Herero

Herero (hərār`ō), Bantu people, mainly in Namibia and Botswana. They number about 75,000. A pastoral tribe noted for their large cattle herds, the Herero probably migrated from the region of Lake Tanganyika in the 18th cent. They warred against their neighbors, the Khoikhoi, and enslaved many smaller tribes. Their territory was annexed (1885) as a part of German South West Africa, and from 1903 to 1907 they rebelled against German rule and were almost exterminated. In more recent times the Herero have often pressed for independence.

Bibliography

See J. M. White, The Land God Made in Anger (1969).

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Herero

Group of closely related Bantu-speaking peoples of southern Africa (central Namibia, eastern Botswana, southern Angola). The Herero formerly subsisted mainly on the milk and meat of their cattle, but after European contact in the mid 19th century many came to depend on horticulture as well. A series of uprisings against German colonial encroachment (1904–07) led to the extermination of some four-fifths of their population and the resettlement of survivors in the mostly inhospitable sand veld of the western Kalahari. Contemporary estimates number the Herero at more than 200,000.