User:Enwich Kazondu/Sandbox

THE OVAHEREO GENOCIDE

02 October 2004 marked the one hundred years since the 'Extermination Order'', thousands of Ovaherero at the weekend returned to a remote spot in the Kalahari desert where German colonial military leader General Lothar von Trotha issued his infamous command to destroy the Ovaherero as a nation. This order led to the annihilation of about two-thirds of the Ovaherero at the beginning of the 20th century, it was issued at a place known as the Ozombuzovindimba - modern-day Otjinene Constituency in the Omaheke Region. The ovaherero people were forced to walk very long kilometers heading towards Botswana and eventually into Botswana in the pursuit for a better life off the hands of the Germans. Led by their broad-shouldered paramount chief, Kuaima Riruako, Ovaherero tribesmen marched through the thick sand and veld to lay wreaths at two graves marked by stones, and climbed a man-made sand hill on which Von Trotha stood when he read out the Extermination Order, before signing the so-called 'Ozombuzovindimba Declaration' to reaffirm their commitment to fight for reparations from Germany. The ovaherero people tried by all means to fight the Germans with military force but they clearly couldn’t match-up dispite their pride and well discipline military tactic. Thus they resorted in fighting them by putting international pressure on them through mainly petitions to the United Nations.The African tribe also threatened unspecified action against "German interests" if the former colonial ruler continues to ignore their demands for reparations. This decision they took proved to be the right one to have made as the pressure on the Germans grew immensely and eventually the pressure became unbearable. They left the country in the hands of the South Africans on orders given by the UN. The South Africans, then occupied by Britain had to simply prepare Namibia (South-west Africa) for their soon to come independence.