Decolonizating the Past and Recasting the Present

When I began this project in 2013, the opening post served as a disclaimer.  I have since updated it to reflect the ongoing efforts in Namibia to delist and remove certain national monuments erected during the German colonial period that are now deemed by many Namibians to be inappropriate or insensitive.  The 1912 "Reiterdenkmal" that once stood before the Alte Feste in Windhoek came down from its pedestal over Christmas in 2013, and both the statue of the Schutztruppe horse and rider and commemorative plaque with names of German casualties are currently stored within the courtyard of the old fort.  In its place is a new Namibian Genocide memorial and a statue of founding President Samuel Nujoma holding the Namibian constitution.  Towering over all is the golden Independence Museum.  A greater symbolic contrast before and after would be hard to envision.

Twenty five years after Namibia's UN supported free and fair elections, the injustices of the past still rankle.   Just this past week, one of the younger members of the "old guard" of the liberation movement, 73-yea-old Hage Geingob, was elected President.  Most Namibians, though, were born after Independence (median age 22.8 years), which took place at the end of the Cold War and before the transition to majority rule in South Africa.  Policies of national reconciliation have played out differently in these two countries as well. 

The first time the image of this colonial horse and rider was removed in Namibia actually took place in 1990 when Southwest Breweries became Namibia Breweries and the old logo (above) was updated.  The statue has now been delisted by the National Heritage Council, which stated:

"The Equestrian Statue is viewed to have lost its monumental significance after Namibia gained independence in 1990, therefore, does not have any significance in a liberated Namibia. The public is informed that the National Heritage Council has removed this statue from the National Heritage Register. It is now kept inside the courtyard of the Alte Feste as an ordinary historical object."

How should such an historical object, so laden with highly charged symbolism, be interpreted?  Its placement within the old fort, itself once a museum that held relics including the uniforms of UNTAG soldiers who helped police Namibia in the transition to its first elections in 1990, consigns it to a discredited and dated version of the colonial past.  Yet the very act of removing it imbues it with contemporary political as well as cultural meanings.

Although South Africa was the colonial power in Southwest Africa from World War I until Namibian Independence in 1990, the country retained a strong German cultural presence and visual identity throughout the modern liberation struggle.  Many streets bore German names, though most of these have been successively renamed since black majority rule.  Colonial architecture is a striking feature of towns like Swakopmund and the constituency that was formerly known as Luderitz but was renamed last year as !Nami≠nûs. 

Decolonization in Namibia is as much about economic disparity as it is about cultural narratives and national identity. Most of the arable land and wealth of Namibia is still held by those of European descent.  Modern South Africa is now an ally and Namibia's most significant trading partner.  While Germany is Namibia's most significant European investor, it is also a lightning rod for the injustices of the colonial past, and a movement to seek reparations and a formal apology from Germany for genocide is ongoing. Efforts to fully repatriate a large number of skulls and human remains from Nama, Herero and Damara prisoners and possibly indigenous San as well who had either been  executed or died under horrible conditions in concentration camps is perhaps the most sensitive element of modern Namibian-German relations.

Namibian historian and former Ambassador to Germany, Dr. Peter Katjavivi, put it succinctly; "With the achievement of independence in Namibia, we declared that we would make every effort to regain our rights, freedoms and our past. The recovery and repatriation of the skulls is an essential component of regaining our past, and consequentially our dignity."

There are dark corners of the Namibian past that cannot be laid solely on the doorstep of the old colonial powers.  Reconciliation in Namibia did not come with a South Africa style Truth Commission which, for better or worse, provided a platform for the public revelation of injustices committed during the apartheid era, sometimes by black South Africans.  Renaming the Namibian panhandle region of Caprivi as Zambezi is resented by some members of the various ethnic groups who identify as Caprivians, but the matter is further politicized by the long running treason trial of Caprivi separatists.  Then, too, there is the unresolved issue of human rights abuses and the alleged murder of SWAPO detainees held in captivity by the liberation movement during the Independence struggle.  These questions have proved intractable and are dismissed by the ruling party as intentionally divisive and disloyal.  For now and for the foreseeable future, these dissenting perspectives are not part of the Namibian creation narrative. 

It is extremely difficult to accept responsibility for one's own offenses when the enormity of the injuries perpetrated by an occupying power is self evident.  Phil ya Nangoloh, himself a SWAPO detainee and Executive Director of the human rights organization NamRights, offered one such statement after it was revealed by founding President Sam Nujoma in 2010 that a German woman, captured during the Ndonga assault on fort Namutoni in late January, 1904, apparently had been given to Ndonga chief Nehale Iya Mpingana as a wife and that her descendants survive today in that region of Namibia.  ya Nangola would later write in 2014:

“As human rights defenders we would fail in our duty to strongly condemn this crime of rape and enslavement. Although quantitatively minimal in comparison to what German troops have done to hundreds of Herero and Nama women, we have found the rape and enslavement of a German prisoner of war (POW) morally and legally indefensible in terms of the very same legal and moral principles under which Germany had to be taken to court to make reparation. What is good for the goose should be good for the gander.

As Namibians, we share the shame and, hence, we unequivocally apologize to the descendant family of the German POW both in Namibia and Germany, not for the attack on Fort Namutuni and or even for the capture of the said girl, but exclusively for the criminal act of rape and enslavement of the POW”

These are powerful stories, hard to verify and steeped in the values of the present day.  There was a long history of raiding for war captives and slaves in the North - driven, to be sure, by the Portuguese demand for slaves in exchange for alcohol.   ya Nangola's is the only modern voice condemning this one obscure act of white slavery during the year 1904 which saw the deaths of tens of thousands of indigenous people in Southwest Africa and an extermination order by German commander Lothar von Trotha that codified what is widely regarded as systematic genocide.  It does not fit comfortably in the prevailing narrative, any more so than the words on the old Reiterdenkmal commemorating those Germans who fought and fell for emperor and empire.  

After Uitkomst (The Battle of Uitkomst Part XI)

For the price of one man killed and four others wounded out of Oberleutant Richard Volkmann's small force at Uitkomst, the Herero were deprived of several important leaders along with at least 23 fighters killed and an untold number of others injured.  Mbatona of Osendema was dead, and so was Kamaihamagoani of Waterberg.  An unidentified war commander who wore a large white ostrich feather in his hat also lay dead, and if as J Conrad Rust and Paul Rohrbach state he had been dispatched by Samuel Maharero from Okahandja to coordinate the fighting in the North, this was an especially hard blow.

The German Generalstab history says that the surviving Hereros who had fought with Mbatona went south to the Waterburg and no longer troubled the district, but the District was hardly pacified.  At the same time that Volkmann fought at Uitkomst, the small military post at Otjituuo to the East of Grootfontein on the Omuramba Omatako was attacked and overrun by a force said to have been just as large as Mbatona's and all but one of its four defenders were slain.  Two more German farmers to the North of Grootfontein were killed.  Later in the month, the fort at Namutoni (Amutoni) was attacked by an estimated 500 Ovambos from Ndonga under Chief Nehale lya Mpingana's war leader Shivute (Shute), the only incident in which the Ovambo actively participated in the war.

It took several weeks for things to settle down, but small raids on isolated farms continued to be a problem and Volkmann's responsibilities as District commander kept him occupied with patrols and police work and at least one more skirmish while the crisis continued to escalate to the South in the heart of Hereroland.  His  courage and leadership in a backwater of the conflict did not capture the attention of the public, and while he did command one of the six detachments under General von Trotha during the Waterberg campaign, this was the result of his being senior to Oberleutnant von Zülow who had been sent to reenforce the Grootfontein district that June with the 3rd Feldkompagnie, a half battery of field guns and a marine section with two machine guns.

Volkmann had just four officers in his 200 man Abteilung at Waterberg, and was responsible for
keeping the Hereros from breaking out to the North.  Under his direction, Lieutenant Auer mounted a

heliograph unit on the summit of the Plateau overlooking the batteground, which enabled the separate German sections to communicate more effectively.  He was part of the pursuit of the Herero into the Omaheke, coordinating with Maj. von Estorff's section.  He subsequently served in the south against the Nama, having been promoted to Hauptmann, and was instrumental in capturing the Bethanie leader Cornelius Fredericks for which he received the thanks of the Kaiser.

While his distinguished service and accomplishments were worthy of high recognition, his military decorations were modest.  He received the Order of the Red Eagle with swords, IV class, which granted the lowest level of nobility, and the Order of the Prussian Crown III and IV Class with swords, while contemporaries like Viktor Franke who exhibited similar traits of personal courage and intrepidity received far greater honors.  It is unclear whether Volkmann felt slighted in his service after returning to Germany in 1905, but he served honorably during the First World War, commanding in Bucharest in 1916, and received the Iron Cross I and II class.

Paul Rohrbach remained close friends with Volkmann and served for several months as a war volunteer.  In addition to providing the only firsthand accounts that are available for thre Bsttle of Uitkomst, he was made responsible for claims for compensation from the German government for war damage and losses suffered by settlers in Southwest Africa.

Landwehrman Wilhelm Halberstadt established two farms in Grootfontein beginning in 1905 and his descendants live there still.   There was a German farm at Osondema, too, where Mbatona's people had been dispossessed. Two of Mbatona's men who fought with him at Uitkomst, Kanjemi and Kandiapu, survived the war and established a stronghold in the Omaheke, remaining outside German control and using the Omuramba network to raid German farms.  Both were had prior service as police or native soldiers (possibly in South Africa) and Kanjema was known as 'the Captain of the Sandfeld.'  They remained outlawed and at large, providing a refuge for other survivors who tried to remain outside the brutal farm labor system that governed the lives of the defeated Herero in Southwest Africa. It was not until 1911 when their location was betrayed and they were captured by the Germans.  Kanjema was executed n secret on orders of the Governor,, and Kandiapua was beaten to death while a prisoner in Swakopmund awaiting transportation to German Kamerun.

As for the Boer farm Uitkomst, by 1910 it had been divided in two, with Klein Uitkomst comprising the southern part of the original farm.  During South African rule these two farms and a small third property that extended to the Otavi Mountains became a government Agricultural Research station.  In 2009, the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement of independent Namibia acquired Uitkomst as land for the Hai||om "San" or "Bushmen", its original indigenous inhabitants.

Prelude to the Fight: Mbatona's Movements and Volkmann's Responses (The Battle of Uitkomst Part VII)

Probable Movements of Mbatona (in yellow) on detail of 1904 German War Map: Blatt Otavi

The actual battle of Uitkomst may have lasted just ten minutes or so (Rohrbach 1908)*, but the sequence of events leading up to it requires further explanation. This step is necessary in order to make sense of what the leaders of the antagonists were trying to achieve, the fight itself, and its repercussions. 

This post deals with the confusion and uncertainty at the outbreak of the Herero uprising in the Grootfontein District, the evidence for the movements and actions taken by Mbatona (Batona) and his war band in particular, and the moves taken by Oberlt. Richard Volkmann to counter them.  It begins with the first reports of unrest on January 12th and ends on January 18th when Volkmann headed from Grootfontein toward Uitkomst with a mixed force, largely volunteers and Boers, to confront Mbatona.

On January 12th, 1904, Waldemar Grünwald fled in terror from his farm "Omambonde" (underlined in yellow as "Omaombonde", above) bringing the first word that the "Omurambahereros"  had risen up in the Grootfontein District (Rohrbach 1909, Rust 1905). Grünwald's farm was isolated far in the south on a tributary of the Omuramba-Omatako, and subsequent war damage claims indicate that it was one of the most heavily plundered in the area.

The word "Omuramba" refers to a seasonally dry riverbed, and the greatest of these - the Omuramba-Omatako - was a major demarkation line between the Omaheke and Kalahari "sandfeld" to the East and White settlements to the West.  In the dry season the Omuramba-Omatako was a significant transportation corridor running SW to NE deep into the interior of the continent, and a place where water could often be found  near the surface as well as at a number of excavated waterholes. There were Herero settlements along the Omuramba-Omatako as well, below the demarkation line that separated the Grootfontein District from Hereroland, and Rohrbach says that Mbatona himself lived at a place called Osondema (circled in yellow at the bottom of the above map). 

This was the rainy season, however, and according to Rohrbach the preceding two weeks had seen a significant rainfall that turned the riverbanks to quicksand and wagon tracks to mire.  The Herero, on foot and on horseback, could still travel with ease through the dense thornveld of the District and use the Omuramba network, but wagons could not.  When Oberlt. Volkmann rode South with just six riders to investigate what had happened at Omambonde, he was unable to reach the farm and his wagon became buried to the axles in mud.  By then the Herero band had moved on, either using the braided network of oxwagon tracks or making their way North through the thornveld.  Volkmann and his patrol did not encounter them, though they may have passed each other on parallel tracks through the bush. One can only speculate what would have happened to this small German force if it had run into Mbatona's much larger, well armed war band at this time.

 Mbatona also seems to have deliberately avoided the farms to the East on  his route northward, most of which belonged to Boer settlers whom he wished to keep nonbelligerent.  Interestingly, the one eastern farm that was attacked and plundered at this time was the German farm Okajongeama that belonged to the Steinfurth brothers.  The elder Steinfurth was killed in his house.  Possibly it was another group of Hereros who raided Okajongeama, or perhaps Mbatona and at least part of his war band used an ox wagon track that was East of the one used by Volkmann's initial patrol toward Omambonde. In any event, the nearby Boer farms were not raided at this time.

Batona's Movements Underscored in Yellow on a mid to later 20th century Grootfontein Farm Map

Grünwald initially fled to Gunuchas, the farm of another German settler named Hart Schmiedel. We know a bit more about Schmiedel because he was subsequently wounded in the fight at Uitkomst.  Analysis of German telegraphs from the war period, later compilations of casualty lists and the names of farm owners reveal that he was originally from Mittweida in Saxony.  He had come to German Southwest Africa as a one year volunteer (einjährig-freiwilliger) in the Schutztruppe.  He left the Troop in 1903 but was still a reservist with the rank of Gefreiter (the lowest grade of non-commissioned officer).  Altogether he and another German settler named Hendrick Niewenhuizen who farmed at nearby Kududamm just to the North of Gunuchas,  lost 20 Cattle (Large Stock) and 106 sheep/goats (small stock) to the advancing Herero (Rust 1905).  Along with Grünwald  these men escaped with their lives before Mbatona arrived.

 Mbatona's force seems to have been making for the Otavi Mountains, raiding cattle and livestock from the German farms they encountered on the way.  By the time of the Battle of Uitkomst on January 18th, though, the Hereros were no longer encumbered with captured livestock, for no mention of any is made in the German accounts of the fight (though several horses were taken).  Possibly the raided livestock was herded back to the Omuramba-Omatako to avoid recapture.

Period postcard of the German farm Urupupa, now part of the larger Rietfontein Dairy

Keeping the Boers nonbelligerent was clearly part of Mbatona's strategy.  According to Rust, one of the adult members of the Grobler family (among the Boers who farmed at Uitkomst) sent word to Volkmann that he had been told by the Herero leader to take his children out of school so they would not be caught up in the fighting around Grootfontein.  Grobler was also told to let all the Boers in the District know that they would not be harmed by Mbatona's force  if they stayed out of the fight and relocated with their families to the Boer leader Jean M. Lombard's Farm "Strydfontein". 

This was a curious request, because the first school in the District was located at Strydfontein, quite close to Grootfontein itself and just a few kilometers to the North and West of the settlement, and is probably where Grobler's children were staying already.  Most of the  Boer farms in the District were clustered within 20-30km of Grootfontein, while the Germans tended to farm in more isolated parts of the District.  If Mbatona wanted the Boers to congregate near Grootfontein and stay out of the fight, it makes sense that he would have avoided traveling through their farmsteads and would have given such instructions to Grobler while he was in the mountains near Uitkomst and looking for fresh German targets. 

It does not make sense thatMbatona had plans to attack Grootfontein itself, however.  Herero tactics were consistent throughout this early stage of the conflict.  Large German strongholds were avoided and not directly assaulted.  The emphasis was on cattle raiding, attacks on remote German farmsteads, and on traders to whom the Herero were deeply indebted.  Contrary to what the 1906 Prussian Generalstab history of the German-Herero War asserts, the evidence does not suggest that Mbatona intended to attack the fort and well fortified settlement of Grootfontein "from two directions" in coordination with another Herero force of similar size that was operating further down the Omuramba-Omatako near the isolated military post at Otjituo.  That other Herero warband overran Otjituo and killed three of its four defenders at the same time that Volkmann and Mbatona fought at Uitkomst, but little else is recorded about who lead them or what they may have done afterward. They reportedly seized a great deal of rifle ammunition but they did not proceed to attack Grootfontein with it. 

Family of Willem F and Anna M Joubert of the farm Uitkomst, with the fort at Grootfontein behind them

Oberlt. Volkmann took steps to bring in the German settlers from the outlying farms and to win the support of the Boer population. On January 16th there was a great council in Grootfontein at which Volkmann asked for the Boers to augment his protection force as war volunteers (Rohrbach 1909). Their families and livestock would be given protection in Grootfontein so that the men would be able to join with Volkmann in defeating the Herero. Rohrbach does not describe the outcome of the meeting, but subsequent events indicate that either Volkmann made his case, or the Boers were never inclined to watch from the sidelines.  In any case, their loyalty proved to be firmly with the Germans.

Volkmann continued to receive reports of the Herero movements from both white and black informants (the later either loyal farm workers or from the Bushman and Bergdamara population of the District).  On January 17th he learned that Mbatona was in the mountains near Uitkomst with between 170 and 180 men, partially mounted and well armed with at least 60 rifles (Rust 1905, Rohrbach 1908, 1909).

Sources differ as to the precise number of men who rode out on the 17th to help escort the Joubert, Grobler and Poolman families (the latter an English settler), together with their livestock, back from Uitkomst to the protection Grootfontein.  It likely included very few members of the Schutztruppe, and was instead made up of from anywhere between a dozen and twenty men from the German Reserves or landwehr and war volunteers from the German and Boer population.  Rust gives the most complete account of this patrol and its activities once it reached Uitkomst that evening and the following dawn:
"Auf Umwegen gelangten obige Freiwillige nachts zu dem Joubert'schen hause, luden in fieberhafter Tätigkeit alles Bewegliche auf 3 Wagon, trieben vor Tagesgrauen ungefähr 500 Stück Großvieh zusammen und zogen dann mit undendlichen Mühen durch den Busch nach Grootfontein zu.  Als sie die drei Fahrstunden vor den Orte liegende Fläche erreicht hatten, ritten sie voran, da die Feinde ihnen nicht gefolgt waren und für die Wagon keine Gefahr mehr vorhanden var.   Bald begegnete ihnen Oberleutnant Volkmann der mit 10 Mann hilfe bringen wollte.  Sie ließen nun die Wagon nach Grootfontein weiter fahren, kehrten aber selbst um, die Herero anzugreisen. (Rust 1905: pg 18)

which I have roughly translated as follows:

"The volunteers came at night by a roundabout way to Joubert’s home,  loaded with feverish activity everything movable into 3 wagons, driving before the gray light of dawn approximately 500 head of large stock together and then covered with infinite pains through the bush to Grootfontein.  When they had driven for three hours they reached the flat and rode ahead, because the enemy did not follow them and no danger existed for the wagons.  Soon they met Oberleutnant Volkmann, who wanted to bring 10 men to help.  Now they let the wagons continue to Grootfontein, but turned themselves around to attack the Herero."

Even with such a wealth of cattle within his grasp, Mbatona did not pursue the Boers from Uitkomst and their escorts.  They were not his objective when he moved out on the morning of January 18th with his men, a mounted escort preceding the rest of his dismounted force.  Just where he was planning to go next may never be known, for before he had proceeded  very far East on the road from Uitkomst he was surprised and attacked by Oberleutnant Volkmann.  We will consider contemporary evidence that provides an order of battle of this fight in the next post in this series.

* for a bibliography of the sources referenced here and others relevant to the battle of Uitkomst, please read the preceding post in this series.

German Source Material for the Battle of Uitkomst: An Annotated Bibliography (Battle of Uitkomst Part VI)

The list of German sources that relate to the battle of Uitkomst is a short one.  In some instances, this engagement from the first week of the German-Herero War rates barely a mention, while others offer brief clues as to the identities of some of the participants.  All the contemporary accounts are in German, but through persistent sleuthing I have been able to locate complete electronic versions of a number of these sources online.  There are no known accounts, oral histories or written testimonies, that tell the story from the Herero perspective.

I am aware of just one writer - Paul Rohrbach - who was an actual participant.  Between 1904 and 1909 he wrote three extremely interesting and detailed accounts for different publications that differ from each other in minor but important ways.  I have not been able to locate an official report by the German commander, Oberlt. Richard Volkmann, which in not surprising given the confusion and uncertainty of the time (the Governor was away in the south dealing with an unrelated uprising) and the subsequent destruction of the Schutztruppe records in the British invasion of DSWA in 1915 and during the bombing of Berlin in WWII. 

Still, there is a good deal of information in German that is of value - if one takes the time to reconcile discrepancies among the main accounts and considers the relative value of each source - and that can help us form a better understanding of what likely took place on January 18th when a small mixed force of German troops and war volunteers from the Grootfontein area confronted a larger Herero force marching in column. 

The following is an annotated biography of this source material, with links to where each may be read online and comments about what each contains and its value as evidence.  It probably should have been provided earlier in this series, though some of the most important accounts only became available to me after I started writing it.  If it ever makes its way into publication I'll make it part of the documentation and literature review section.

• Deutsches Kolonialblatt;Amtsblatt für die Schutzgebiete des Deutschen Reich,  Herausgegeben in der Kolonial-Abteilung des Auswärtigen Amts. [German Colonial Journal: Official Journal for the Reserve Areas of the German Reich, Edited by the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office], Vol. 15; Berlin: E. S. Mittler und Sohn, 1904.      
  
  Comments:  These colonial records include summary reports of official telegrams received from German Southwest Africa from the start of the Herero uprising.  Pages 164 and 165 deal with German casualty reports relating to Uitkomst and mention the occupations of two of the wounded war volunteers.  Also of biographical interest is also a very long report from Oberleutnant Richard D. Volkmann's expedition to the Okavango and Caprivi region in late 1903.

• Fitzner, Rudolf; Deutsches kolonial-Handbuch: Ergänzungsband; [German Colonial Handbook: Supplement]; Berlin: Hermann Paetel, 1904  
  
  Comments:  Fitzner complied these annual accounts "according to official sources".  Essentially an Almanac summarizing census details for the German Colonies, the 1904 handbook includes a general breakdown of the population of the Grootfontein District for the preceding year by primary place of residence and national origin for the year.  Prior editions of the Handbook from 1902 and 1903 differ as to the names and number of farms listed, and indicate that after 1901 the Waterberg station was no longer part of the Grootfontein District.  Boer farms are clearly underrepresented, although the breakdown of Boers to Germans remains at least 2 to 1 and is likely much larger when their extensive families are taken into account.  Fitzner says that there were 215 men women and children of white origin in the District in 1903, only 47 of whom were Germans.  Even if he does not include the Schutzetruppe detatchment in his figures (and he does appear to list them as residents of the military outposts he names), they are a distinct minority of the white population.

• Großer Generalstab, Armee (Prussia):  Die Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika.  Af Grund amlichen Materials bearbeitet von der Kriegsgeschichen Abteiling I des Großen Generalstabes.  Erster Band (von 2): Der Feldzug gegen die Herero [The Struggles of German Troops in South-West Africa.  Based on official materials arranged by Military History Division 1 of the Great General Staff.  Volume 1 (of 2): The Campaign against the Hereros]; Berlin, Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1906. 
  
  Comments:  Together with the the records of the Marine-Expeditionary Force and the Landing Party from S.M.S "Habicht" (neither of which bears directly on the Battle of Uitkomst), the Generalstab History is a remarkable achievement and serves as the principle source of information on the German-Herero conflict. The Generalstab History is one of just four sources that describe the events leading up to Uitkomst and the fight itself with any detail (pgs 80, 81), and it informs what other writers had to say about the war when they wrote their own memoirs.  Some of the information used to compile the Generalstab History may not have been, strictly speaking, official materials - images of Owikokorero and Owiumbo, for example, come from the 1905 memoir of Oberlt. Erich v. Salzmann.  As official documentarians the Generalstab were capable of extraordinary precision operating at remote distance from the events it chronicled - in just five weeks they produced complete war maps for the entire colony that are exquisitely detailed cartographic marvels - but they also had blind spots and tended to narrowly focus on the forces within the Army's purview.  This sometimes leads to downplaying or even omitting entirely the roles of its sister Naval branch of service.  In the case of Uitkomst the account glosses over the nature and composition of Volkmann's mixed force, most especially the Boers who made up at least a third of the overall number of men under his command.  It is the only account that specifically a partially mounted Herero force, with the horsemen leading a Herero column with about 170 "well-armed", partialy mounted Herero that Volkmann attacked.   It does not note than only some of the Hereros had firearms.

Theodor G. v. Leutwein

• Leutwein, Theodor G. v.: Elf Jahre Gouverneur in deutsch-südwestafrika [Eleven Years Governor in German South-West Africa]; Berlin: Ernst Siegfied Mittler und Sohn, 1908.
  
  Comments:  Leutwein's memoir covers his entire tenure in South-West Africa.  Although not entirely do to circumstances he could control or have forseen, the most significant German military defeats and setbacks of the war happened on his watch.  He was supplanted as the senior military commander in June, 1904 with the arrival of Generalleutnant Lothar von Trotha, though he remained Governor of the colony.  Leutwein's war policy differed significantly from von Trotha's and he was brushed aside by the General. He was supported by a faction of long serving Schutztruppe officers (among them Richard D. Volkmann) and his memoir must be seen in these lights.  Leutwein offers a detailed account of the battle of Uitkomst (pgs 482, 483) that differs in some small details from the Generalstab History and goes into more detail about the number of Boers and volunteers who rode with Volkmann.  There is also an excellent profile portrait of Oberlt. Volkmann included in Leutwein's memoir. Leutwein agrees with the Generalstab that there were about 170 Herero with the riders at the head of the column and that Volkmann lost 7 mounts from his own force.  Leutwein also fails to mention that only some of the Hereros had firearms.

• Rohrbach, Paul: "Zum Hererokrieg im Südwestafrika: Skizze aus dem Norddistrikt Grootfontein" ["For The Herero War in South-West Africa: Sketch of the Northern District of Grootfontein"], In Die Woche [The Week], Vol 6, Issue 23, Pgs 1025-1028, Berlin: June 4, 1904.
  
  Comments: Dr. Paul Rohrbach was a colonial official (Ansiedlungskommissar, or Settlement Commissioner) who was in Grootfontein when the war broke out and who fought as a volunteer in his first engagement at Uitkomst.  His are the only eyewitness accounts that I have been able to locate from Volkmann's small force.  As such they are invaluable, and include a trove of detail not found in other sources, most especially about the Herero leaders and the Boer contingent in Volkmann's force.  Rohrbach was a prolific writer, and over the course of five years he published at least three distinct accounts of the battle, each with different emphasis and audiences in mind. 
  
  His article in Die Woche was published less than six months after he fought at Uitkomst.  It includes a number of unique photographs of the Grootfontein District taken late in 1903 while touring the District with Oberlt. Volkmann.  Uitkomst itself rates a paragraph in Rohrbach's article, in which he says that Volkmann rode out from Grootfontein to confront the Herero column with half the garrison (very small indeed, given the distribution of his 20-25 man Schutztruppe detachment across the District), and a force mostly comprised of war volunteers and boers.  He estimates the Herero force at about 150 men with 60 rifles.  He does not describe the sequence of events during the battle as fully or as personally as in his later writing about Uitkomst.

• Rohrbach, Paul: "Bei Uitkomst"["At Uitkomst"], In Deutsche Reiter in Südwest :Selbsterlebnisse aus
  
  den Kämpfen in Deutsch-Südwestafrika[German Rider in South-West: Personal Experiences from the Fighting in German South-West Africa], pgs 242, 243, Dincklage-Campe, Friedrich, Freiherr von, Editor; Berlin: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong & Co, 1908
  
  Comments: This two page account appeared in Deutsche Reiter in Südwest, a remarkable compilation of 1st person accounts by participants in military engagements in German Southwest Africa, These are principally from the Herero and Nama Wars of 1904-1908 but also include early colonial skirmishes.  This was the most widely distributed popular history of the war.  In some ways, in both content and function, it reminds me of the four volume Battles and Leaders of the Civil War published in America by the Century Magazine in the 1880s, though mercifully it has fewer pieces by senior officers with axes to grind.  Some of the participant accounts in Deutsche Reiter, like Rohrbach's, measurably add to our understanding of the course of certain events, while others are anecdotes of less certain veracity. The color Carl Becker painting "Gefecht bei Uitkomst" used in the start of this blog series appears between pages 40 and 41 of Deutsche Reiter.  There is another picture of Volkmann elsewhere in the book, but Rohrbach's is the only description of Uitkomst.  The picture of him at the beginning of this post comes from his contribution. 
  
  Both this piece and Rohrbach's diary of this period published in 1909 are in close agreement with each other in many respects but differ in significant ways from the sequence of events described in Generalstab version of the fight at Uitkomst.   "Bei Uitkomst" omits some of the information contained in Rohrbach's diary - the fighting qualities of the boers are not subject to his analysis - and he rather overestimates the Herero force at 250 men, though again with about 60 rifles.  Rohrbach gives the number of Volkmann's force after they met up with the Boer wagons coming in from Uitkomst at 21 rifles (15 men under Volkmann from Grootfontein and the rest from the wagon escort).  He also provides the only mention made of the last name of one of the Boers who rode alongside Volkmann just before contact was made with the Herero - one of the Osthuizens who farmed near Grootfontein. He also references personal communication with now Hauptmann Volkmann, who had become a good friend, so this may be as close as we will come to Volkmann's perspective in the absence of any official report or letters from him that may yet come to light.  He says there were three Herero leaders killed, including "Batona of Osondema", Kamaihamagoani of Waterberg, and the unnamed War General from Okahandja with the white ostrich feather in his hat.

• Rohrbach, Paul: Aus Südwest-Afrikas schweren Tagen: Blätter von Arbeit und Abschied [From South-West Afrika's Difficult Days: Leaves of Work and Farewell], Berlin: Wilhelm Weicher, 1909
  
  Comments: This is the most personal, and the most comprehensive, of Rohrbach's published accounts of

  

  Dr. Paul Rohrbach, 1931

  his experience at Uitkomst and what took place in that fight.  He may have reworked his diary entries with an eye toward publication, yet seems to have made a conscious effort to set down his impressions as a participant as well as a recorder of history.  There are some sections that are nearly the same as what he contributed to Deutsche Reiter - details about the Herero leaders and how the battle played out after Volkmann's charge.  The charge itself is described as it was experienced by Rohrbach: a halt to observe and discuss something "bright" observed moving on the road ahead of them, then the sound of gunshots from where Volkmann and a boer (Osthuizen) were riding on the right, every rifle coming out of its sling or scabbard and Volkmann charging off thorough the bush toward the enemy with the rest of the force following behind.  It is possible, though further analysis of his account is needed before I am confident making this assertion, that Rohrbach's description of the charge indicates that it was made in column rather than in line.  The Herero had just come out into the open and immediately withdrew into the cover of the surrounding thornveld when Volkmann's men approached and plunged after them.  This is a very different version of events than that reported in the Generalstab history or which contends that the Herero column was struck and scattered, with those without horses taking casualties. 
  
  Rohrbach does not mention mounted Herero as per the Generalstab history (perhaps he was too far back in the column to see them), and he estimates the total number of Herero at around 130.  He does not mention captured horses as Leutwein does. Nor does he describe Volkmann's now dismounted force as in danger of being enveloped after the Herero rallied.  Instead, he describes long distance sniping at unseen targets with negligible effect, leading Volkmann to remount and lead his command forward to engage and pierce the enemy center and then fight its divided flanks.  If the battle indeed happened this way, the German casualties were likely incurred at this stage.  Rohrbach also describes how the Herero left the field, initially in good order but later in full flight, and what prevented Volkmann from attempting to pursue them.  He credits Volkmann's leadership, despite the excellent marksmanship of his men and especially the boers, with the tenacity and discipline that enabled his mixed force to prevail.  He says the boer way of fighting (which the Schutztruppe had emulated), would have been indecisive without the will to engage the enemy in close combat as Volkmann had the will to do. He describes the sound of gunshots from three types of Herero rifles (a few repeaters, Martini Henrys, and German Model 88 rifles).  He also says there were 20 men with Volkmann (4 men of the Troop and the rest about equally divided among Germans and Boers).  He lists the three dead Herero leaders the same way as in Deutsche Reiter : Batona, Kamaihamagoani and the War leader with the white ostrich feather.
  

• Rust, Conrad: Krieg und Frieden im Hereroland : aufzeichnungen aus dem Kriegsjahre 1904
  
  [War and Peace in Hereroland: Records from the War Year 1904], Leipzig : L. A. Kittler, 1905.
  
  Comments: Johann Conrad Rust (1855-1921) wrote as a self-identified farmer who settled at Monte Christo near Otjizeva in the Windhoek District of  South-West Africa.  Rust had previously emigrated from Germany to South Africa in 1879, arriving in Southwest Africa from the Western Cape in 1900.  He was also a noted botanist, but his extensive collection was lost when he had to abandon his farm in 1904 during the Herero War and remove to the safety of Windhoek. He also started a newspaper that year, the Windhuker Nachrichten [Windhoeker News] - and dedicated himself to writing a "settler's history" of the war as a tribute to the fallen.  Some researchers believe that Rust had official sanction to write his history and therefore access to official sources, some of which may long since have been destroyed, and certainly he provides specific details about civilian casualties in the war that are considered as close to definitive as it is now possible to get.  Rust describes Uitkomst on pgs 18 and 19 of his account, and includes specific descriptions of the wounds suffered by the fallen in Volkmann's force.  He estimates the Hereros under Mbatona (Batonna) at 180 (with about 60 rifles) and also references a war leader with a great white ostrich feather in his hat who Rohrbach identifies as Kamaihamagoani.  He says they had plenty of ammunition for the older Model 71 rifle and that several horses were captured.  He also describes communication between Batona and the Boer Grobler in the days before the battle about removing his children from school and going with the other Boers to a neutral place where they would not be considered combatants.  He provides details of specifric interest to fellow farmers - the number of cattle and wagons with the Boer Joubert's group that fled Uitkomst toward Grootfontein - but offers fewer specifics than either Rohrbach or the Generalstab about the sequence of the fight itself. 

• Schwabe, Kurd:  Der Krieg in deutsch-südwestafrika, 1904-1906 [The War in German South-West Africa, 1904-1906], pg 112, Berlin: C.A. Weller, 1907
  
  Comments: Kurd Schabe was a long serving Schutztruppe officer and had a staff position during the Herero War.  His history has many photographs of interest to researchers of this period (including another view of Volkmann) but makes only brief mention of Uitkomst and the distribution of German troops in the district.

• Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstags [Stenographic Reports of the Proceedings of the Reichstag], Volume 209; Berlin, 1905
  
  Comments:  These official proceedings of the German Empire's legislative branch include a comprehensive list of war damage claims from the German-Herero War broken down for each District in the colony.  They describe not only the farms that were affected but also those that were not, and as such are the most comprehensive census available of the number and location of each settlement in the Grootfontein District.  Paul Rohrbach would eventually be appointed by the German government to settle these damage claims. In addition to enumerating losses claimed, the names and nationalities of those at each settlement are provided, along with the size of each property.  From these records, as well as the chronologies provided in Rohrbach and Rust's accounts, it is possible to determine something of the movements and motivations of the Herero force under Batona prior to Uitkomst, and that most of the Boer settlements - even those in the line of march -were not targeted, while their German neighbors were.