Samuel Maharero


Maharero, Samuel

 

Years of birth and death unknown. Supreme chief of the Herero tribes in Southwest Africa (Namibia) from 1891 to 1904. The first years of Maharero’s rule, after the German colonial administration made him head of the Herero, were marked by collaboration with the colonialists. However, the cruel regime of the German authorities and the oppressions to which the Africans were subjected forced Maharero to come out in defense of the interests of his people and to head a rebellion against the colonialists (the Herero and Hottentot Uprising of 1904-07). After a battle near Waterberg (August 1904), Maharero fled with some of his surviving tribesmen to Bechuanaland.