Germans in Namibia

Today's New York Times has an article about the German influence in Namibia. The article is in the travel section, and the author has basically recreated the major steps in Namibian colonial history. One quote from the article states that "millions of carats" of diamonds were mined during the German colonization of Namibia. I wonder if the Namibians were paid a fair price for those gems.

It turns out that the Germans didn't have Namibia for very long -- they lost the colony to the British rulers of South Africa, but the Germans who went to Namibia have been pretty determined to keep their heritage alive. That makes for some touchy moments, though, as the Germans killed 80,000 Herero men, women, and children in Hamakari in 1904 by surrounding them and firing on them with machine guns.

((The Germans, apparently, consider their actions to be no worse than the British actions in other parts of the world. However, critics point to the Hamakari massacre as a precursor to the Holocaust. That might make for an interesting lesson next year -- which European power was the worst colonial ruler in Africa? My money is on King Leopold. What do you think?))