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from Nama chief Hendrik Witbooi's letter to Major Leutwein, describing the typical colonist:
- 'He makes no requests according to truth and justice, and asks no permission of a chief. He introduces laws into the land, laws which are entirely impossible, untenable, unbelievable, unbearable, unmerciful and unfeeling. He punishes our people in Windhoek and has already beaten people to death for debt. It is not just and right to beat people to death for that. He stretches people on their backs and flogs them in a shameful and cruel manner, be they male or female. He thinks we are stupid and unintelligent people, but we have never yet punished people in the cruel and improper way that he does. No-one can survive such a punishment.'
- 'Herero women adapted their high-waisted dresses, and hats that jut out like cattle-horns, from the wives of Victorian missionaries. On holidays they wear versions of the dress in red and black, the colours of Herero nationalism - and of the 19th-century German Empire. The men wear the German volunteers' uniform. German diplomats are always invited to Herero celebrations. "We're treated like VIPs and often asked to give the keynote speech," said one diplomat, who confessed that he is baffled by the practice. The peculiar attraction between the Herero and Germans here resembles the one in the Natal region of South Africa between the Zulus and British, two other peoples who fought a brutal colonial war. "It's the respect of a soldier for a soldier," explains Kuaima Riruako, paramount chief of the Herero. "We never gave up our army, even during the German period." But the links are much closer. Because many Herero women were forced into sexual slavery, many Herero today have German ancestors, and German is widely spoken here.'
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