herero it seems are for Pynchon a model of what we all must come to
> terms with, the hateful legacy upon which our present-day lives are built.
> 
> --Eric R
> 
> Terrance wrote:
> > In 1915 the German occupation of Nambia was replaced by
> > South African occupation. On account of the South African
> > invasion, the young Herero who had become German soldiers
> > were left leaderless and without the social structure that
> > had given them status and identity. Left in limbo these
> > young men created a new social structure, based on that
> > which they knew best, the German army.
> >
> > *Herero Heroes* by Jan-Bart Gewald
> 
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