Border Conflicts in a German African Colony

Book excerpt: The story of a young Australian adventurer, Edward Presgrave, who enlisted in an irregular unit in the Boer War and stayed on in the Northern part of the Cape Colony to fight alongside Jakob Morengo and the Nama peoples in their epic guerrilla war against the Germans in German Southwest Africa, or present day Namibia. It records the adventure, sacrifice, deception and betrayal touching on major themes dominating the history of Southern Africa in the early years of the 20th century. The book vividly describes the Herero and Nama rebellions against the Germans in the years 1903-1907, and the shattering aftermath of concentration, death and work camps and the German policy of genocide. It also details the full cost of the war in human terms to both the Herero and Nama peoples as well as to the German occupiers. Little was known about Edward Presgrave until the present author engaged in his long and painstaking research through a host of differing sources, and the tracing of family contacts. On reconstructing the real events of what really happened during those years of hidden imperial conflict between the major powers, the author uncovers the attempts of their governments to conceal what might have resulted in public controversy and the undermining of international relations. There is an investigation of the social, economic and political aspects of life in German Southwest Africa as well as life along the German/Cape Colony border with its gun running, cattle raiding and support for the rebels. It discusses German public opinion of their colony in Southern Africa and the debates the Herero and Nama rebellions engendered in The Reichstag.