ABSTRACT
The fate of the Namibian Herero and Nama became a highly contested international issue after Germany’s defeat in World War I. British politicians and newspapers, in particular, denounced Germany’s unparalleled cruelties in its African colonies. The brutal suppression of indigenous resistance in South-West Africa 1904–1907, which resulted in the murder of about 60,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama, served as the prime example of the Germans’ inability to develop their colonies for the benefit of the Africans. British efforts to investigate colonial massacres committed more than a decade earlier, though, were not at all inspired by humanitarian reasons; what the British needed was a credible and convincing case for adding German South-West Africa to their colonial holdings.
