O, king
bones ground to chalk
the Herero cry in the dust
The Kaiser had enough
he sent General Lothar von Trotha
to impose his will,
the ending of the Herero
as a people
von Trotha says,
'I wipe out rebellious tribes
with streams of blood
and streams of money.
Only following this cleansing
can something new emerge.'
Ten-thousand heavily-armed men
and a plan for war
von Trotha says,
'the Herero, who in their blindness
believed that they could make successful war
against the powerful German Emperor
and the great German people
I ask you,
where are the Herero today?'
twenty skulls gather dust
in the drawers
of Germany
monument to anthropology
O, king
skulls in drawers
the Herero cry in the dust
Is our language ever rich enough
to name
the evil man has levied
Is sin enough
to encompass
the vast, the richness, the full
depravity
of our visits
to the Herero
O, king
bitter herbs, unleavened bread
the Herero cry in the dust
In the 1880s, Germany acquired present-day Namibia, calling it German South-West Africa. In 1904 the Herero, the largest of about 200 ethnic groups, rose up against colonial rule killing more than a 120 civilians. The German response was ruthless. The Kaiser sent Gen. Lothar von Trotha to make war. The general signed a notorious Extermination Order against the Herero, defeated them in battle and drove them into the desert, where most died of thirst. Of an estimated 65,000 Herero, only 15,000 survived.
In 1985, a UN report classified the events as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South-West Africa, and therefore the earliest attempted genocide in the 20th Century. In 2004, Germany's ambassador to Namibia expressed regret for what happened.
The skulls belong to 20 people who died after an uprising against their German colonial rulers more than 100 years ago. They were among hundreds who starved to death after being rounded up in camps.
Some of the dead had their heads removed and of these, about 300 were taken to Germany, arriving between 1909 and 1914. German scientists took the heads to perform experiments seeking to prove the racial superiority of white Europeans over black Africans.
The skulls gathered dust in German archives until three years ago when a German reporter uncovered them at the Medical History Museum of the Charite hospital in Berlin, and at Freiburg University in the south-west.
German researchers believe the skulls belong to 11 people from the Nama ethnic group and nine from the Herero.
They were four women, 15 men and a boy.
This September, German officials held a ceremony to return the skulls to a delegation from Namibia.