Josaphat Kamatoto, Job Katire,
Christian Mupurua, Elifas Karamo, Elifas Kukuri, Johannes Mupurua.
War and Extermination 1904 until 1908
On the wagon box of the ox wagon, next to Evangelist
Josaphat Kamatoto, sat frightened missionary August Kuhlmann; behind the
tarpaulin was his wife with her newborn and their two toddlers. Alongside them,
hundreds of armed Ovaherero soldiers moved through the bush towards the
Waterberg. While the soldiers would have known the Ovaherero, Kamatoto, by
hearsay, in this critical situation the presence of the European missionary
triggered mistrust and Kuhlmann sensed the hatred of the angry crowd.
There were different reasons why the two got into this situation. At the
beginning of the war, the Evangelist and his extended family responded to the
call of his Ovaherero chief Samuel Maharero to gather at the Waterberg and to
discuss the further course of the war against the German colonial power. The
German missionary and his family, on the other hand, had fallen behind the front
line through the turmoil of the war at their mission station Otjiseva and were
now fleeing to seek refuge. Here, at the foot of the Waterberg, where thousands
of Ovaherero warriors were gathering, the two met by chance. Kamatoto took the
missionary under his protection and, in the following weeks, saved his remaining
property, and possibly his life. Likewise, missionary Wilhelm Eich had already
been rescued by the Evangelists Job Katire and Josaphat Kamatoto, when he fled
with his family and two settler wives from Otjozondjupa to Okahandja.
Eyewitnesses reported how Evangelists and their Christian congregations were
involved in this phase of the war. Thus, the Ovaherero Evangelists and their
congregation members gathered in their own camp, during which time they held
regular services, before the battle of Ohamakari. They were the minority, but
they were asked for their opinions and were actively involved in the
decision-making during the numerous war meetings of all Ovaherero. Those
gathered included the Evangelists Julius Kauraisa from Okahandja Christian
Mupurua from Otjiruse, Elifas Karamo from Otjimbingwe, Elifas Kukuri from
Otjosazu, Josaphat Kamatoto from Otjiseva and Johannes Mupurua from Okahandja.
The war brought Christians from the different congregations together once more,
before they were decimated and the rest scattered over the whole country.
All were Ovaherero Christians of the first or second generation, who enjoyed a
high reputation as Evangelists in their congregations and all had had their
special experiences with German missionaries. Christian Mupurua, for example,
ordered his congregation only to call him Omuhona and knew just how to prevent
the missionary from making too many rules for him. Just a few hours before the
uprising in Okahandja, Johannes Mupurua had warned Philipp Diehl of the
impending danger. The memory of the courage and fighting spirit of the Christian
participants in the wars of the 19th century would still be awake amongst the
Ovaherero and would give special significance to the presence of these families.
Here, in the war camp below the Waterberg, the last meeting between Ovaherero
Evangelists/elders and Kuhlmann took place. Only the missionary’s version of
this historic event has been recorded, but it adequately expresses the concern
that was the subject of this meeting:
Soon several elders and many members of the assembled Christian congregations
who had gathered there came and asked what would become of them. “Muhongo,” they
point out, “why do all our teachers depart from us in this war? In the past in
the Nama Wars, the old Ovahonge moved with us, proclaimed God’s Word and
comforted the dying. Why should we now be without God’s Word? We Herero do not
wage war against God, nor do we throw God’s word from us. Should our children no
longer be baptised and our young people, when they want to marry, no longer be
blessed into marriage? You are now the last missionary among us; we ask you, do
not leave us! Keep the Lord’s work among us in this time of war, so that the
congregations do not degenerate. And if, as you say, your family cannot stay
here, take them to Okahandja and return to us. You can then wear a badge so that
every Herero recognises you.”
With a heavy heart Kuhlmann rejected their request, pointing out the lack of
approval of the praeses and the uncertain war situation. According to Kuhlmann’s
own words, before his departure, he gave all Evangelists and elders the right to
“give emergency baptism to adults and children and solemnise marriages.” He also
proposed that for the time of war, one of the Evangelists be appointed or chosen
as the “head of the congregations”. Kuhlmann did not, however, speak of the
right to the most important sacrament of this hour, the right to administer Holy
Communion.
It cannot be abstracted from the available sources in which way the Evangelists
were involved in the ensuing battles against the German military. There were
only seven months between the last reports of Kuhlmann and Eich about
Evangelists in the ranks of the Ovaherero before the Battle of Ohamakari in
March/April 1904, and the next occasion that RMS missionaries met Evangelists in
the assembly camps/labour camps by November 1904. These months, like no other
time in the history of the country, determined the fate of the people and thus
also of the mission church forever. There are no autobiographical reports about
the battles or details of the flight to the Omaheke – at least not documented
directly after the events.
The survivors were stunned into silence with horror. Evangelists, who had close
and trusting relationships with some missionaries both before and after the war,
only responded evasively to questions about this time. The Evangelist Erastus
Nikanor is said to have answered the question about his experiences during the
military operation to hunt down the Ovaherero in the Omaheke, by saying to the
missionary: “Muhonge, leave; don’t ask me about it. It was too horrible. I don’t
like to think about it.” An Ovaherero woman of the Groenfontein congregation
answered the same question by a missionary with the striking answer: “The wind
has blown sand over the tracks and the tears, but it cannot be recounted.”
The Ovaherero’s collective response to defeat, expulsion, destruction of social
and physical structures can, in retrospect, be divided into two distinct phases.
In the first phase, immediately after the war and the subsequent annihilation, a
strong movement to Christianity could be observed. Jan-Bart Gewald explained
this process, which he termed the “re-coalescence of Herero society through the
mediation of Christianity”, as the self-discovery of the Ovaherero people under
the leadership of the new elite of the Evangelists. After the original elite of
Ovaherero chiefs were forced into exile by the war, it was now the Evangelists
who, because of their role in the collection camps, were able to take the lead
in this process of reorganisation. As Gewald put it: “Under the leadership of
their Evangelists and in accordance with the teachings of Lutheran doctrine, the
Herero [again] began to establish themselves as a nation.”
Gewald emphasises that it was the origin of the Evangelists from the families of
the leading chiefs that gave them the authority as a new elite. Gewald’s
observations are of great importance, as he is the first historian who wrote the
Evangelists out of obscurity and assigned them great importance for the period
after 1904. He overlooks, however, that the profile of the Evangelists had
changed since 1870. In 1903, not all Evangelists were from a chief family by any
means or took their authority from their relationship with important chief
families. Often the Evangelist’s validity and recognition grew precisely through
the demarcation from the traditional power structures.
The second phase began barely a decade later. Now the movement, which had been
welcomed by the missionaries because of the many conversions, turned against the
structures of the RMS and its missionaries. In both phases, Evangelists played
different but significant roles.
The RMS statistics show a total of 21 employed Evangelists together with 59
elders in Ovaherero congregations in 1903. This was the highest number of
co-workers since the Herero mission was started, if teachers are not considered.
Ovaherero congregations were shattered, because the congregation members, their
elders and Evangelists were killed, driven away, and scattered. To demonstrate
the extent of destruction, the Okazeva congregation may serve as an example.
Before January 1904 this congregation had 87 baptised and registered
congregation members, four elected elders and one Evangelist. In spite of all
his efforts and intensive investigation, the former station missionary August
Kuhlmann could only trace one single survivor. In addition to Okazeva, other
mission stations were completely destroyed, like Otjihaënena (481 former
members), Otjosazu (656 former members), Otjozondjupa (319 former members) und
Omburo (230 former members). Their congregation members – as well as all the
countless unbaptised residents – were killed, dislodged or died fleeing.
The sources are too inaccurate to be able to reliably say which Evangelists died
in the war or while they were fleeing. In the desolate post-war situation, even
the missionaries probably did not know. There are references that the well-known
and important Evangelist Josaphat Kamatoto died of thirst in the Omaheke while
fleeing with his father and his own wife and children. The Evangelist Eliphas
Karamo, formerly from Otjimbingwe, also died while fleeing. Other Evangelists,
such as Zacharias Kamaituara Kukuri and Paulus Plaatjie, were shot by German
courts martial. Many names of Evangelists no longer appear in the sources after
the war, so it must be assumed that they too died during the war and the
genocidal phase. What happened to the others? Biographical data will be used to
reconstruct the events in the months after January 1904.
In December 1904, RMS co-worker Nathanael Kakunde and his companions were shot
dead by free-living Ovaherero near the Omatako Mountains. He had been on a
dangerous mission. On behalf of the RMS missionary of Omaruru, he was supposed
to persuade the surviving Ovaherero in the bush to hand over their weapons and
surrender to the German military. He carried with him two letters: a letter from
the military with the request to surrender, the other a “pastoral letter” from
the missionaries to the Ovaherero. Kakunde had remained on the mission station
Omaruru during the war – it is not known under which circumstances – and was not
on the run, as most Evangelists were beyond the 250-kilometre-long military
cordon in the Omaheke. That was the reason why he was available for such a
dangerous mission for which he paid dearly with his life. The missionary
abandoned the effort and travelled back to Omaruru without having achieved
anything.
According to the mission literature, the news of the death and the contents of
the letters found by the Ovaherero on Kakunde’s body, spread rapidly throughout
Hereroland. In the following weeks, hundreds of Ovaherero reported at the
Omaruru mission station. With these events, the efforts of missionaries and
Evangelists began to create a chance of survival in the Omaheke for the fleeing
Ovaherero. In coordinated actions, Evangelists were now able to move into the
bush as messengers to trace the scattered Ovaherero and persuade them to join
them and report at the so-called collection camps. Numerous “helpers”
accompanied the Evangelists in support; to confirm their instructions, they
carried letters with them.
Until the beginning of December 1904, the German commander General Lothar von
Trotha had categorically rejected any negotiations with Ovaherero chiefs and the
possible participation of the RMS in a peace process. On 8 December 1904, Reich
Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow revised this decision and asked the RMS for its
mediation services. On 8 March 1905, the first negotiations between Praeses
Wilhelm Eich and Lothar von Trotha took place in Windhoek under these new
conditions. Eich was able to negotiate an undertaking by the colonial army that
RMS Evangelists and teachers, who were kept in military prison camps, would be
“handed over” to the RMS if it could be proven that they had not committed any
crimes. How little the military felt bound by these agreements became clear, for
example, in the banishment of the Evangelist Hendrik Witbooi. The promise by the
colonial army to the Ovaherero that, after their surrender, they would be
allowed to settle at their former mission stations was also not kept. After all,
how would an Evangelist have been able to identify himself to a settler soldier,
who had been incited against the mission? There were no standardised
identification documents, notwithstanding the fact that the extreme conditions
of escape were mostly only a matter of sheer survival. Thus the first contact
after the war between Evangelists, elders and congregation members on the one
hand, and the representatives of the colonial state and the missionaries on the
other hand, took on various forms. From one Mbanderu Evangelist it was said that
only his 20-year old attestation about his activity as an Evangelist, which he
always carried with him in his New Testament, saved his life when he was
arrested by German troops.
After March 1905, time and again former co-workers personally contacted the
missionaries, many of them emaciated beyond recognition or bloated and seriously
ill, so that the missionaries often no longer recognised them. Other Evangelists
tried to get in touch with the missionaries through other ways. Thus out of
desperation the Evangelist Manasse Kaukutua wrote a short message to the
missionaries at the collection camps, because he himself was too starved, weak
and sick to make his way there. He asked for something to eat, a shirt, tobacco
and “women’s stuff” because his wife was naked and only he could cover his
nakedness with a springbok hide. Nevertheless, according to what he wrote to the
missionary, he had been doing his duty as an Evangelist by ministering to the
fleeing Ovaherero.
The following Evangelists were involved in the collection campaign: Traugott
Kauapirura (January 1905 in Epukiro), Friedrich Tjiharine and his brother
Gottfried Tjiharine (1905 in Omburo), Willfried/Arefried of Okatjapja (1905 in
Epukiro), Erastus and Gustav Kamatoto (1905 in Otjihaënena), Heinrich Kavari
(1906 in Otjihaënena), Alfred Kukuri (1906 in Otjihaënena), Erastus Nikanor
(1906 in Okomitombe), Christoph, Elihu and Barnabas. The assembly camps were run
in Omburo (c. 40 km northeast of Omaruru at the Omaruru-River), Otjihaënena (c.
150 km northeast of Windhoek at the White Nossob), Otjozongombe (ca. 10 km east
of Otjozondjupa) and Okomitombe (ca. 150 km east of Otjihaënena).
The Evangelists had general helpers (sometimes also called messengers) who moved
into the bush with them to make contact with the Ovaherero. At the collection
camps, attempts were made to create conditions similar to those on the
traditional mission stations. Church services, schooling and gardening were part
of the self-image of the Evangelists and missionaries, even though the hundreds
of Ovaherero refugees were in the collection camps purely for the sake of
survival. Although the original agreement between the missionaries and the
military leadership stipulated that the missionaries had sole sovereignty over
the collection camps and only they decided which of the “recovered ones” were
called upon to work, the military ultimately seized the decision-making power by
force. The removal of the prisoners from the collection camps and their fate in
the labour camps of the military show that despite their charitable motivation,
the mission could not prevent the death of countless Ovaherero.
The extent to which the collection activity depended on the active help of the
Evangelists was already clear during a first attempt by Praeses Eich at the
beginning of 1905. Without Evangelists, his journey with a military “provision
column” to Epukiro in the east was completely ineffective. The only verifiable
result was that he learned from an Ovaherero women about the Evangelist Arefried
of Okatjapa, who was said to have agreed to take a letter to a “settlement near
Okozonguendje”, but Eich’s work on his own came to nothing.
Only with the following event, Eich had the opportunity to have direct contact
with Ovaherero: at Epukiro, the colonial military unit with which Eich was
travelling encountered an armed Ovaherero group. As it later turned out, it was
the group around Willi Maharero, the nephew of Samuel Maharero. It was probably
only the presence of Eich that prompted the accompanying major to proceed as
follows: he gave permission to convey a letter to the Ovaherero requesting them
to send a negotiator. It is significant that the Ovaherero sent the two
Evangelists Traugott Kauapirura and Theobald Kandjii. Putting their lives at
risk, only they were trusted to move between the fronts. After the two had
accepted the conditions of the surrender, they returned to their armed Ovaherero
group to deliver the message. After some time, only Traugott Kauapirura returned
to the German military camp. Under the pretext that he returned to negotiate
more favourable conditions of surrender for the Ovaherero, he managed to gain
more time, because the assault by the German military unit on the Ovaherero
group was imminent. After 45 minutes of delay and fruitless negotiations the
Germans attacked, just to find out that the Ovaherero had used the time to
escape. After this sobering experience, Eich and Traugott Kauapirura – who
surrendered with four rifles – were then led away from the military area, back
to Okahandja.
Erastus Nikanor was also one of the Evangelists who must have heard of the
special regulations for Evangelists and thereupon surrendered in Windhoek in
1905. Just skin and bone, the hardships he had endured in the war and on the run
were visible. He was originally from the important Mbanderu chief clan of
Kaivara Nikanor and grew up in the household of RMS missionary Ferdinand Lang.
He was baptised by Lang in 1896 and soon occupied an important position beside
his mentor. Lang saw the reasons for the great “revival” among the Mbanderu –
more than a third of all baptisms for the year 1900 were reported from their
settlement area in the east of Hereroland – in Nikanor’s work alone. Together
with other co-workers, Lang trained him as an Evangelist. At the same time, a
close friendship developed between the two on the isolated mission station. At
the beginning of the German-Herero War this friendship manifested itself in the
protection Erastus Nikanor gave to the missionary and some settler women who had
managed to flee to the mission station. With his commitment, Nikanor probably
saved the life of the group of Germans. In this situation, Nikanor even risked
his own life by staying with the vulnerable group, until shortly before the
German colonial troops arrived on the mission station. However, he could not
fall into the hands of the German soldiers, as this would have cost him his
life. The Evangelist safeguarded the missionary from marauding Ovaherero
soldiers only through his presence, something that the missionary could not
guarantee the Evangelist after the arrival of the German troops.
When clemency was offered to the Ovaherero after the final battle, Erastus
Nikanor gave himself up to the German colonial administration and was handed
over to the RMS. Accompanied by Wilhelm Diehl, Nikanor moved to the former site
of his ministry in Otjihaënena in December 1904 to take part in the collection
campaign. Not only as an Evangelist, but above all as a family member of the
former Chief Nikanor of Otjihaenena, his word would have had decisive
significance for the scattered Ovaherero of the surrounding area – more so than
the documents he carried with him on his treks through the bush. But even in his
new role as a leading figure, he would not be able to promise the refugees
anything more than temporary refuge and food. He would probably not have trusted
the promises of those in power.
The fate of the prisoners in the camps of Lüderitz, Swakopmund and others would
not have escaped him. Nevertheless, in the first two months of his activity, he
brought more than 2,500 Ovaherero to the assembly camp in Otjihaënena, 70
percent of them women and children. The remaining men handed over only 77 rifles
upon arrival. This limited response by Ovaherero men and the skirmishes against
an armed Ovaherero group under Andreas in the Onjati mountains, were indications
of the strong resistance to the collection campaign. The situation at the
collection camp in Okomitombe showed that the action would have been
unsuccessful without Evangelists like Nikanor. When Okomitombe, the last
collection camp, closed in March 1907, and the RMS withdrew its direct
responsibility for prisoners of war,
Erastus returned to Windhoek and became a native policeman, a position that he
sometimes moped about. He came to me [RMS missionary Friedrich Meier] dejected,
if I could not help him, that he would not get this post. I told him, “No,
Erastus! Take it out of God’s hand! You must not refuse, and who knows it might
be good for you. What you learn now can be very useful to you, etc.” That’s how
Erastus became a policeman. The rifle hung over his shoulder, the revolver in
his belt, and the then inevitable sjambok in the right hand – but which he made
little use of; for with him the people worked without lashes, how many times
have I seen him move along with his captives, mostly for road construction! For
several years he did so until he finally managed to get away from the police
after all prisoners of war had been released. He was dismissed. [...] Erastus
received the best testimonial from the police for his work, only for meeting out
lashes he would not have been considered, because Erastus would not strike hard
enough.
This perception of an Evangelist and the advice of missionary Friedrich Meier,
who wrote the report, were characteristic of both his relationship with the
colonial authorities and with “his” Evangelist. In general, the authorities had
a need for employees who could read, write and also communicate in German. In
1911, for example, 370 police officers were employed in the colonial police
service. At 30 marks per month, they earned almost twice what an RMS Evangelist
did. With the existing surveillance system in place, it may have been difficult
for Nikanor to evade the authority’s demand for his service in the capital. With
his dismissal from the police service, a new phase of his life began – back
again in the service of the RMS. Meier continues:
I employed him as an itinerant teacher for the farms. [...] It was not an easy
start for him, especially since the work was still completely new. All the more
gratefully he accepted every bit of advice and every instruction I gave him
along the way. He had to get the workers to work and to get on with the farmers,
he also had to work himself. One farmer is said to have commented on Erastus:
“This is a man we need. As he arrived, I assigned him to the well – a hard job –
for 10 days; but I can tell you, the man made me happy.” He learned obedience,
punctuality and he also has grit which he learnt [with the police], and who
would have thought at that time that he could use this some time also in our
service!
Gustav Kamatoto, the brother of Josaphat, was also active as an Evangelist in
the Otjihaënena and Okomitombe collection camps. Through his two year long
training at the Augustineum in 1893, he became familiar with the RMS at an early
age and later worked for them. During the war, he fled to the Omaheke in a group
with his parents, siblings and their children. After days of strenuous treks
without food and sufficient water, the group collapsed from exhaustion and lack
of water. Gustav was the only one who still had the strength to get up again and
search for water. After indescribable efforts, he found someone who exchanged a
container of water for the clothes he wore on his body. When he returned to his
family after days, all but one small child had died of thirst.
He was taken prisoner and in the detention camp in Okahandja met RMS missionary
Eich, who ensured his release and sent him to the prison camp in Windhoek as an
Evangelist. From there he joined Diehl and moved with him to the collection
camps. His house in the collection camp became the focal point of the battered
and torn families – in only the first week of his work, 60 children were found
who had been separated from their parents during the flight. Despite or perhaps
because of his own near-death experience, he could offer support and new
orientation. His daily morning and evening devotions were attended by numerous
Christians and non-Christians. The desperate plight of the Ovaherero and his own
origins propelled Gustav Kamatoto into an unintended leadership role. The
Christian rhetoric and piety, which became part of his personality during his
training and work before the war, did not cause any offence in the collection
camps, but created another identity with which the listeners could interpret
their situation after the war. RMS Inspector Johannes Spiecker who was on a
journey through the mission area, described as one of the most moving
experiences of his journey, not the service led by the missionary, but the
afternoon celebration under the leadership of Gustav Kamatoto:
Sunday [5 May 1906] in the afternoon, the werft residents celebrated the baptism
of the two children who were baptised in the morning. The Christians had put
together their daily ration and celebrated a common meal in the church, one can
say a kind of love meal. Afterwards they sat down together, and Gustav Kamatoto
first discussed the sermon of the morning with them, and then they sang one song
after another. [...]
Spiecker described the impressive figure of the Evangelist Gustav Kamatoto in
the midst of the singing congregation: like a surviving Camel-thorn tree in the
torched Omaheke.
After the collection campaign, Gustav Kamatoto returned to work as Evangelist in
the congregation. Already in his seventies, he gained great significance in
church history by translating the Old Testament into Otjiherero in the 1930s and
1940s together with Kuhlmann.
After the last collection camps were closed, the missionaries were astonished to
find that in the military prison camps – which they were mostly forbidden to
enter – Evangelists such as Heinrich Ururua in Lüderitz, Samuel Kariko in
Omaruru or Erastus Jahanika in Karibib had started taking care of their fellow
prisoners. It was only after the missionaries had overcome their initial state
of shock and accompanying helplessness after the war that they tried to
establish contact with the prisoners. Amongst the prisoners were the RMS
Evangelists, who proved themselves as indispensable help to overcome the deep
mistrust of the prisoners. Emil Laaf, for example, only gained access to the
Ovaherero in the two notorious prison camps on the mainland and on Shark Island
in Lüderitz through an imprisoned Evangelist like Kariko. The same happened to
Vedder when he made use of the help of unnamed Evangelists in the concentration
camps in Swakopmund.
At the “fraternal meeting” of the missionaries in October 1905 – the situation
was still so confusing, that they did not want to call their first meeting after
the war a conference – they assessed the situation: at eight stations there were
14 helpers/Evangelists altogether, which was more than they had expected.
However, most of them were still in the concentration camps. Praeses Eich was
therefore requested by his missionary colleagues to negotiate with the military
command the release of the Evangelists from forced labour so that they might be
available to the RMS. It was decided to pay the Evangelists an allowance of 10
marks per month and arrange food for them. On this occasion they also heard that
a few men had managed to escape to Botswana or Transvaal or had been able to
defect early on, e.g. to work in the mines south of the Orange River.
.jpg)
Evangelists of Namibia
