And Now the Namas Too

When I started this blog a year ago, I focused on the German war with the Herero.  I once lived in parts of Northeastern Namibia where this conflict took place, and the war itself is better documented in the secondary sources to which I felt limited given my basic German language skills.  The development and release earlier this year of the  Roy Jones/Eric Alvarado Herero War Scenario and Rules Book was a happy coincidence, and I've got my hands full painting up the figures that these games will require. 

I might have stuck with 1904, but along the way my German translation skills have started to improve and I keep finding more primary sources that have bearing on this period as well as the war with the Nama that began as the Hereros were driven into the Omaheke and continued in various stages into 1908.  Having finished researching a little known skirmish near Uitkomst in the Grootfontein District and developed a game scenario based on what I discovered, I find I have a taste for more, but Roy and Eric have already covered most of the fights from the Herero War that have tabletop potential.

Roy has long had in mind a second volume in his Kaiser Over Africa series dealing with the Nama War of 1904-1908, and I look forward to its development.  For my part, I may from time to time turn my researcher's eye toward the arid mountains and dunes south of Windhoek where Hendrick Witbooi, Simon Koper, Cornelius Fredericks and Jakob Morenga made life very difficult for the Schutztruppen who were sent to oppose them. 

Some of the Germans who served in the South were also involved in the Herero conflict (Estorff, Volkmann and Deimling, among others), while some 250 Hereros fought alongside the Nama at Groß-Nabas in January of 1905: months after their defeat in the North.  This is also the conflict where camels come into use by the Schutztruppe both as draft animals and (in the final campaign) as cavalry mounts, and pack mules were used to transport mountain guns.

To acknowledge this expanded focus, the subtitle of this blog has been updated accordingly.

Witbooi Native Auxiliaries in 25mm

Witbooi Nama Native Auxiliaries (Monday Knight Productions Haitians 25mm)

A troop of about 110 native auxiliaries from the Witbooi tribe served with the Germans in the Herero War of 1904.  Contemporary images suggest that they went to war wearing their traditional white turbans around their wide brimmed hats.  In previous campaigns they wore imperial armbands over civilian clothing to distinguish them from the enemy, and that is how I have depicted them with these figures.

The miniatures are 25mm, too small to work well with the 28mm figures that comprise the bulk of my forces on the gaming table but adequate when used as a group on their own.  They are from
Monday Knight Productions Banana Wars Haitian Figures line and have been modified with Kneadatite epoxy putty tape to add turbans to their hats.  These are simple sculpts and very affordable at $12 for a mixed squad of nine different men with rifles and one of two leader types with pistols and machetes.  Three are without hats and I have assigned them to the Herero forces to round out some smaller sized units.  They can also be purchased singly.

Instead of wheat-based cat litter I used beach sand to texture the bases.  I think it will require a second coat of white glue and additional sand to get the right amount of ground cover, but it avoids the problem of the wheat absorbing liquid and the longer associated drying time.

Just 24 figures are needed to represent the Witbooi troops in the Jones/Alvaredo Herero Wars

Scenario and Rule Book and I may decide to acquire the remainder from Monday Knight.  Alternatively, I may consider these an interesting experiment and use 28mm figures instead.

Witbooi Native Auxiliaries modified with Epoxy turbans

No White Feathers: Misreading a Key Element of the Material Culture of the Witbooi Nama in 1904

At the outset of the German -Herero War in January, 1904, the white soldiers of the Schutztruppe and its reserves were bolstered by several hundred African allies.  The largest group of these native soldiers was a contingent of about 120 men from a Nama sub-group known as the Witboois. 

They were an Oorlam or mixed race people and the last of five Oorlam clans that made the the trek north from the Cape in the early to mid-19th century to settle in what is now south central Namibia.  Since then, the Witbooi have assimilated more thoroughly with the Nama, referring themselves by the clan name ǀKhowesin in the Khoikhoigowab or Damara/Nama language, but during the German colonial period they more commonly used a variant of Afrikaans, and the name "Witbooi "means just what it sounds like in that language.

Hendrik Witbooi (d.1905) and others wearing the knotted white turban of their clan

Their leader during the critical period between 1885 and 1905 was Hendrik Witbooi, a remarkable person who fought against both the Germans and the Herero in the 1890s, then allied with the colonial power until October of 1904 when he lead his people in a guerrilla war of resistance.

Hendrick Witbooi and Nama Horsemen wearing Imperial armbands (likely late 1890s).

 The men riding with Hendrick Witbooi in the image, above, wear white turbans around the crown of their hats, and in one case, a pith helmet with a hatband in Imperial colors.  Many writers have concluded that the tail end of white cloth that extends above the knot on the top of the hat, clearly visible in this and other contemporary images as well as in versions of the Witbooi turban used today as ceremonial regalia,  is actually a white feather.  I believe this comes from a misreading of a section of Witbooi's  October 3, 1904 letter in which he announces his declaration of war ; 

"...I have now stopped walking submissively and will write a letter to the [German] Captain saying that I have put on the white feather and that the time is over when I will walk behind him ̧ The Savior himself will now act and He will free us through His grace and compassion...."
 
It is clear from the images provided here that this is not a correct interpretation of the meaning of Witbooi's (translated) words.  It is the turban itself to which he refers, worn during times of war. A metaphorical feather, perhaps, is formed by the topknot, but there is no evidence that a real feather was ever stuck in the turban, nor is one used in modern versions of the same turban (color photos below courtesy of the Gibeon Village Council website).

Reverend Hendrick Witbooi (1934-2009) wearing the traditional knotted white turban covering the crown of his hat.

Honor guard at Rev. Witbooi's funeral, including horsemen wearing the knotted white turban.

An image of Lt. Gen. Lothar v. Trotha inspecting Witbooi troopers at Okahandja in June 1904 (source Bayer)

Fate was not kind to the Witbooi troopers who served under the Germans during the Herero War of 1904.  19 of them deserted with their arms after Hamakari and returned to Hendrik Witbooi at their home place of Gibeon.  It is said that they were alarmed that their people might be crushed just as brutally by the Germans as the Herero and that their report was part of what motivated Witbooi to declare war in October, 1904.  

The remaining 90 or more Witbooi auxiliaries were disarmed when hostilities began with the Nama and were sent in a group of 118 prisoners to labor in German Togo where at least 63 of them died of disease. The survivors were transferred to German Cameroon in 1905 along with more Witbooi Nama prisoners, and there were more deaths in exile until they were  finally repatriated to Southwest Africa by Governor Lindquist after the fighting found down and the Nama had been broken and decimated.

Simon Kooper (ǃGomxab), The Captain in the Striped Coat

Leuntant Weiss, flanked by Simon Kooper and Henrick Witbooi

 There are several images taken together of German and Nama leaders when they were still allies that include a man with a white mustache and a vertically striped coat.  He appears at left with a Leutnant Weiss and below with Karl Henning Conrad von. Burgsdorff, as well as in a third image previously posted here.  His name was Simon Kooper, and he was one of the greatest of the Nama leaders during their 1904-1908 war with the Germans in Southwest Africa.

Bezirksamtmann v. Burgsdorff with Hendrick Witbooi and Simon Kooper

Simon Koper or Kooper, whose Nama name is !Gomxab, was part of the Fransman or ǃKharakhoen Nama who emigrated to Southwest Africa in the mid-19th century from the Northern Cape region of South Africa.  Kooper assumed the leadership of this group in 1863.  The clan was closely allied at this time to the Oorlam at Windhoek under Jonker Afrikaner.  In 1889 Kooper's people formed their main settlement at Gochas t east of Mariental.

Longtime allies of Hendrick Witbooi, Simon Kooper's Nama fought against the Germans with the Witbooi in the 1890s, and joined with the Witboois once again in the war against the Germans in 1904-1908.  In the photographs,  Kooper wears the imperial armband of Germany's native auxiliaries, but was quick to side with the Witboois when they rose up in October, 1904.

Despite his advanced age, Simon Kooper proved a tenacious are resilient guerrilla leader.  Among his reported extraordinary accomplishments, he is said not only to have survived imprisonment on the notorious Shark Island, where there was a 90% death rate, but to have actually escaped from it and returned to the field.  Although this claim requires further substantiation, there is no doubt that he fought the Germans in numerous battles alongside both the Witboois and the forces of Jakob Morenga, and that he lead the very last Nama resistance group in the field well into 1908.  The Germans actually attached him in the Bechuanaland Protectorate where he had taken refuge, and he was ultimately given a pension by the British in 1909.  He died in 1913 and is buried near Kaartle pan in Botswana.  His grave is inscribed both in German and in Damara/Nama.

Archival Images

In researching the German = Herero War of 1904, I sometime come across period images of those involved in this conflict that are not commonly found elsewhere on the web.  I do not have the provenance for the image of the horseman, at right.  This rider of the Schutztruppe is an outstanding portrait, clearly showing his Schutztruppe saddlebag and the carbine housed in its leather pouch in front of the right leg.  He wears the standard harness with its ammunition pouches, and what looks like the 1896 khaki tropical uniform.  I dearly wish a manufacturer in 25 mm / 28mm would produce properly accoutered mounted Shutztruppen, in kord uniforms as well as khaki.

The image at left comes from Aus der Geschichte der Schutztruppe für Südwestafrika, a German account by Alexander Cormans published in 1914.  It shows the German District Officer for Gibeon, Karl Henning Conrad von. Burgsdorff, who was killed in October, 1904 at the outbreak of hostilities with the Nama.  He is accompanied by several native auxiliaries, almost certainly from the Nama, as the individual in the striped coat also appears in another image with von Burgsdorff and is identified as the Fransman Nama Kaptein Simon Kooper.  The other man seated to the left of him is wearing the imperial colored armband signifying his allied status. This image illustrates the range of fabrics and shades of color that can be used for European civilian clothing worn by the Nama during this period.

Another image from Cormans' book depicts the Seebataillon at Omaruru, presumably the 3rd Marine Infantry Company that was part of Major Estorff's West Section that operated in this sector during the latter part of February, 1904.  Estorff's men fought a 10-hour engagement at Otjihihamaparerero before rejoining the Main Section under Governor Leutwein and participating in the aborted campaign that included fighting at Ongandjira and Owiumbo.  The marine at right wears an NCO's braid on his uniform collar, and his boots are a decidedly lighter color than his black marine ammunition harness. 

It is hard to tell whether the marine emblems have been removed from their cork sun helmets, but the cloth covering appears to be a light khaki, or perhaps it was stained a darker color.  There is documentation in an account by Obermatrosen G. Auer that he and his fellow sailors in the landungskorps from the S.M.S. "Habicht" dyed their tropical white uniforms with coffee and tobacco.

The traditional Herero village homestead or "werft" included domed, round houses with low entries, walls that had been daubed with mud and cow manure, and a thatched roof covering.  The image at left shows one such "pontok" below the Waterberg.  I am looking forward to modelling scenic elements for my German = Herero War gaming table, and huts like these will certainly be among them.