‘I will annihilate the rebelling African tribes with rivers of blood and rivers of gold’ — General von Trotha<sup>1</sup><br><br>‘The result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth…but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe’ — Adolf Hitler<sup>2</sup><br><br>The first genocide of the 20th Century is largely a forgotten one. The Herero and Nama Genocide (1904-08) occurred in German South West Africa (Namibia) some 40 years before the WW2 Holocaust.<br><br>Following clashes with German occupying forces, the Herero were gunned down at the Battle of Waterberg (1904) or forced into the desert to die of thirst and starvation. The Nama suffered a similar fate, with the conflict eventually resulting in the deaths of 80% of the Herero and 50% of the Nama.<sup>3</sup> <br><br>The Herero who surrendered were branded with the letters GH (<em>Gefangene</em> (or captive) Herero)<sup>4</sup>—a more brutal version of the Nazi-enforced Star of David. Also, in an uncanny precursor of Nazi death camps, survivors were held in concentration camps, including <em>Shark Island</em>, where conditions could ‘in no way sustain life’<sup>5</sup>. <br><br>These similarities could suggest that, by providing the Nazis with both ideology and method, the Herero and Nama genocide was in some way the genesis for the Holocaust. <br><br>However, viewing the two genocides through this lens alone oversimplifies them: it ignores their contexts. The African genocide occurred during conflict over colonial territory, but there was no ‘objective conflict’<sup>6</sup> between Nazi Germany and the Jews of Europe.<br><br>Perhaps most importantly, it reduces the Herero and Nama genocide to merely a rehearsal for the Holocaust, whilst ignoring the crucial factor that led to the murder of six million Jews—namely, a rife and pre-existing antisemitism. <br>