In 1904 , the Herero rebelled . German General Lothar von Trotha implemented an extermination policy at the Battle of Waterberg , which drove the Herero west of the Kalahari Desert . At the end of 1905 , only 16,000 Herero were alive , out of a previous population of 80,000 . Nama resistance was crushed in 1907 . All Nama and Herero cattle and land were confiscated from the very diminished population , with remaining Nama and Herero assuming a subordinate position . Labor had to be imported from among the Ovambo
extermination policy
Herero and Namaqua genocide
History of Africa