The Herero Kapitän in the Coat of the Kaiser's Guard

In June, 1894, a succession dispute over the Herero chieftaincy of Okahandja turned violent.  Samuel Maharero, son of the dead chieftain Maharero Tjiamuaha, had a weaker claim under the laws of Herero inheritance than his other rivals.  Samuel and his followers were driven out of Okahandja and took refuge on a hilltop at Osona, about a dozen miles to the South.  There they ran up a German flag and waited for military aid from the colonial authorities who had backed Samuel as Herero paramount chief.  When the soldiers arrived from Windhuk, they were greeted by Samuel's cousin and veld-cornet Assa Riarua, wearing "a uniform of the German Kaiser's French Guard regiment (Jan-Bart Gewald 1999:57)."

Assa Riarua's appearance must indeed have been very striking in the Prussian cuirassier uniform of the elite Imperial Body Guard.  The regular uniform was almost cream colored white wool piped with red.  It had a red stand up collar, facings and cuffs that for the enlisted men were trimmed with white tape and for the officers in heavy silver bullion.  It is not known how Assa came by the uniform, whether it was an enlisted man's or officer's, nor whether it was complete or only included the coat.  Perhaps it was sold to him by a German trader.  The men who served in the Kaiser's guard were all at least six feet tall, and judging from a contemporary photograph taken of Assa in the late 1890s the coat would have been large for him.

A decade later during the German-Herero war, Assa fought in a German uniform and carried a sword.  By that time, his old cuirassier koller may have seen better days, but since we have a description of him wearing it in the 1890s I've decided to paint a mounted figure of Assa in the coat of the Kaiser's bodyguard.

The full uniform, it would have included the gilt helmet of the Guard du Corps, possibly

even surmounted by its ceremonial eagle with outstretched wings instead of a spike.  That seems a stretch, both from an historical point of view and as a practical matter to find a suitable figure to represent an African wearing this uniform.  There is better documentation, though, for a spiked cork sun helmet such as the Schutztruppe wore before 1896.  There is even an image from 1904 of a "Bambuse" - a German officer's native orderly - standing at a railroad siding and wearing what is probably the Schutztruppe tropical helmet authorized in 1891.  I have selected a figure to use for Assa Riarua who is wearing one as well.

I'm very fond of the sculpting that Paul Hicks has done for Empress Miniatures and its Anglo-Zulu War line, and  have used his Natal Native Horse figures (sans the spears in their shoulder quivers) for mounted Hereros.  For Assa Riarua, though, I wanted something special and selected one of two figures in a set of Mounted Natal Carbineers.

The cuffs of this figure are pointed, but a little green stuff helped to modify it satisfactorily.  I painted up Assa Riarua in the koller and trousers of an enlisted soldier in the Garde du Corps, mixing Vallejo Sand Yellow and White to get the color of his proud but well worn off white wool uniform.  I painted the old 1891 Schutztruppe spiked pith helmet with Vallejo New Wood for the darker colors, working up through German Ochre Orange with a touch of Dark Sand.  I'm pleased with the finished product, which unfortunately I had to photograph inside with the flash rather than in natural light, but the end result is a proud Herero commander in one of the most unusual uniforms ever to grace a colonial Africa gaming table.

Images of Hereros in Colonial DSWA from German Texts

Images of Herero Leaders: Tjetjo Kandji and Traugott Tjetjo

Tjetjo Kandji in dark coat, center, and his son Traugott Tjetjo on the white horse

This is one of my favorite images of Herero leaders from the German colonial period in Southwest Africa.  I cannot find an electronic version of it online without watermarks, and if you expand this one you will see a faint white grid superimposed across the photograph.  Originals are in the United Evangelical Mission Archives, Wuppertal. There is also second variant of this image, in which the man next to the chicken has moved slightly and the riders are oriented on a slightly different angle.

The man on the dark horse at the center of the image, wearing a dark coat and with a kerchief under his hat, is Tjetjo Kandji, a leader of an eastern group of Hereros.  His son Traugott Tjetjo is also in the image.  He rides a white horse and wears a sash over his uniform.  There is no way to be certain in this black and white photograph, but it could be the red sash worn as a badge of office by those service as police in German Southwest Africa.   The photograph itself may have been taken in the mid 1890s, during the boundary dispute over which areas would be reserved for African settlement and those that would be restricted for the colonists.

These two men were central, tragic figures in the dispossession of the Herero in Southwest Africa, but also skilled military leaders who dealt the Germans one of their greatest battlefield defeats of the 1904 war.  

Tjetjo unsuccessfully opposed Governor Leutwein's elevation of  Samuel Maharero as paramount chief, contrary to Herero dual descent inheritance and clan structures. He inherited most of the wealth of Maharero Tjamuaha through matrilineal (Eanda) descent, and supported the old chief's half brother and war leader, Riarua , over Samuel Mahareo as Herero chief at Okahandja.  The Germans backed Samuel, however, and Tjetjo was eventually compelled to surrender other inherited cattle to Samuel in 1895 and to recognize him as his paramount chief. 

Following the German war in 1896 with the Otjiherero-speaking Ovambanderu people and their Namaqua allies the Khauas-Khoi, one of Samuel's lieutenant's, Kajata, moved into Tjetjo's territory on the Black Nossob and raided the cattle of his followers.  Traugott Tjetjo retaliated and rode with the Germans on cattle raids of their own.  Several hundred Mbanderu were disarmed and placed under his control after one raid.  These cattle raids were instigated to offset the devastating lose of Herero herds to the Rinderpest outbreak and were necessitated to pay off debts to European traders, which was a factor contributing to the tension and resentment that lead to the German-Herero war of 1904.  In 1899, the Germans moved to disarm Tjetjo and Traugott's people because they refused to register their rifles.

 In early January, 1904, Tjetjo was in the Gobabis district. On January 6th, less than a week before the opening of hostilities, Tjetjo met with Kurt Streitwolf , a German official who reported afterward to his superiors that he believed that war was not imminent. 

Tjetjo's people represented a considerable force, estimated in February by Streitwolf to have at least 1,000 men (with 500 rifles) moving from Kehoro toward the Onjati Mountains.  Governor Leutwein sent the Ostabteilung under Seebataillon Major von Glasnapp to prevent them from escaping to Bechuanaland.  Instead, Tjetjo and his band stayed ahead of the Germans, moving north.  Tjetjo ultimately rounded on them at Owikokerero, where an advance party of the Germans, including a large number of officers, suffered heavy casualties.  A second battle between Tjetjo's people and von Glasnapp's force at Okaharui ended the campaign for the Ostabteilung.

After the battle of Hamakari,  Tjetjo and Traugott and another chief called Mambo retreated along the dry Eiseb River into the Omaheke desert.  They travelled seperately from the main Herero groups under Samuel and his other followers, and were vulnerable both to thirst and to the pursuing Germans.  Major von Estorff's column attacked Tjetjo's people at Owinuau Naua and forced them to flee further into the desert.  Tjetjo ultimately died of thirst near a waterhole called Oruaromunjo.  Mambo is reported to have died of exhaustion, and Traugott Tjetjo is also believed to have died along with so many others trying to reach Bechuanaland.

Images of Herero Leaders: Mbandjo/Bandju.

from an 1897 woodblock engraving

One of the less well known African leaders from the period of the German - Herero War of 1904 was Mbandjo (Banjo/ Bandju), the headman of the Herero who lived in the vicinity of Otjombonde, a few days travel to the north of Omaruru. 

Mbandjo was the leader of a  northern Herero community that followed traditional practices rather than Christianity. The woodcut at left shows him as he appeared in 1897, wearing the regalia of a Herero headman, including a necklace of large white seashells.

Mbandjo is mentioned in the Journal of Gustaf De Vylder, a naturalist and trader who made several excursions in Hereroland in the mid 1870s.  During a trek made by ox wagon between Omaruru and Otjozondjupa near the Waterberg, De Vylder notes that while stopped at Ondombo:  "The chief, Bandju, came and begged as usual for everything he saw.  He selected a rifle that he said he wished to buy."  The next day De Vylder "bought a 'kru' bird from Banju for a rifled musket." 

Aside from illustrating the complex mercantile system that influenced and affected the economy of traditional  Herero communities during this period, De Vylder's account also shows that he had met Mbanjo before and that as a European trader he viewed the Africa leader's interest in receiving a gift of valuable trade goods with disdain.

Mbandjo was still the headman of the Otjombonde Herero at the time of the Rinderpest

outbreak in 1897, and is described in German accounts as allowing his herds to be vaccinated and his sick cattle shot for their gall to be used for inoculation.  Around this same period, most likely at the same time that the portrait was made, above, another image was taken of Mbandjo and his family,  later reproduced as the fancifully tinted German colonial postcard, at right.

I have not yet determined Chief Mbandjo's and his followers movements  prior to the battle of Hamakari at the Waterberg.  Possibly he fought against Captain Franke's 2nd Feldcompanie at Omaruru in February or against Estorff's Westabteilung at Otjihaenamaperero in March, 1904.  Captured Herero leader Zacharias Zeraua reported under interrogation that during the flight through the Omaheke, Mbandjo was among the Herero leaders who were gathered at Osombo Onjatu on the Eiseb River in September.  Subsequent margin notes on his testimony thought by historian Jan-Bart Gewald to have been made by Major Ludwig von Estorff indicate that Mbanjo was dead, and one of his sons, Moses Mbandjo or M'Buanjo, was among the leaders of the Herero survivors who returned to Southwest Africa after the South African invasion in 1915 and later headman in Omaruru. 

Images of Herero Leaders: Assa (Asser) Riarua

Asser Riarua (2nd from left): Photo courtesy Wecke and Voights Collection

Modern histories of the German - Herero conflict in Southwest Africa often confuse Assa (or Asser) Riarua with his father, Riarua, including mislabeling images of the senior with the name of the junior.  The photograph shown at left, from the archives of the Namibian store chain Weche & Voigts, is the only one I have located online that I believe correctly identifies Assa Riarua.  I have also come across a reference to another image in the Namibian Archives (No. 1288) taken in 1901 that aparently shows him wearing a hat with a light colored band alongside Samuel Mahahero and the Nama leader Barnabas, but I have not had the opportunity to view it.

The elder Riarua had been the supreme military commander and adviser to his half brother, the Herero chief Maharero kaTjamuaha (who died in 1890).  After the death of the chief in 1890, Riarua was a rival claimant against Maharero's christian son Samuel Maharero, for the chieftaincy of the Okahandja Herero and other inheritance rights. Traditional leaders backed Riarua, but Samuel Maharero had the backing of the German authorities and the Rhenish missionaries, however, and was ultimately recognized by them as paramount chief of the Herero.

Assa Riarua (b. 1848) was a close friend of Samuel Maharero's who as his veld-cornet or under captain lead his forces against the Nama Kaptein Henrick Witbooi in 1892, and later rallied with him in 1894 when Riarua and his supporters challenged his position as paramount chief.  There is a wonderful description in Jan-Bart Gewald's (1999) Herero Heroes of a reenforcing German column approaching its ally Samuel Maharero's hilltop laager, surrounded by its hedge of thorn and with the Imperial German flag flying above, and being met by "Assa Riarua, who, dressed in the uniform of the German Kaiser's French Guard regiment, told them that Samuel would be joining them as soon as he had finished conducting a field church service." 

Backed by German firepower and with the assistance of Assa Riarua, Samuel was able to compel the elder Riarua to relinquish all his claims to Maharero kaTjiamuaha's inheritance.  Why Assa Riarua chose to support Samuel over his father is a question that deserves further study, though his mission upbringing and the complexities of Herero clan inheritance structures may have been factors.  He might also have seen alliance with Samuel as a path to wealth, and indeed he lead Herero forces along side the Germans in 1895 during the boundary dispute with rival eastern Herero and ovambanderu.

Both Assa Riarua and Samuel were heavily indebted to German traders.  Assa Riarua continued to have difficulties with German merchants, one of whom later forcibly ejected him from a bakery in Windhoek and beat him bloody in the street.  In 1903, Assa Riarua and his followers in Okahandja vocally resisted German encroachment on Herero lands when a proposed native reserve left them with too little territory, unsuitable for grazing, and outside their customary areas of residence.  The reserves were finalized despite these objections and the crisis with the German authorities worsened. Neither Samuel nor Assa Riarua nor Governor Leutwein were available to intervene in Okahandja when misunderstandings and tensions boiled over in January, 1904 and open hostilities began.

Assa Riarua continued as one of Samuel's ablest commanders during the war with the Germans, who for their part suspected him of being the mastermind behind the "revolt".  He commanded the Herero left wing at Ongandjira, and in the early stages of the war was among the Herero leaders who granted safe passage to the German missionary Eich and a small party of German women and children.

After the battles around Waterberg in August 1904, Assa Riarua was among the Herero who fled into the Omaheke.  The captured Herero leader  Zacharius Zeraua later told the Germans that by early September, 1904, Assa Riarua was with Samuel and most of the surviving Herero leadership at a waterhole known as Osombo Onjatu on the dry Eiseb River.  His fate thereafter is unknown, but his daughter Diana Riarua survived in Botswana and reported that after Samuel's death in 1923, his spirit visited her in Christlike fashion with a message that "mine are those who will do my will."

Images of Herero Leaders: Kajata

This image comes from Elf Jahre Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, the memoirs of Theodor Gotthielf v. Leutwein, published in 1908. Although it is not possible to discern the faces of the riders, this is the only photograph I have been able to locate that includes Kajata, one of the principle leaders of the Herero people during the 1904 war with Germany. 

The photograph was taken in 1896 when Samuel Maharero (also identified in the image) and some of his followers allied with the Germans and rode against rival eastern Herero leader Nikodemus Kavikunua and his Ovambanderu allies under Kahimemua Nguvauva and the Khauas-Nama.  Hendrik Witbooi also lead a section that fought alongside the Germans in this campaign.

Kajata was a close ally of Samuel Maharero who gained power and chieftainship outside traditional inheritance structures.  Following the 1896 Mbanderu campaign, he gained lands at Otjihaenena along the ephemeral White Nossob river at the expense of the defeated eastern Herero leader Tjetjo Kandji.  He was even awarded a sword by the Germans in recognition of his bravery. 

Kajata was viewed as a favorite both of Samuel Maharero and of Governor Leutwein, who supported him when he brought charges in court against a notorious settler and debt collector Falkenhausen who had beaten up some of his people.  Some settlers complained that Leutwein was treating his native auxiliaries far better than they deserved, stating in one letter written during the Bondalswart campaign in November, 1903;

"The natives are valued above all else by the Governeur and the Berirkshauptmann.  These cannot do enough in keeping distinctions by the native riffraff.  Hendrick Witboy (sic) and his staff, Samuel Maharero, Kajata (a special favourite) are invited and showered with lavish gifts..."   [Quoted in Ritter-Peterson, H.G. I(1991) The Herrenvolk Mentality in German South West Africa 1884-1914. LDitt (History). Pretoria, University of South Africa: pg. 154]

During the German Herero war of 1904, Kajata was one of Samuel Maharero's most aggressive field commanders.  He survived the fighting at Waterberg, though I have not been able to determine his fate following the desperate flight through the Omaheke.  One of his daughters, Mukaahasera Kajata, for many years lead the women's section of the Otjiserandu or "Red Band", a paramilitary organization which parades every year at Okahanjda on Herero Day to commemorate the 1923 funeral of Samuel Maharero, honor the graves of their ancestors, and celebrate their resistance to colonialism and ultimate survival as a people.