Reviews for Bitter Harvest: A Modern History of Palestine

The average rating for Bitter Harvest: A Modern History of Palestine based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-06-02 00:00:00 Bandy Smith Here is my very very rough chapter analysis of the book. I though it was a remarkable book. Let Us Die Fighting – The Struggle of the Herero and Nama against German Imperialism (1884 – 1915) Horst Drechsler, 1980 Main Ideas: - Numerous groups of people, not just the Herero and the Nama – the Witboois, Bethanie, Bondelswarts, Topnaars, Afrikaneers etc etc… - Introduction by Sam Nujoma gives the reader a clear view of what the book deals with. - He argues that German colonial policy was more economic than it was imperial. – for him, big business drove German desire to acquire more (land and capital) - He examines the Herero struggle in stages. o He suggests that the Herero and Nama were struggling for supremacy and therefore failed to notice the incoming common enemy until after the 1890s so the arrival of the Germans allowed for peace between the two. This was the first stage of contact - o 1893 – 1903 marks the second stage German attack on the Witboois. Land and cattle were captured by the settlers o 1904 – 1907 the great rebellions took place o 1907 – 1915 was the crushing of the Herero and Nama Chapter 1: German Penetration (1884-92) - he discusses how the Germans became interested and involved in South West Africa in the first place. - His emphasis is on capitalist advancements of German companies, particularly Adolf Luderitz who made “purchases” of massive pieces of land. - before that were the Rhenish missionaries who were trying to convince the German government to protect them - “protection treaties” were such a farce but some groups of people (Bondelswarts) refused them - Luderitz’s finances deteriorated so he was forced to sell his possessions in SWA Chapter 2: Land and cattle - before the uprising of the Herero and the Nama, there were numerous resistance wars put up by smaller groups of people. - - General Leutwein came to SWA and subjected the Khauas into submission because the Witboois were proving difficult. And he was largely successful - He also managed to convince Witboois to sign a treaty of “protection and friendship” - He viewed the Herero who held land and cattle as backwards – he said that land could only be productive if it was held by the whites. - Signed some more treaties with Maherero – a thing that damaged the Herero cause o But this 1895 treaty of cooperation ruled out an armed conflict for land and cattle o But I don’t understand why or how he then started to impound some Herero cattle and sell them o I also get lost a bit in his descriptions – the Cecil Rhodes economic interests have very little to do with the Herero and Nama struggle against German imperialism - “but under African law, the expulsion of a tribe and the killing of cattle was a declaration of war no matter the circumstances…” (99) – I don’t know what this statement means - it is unclear to me what was happening in the North and the South – he says “the Herero rebellion broke out in the north, which changed the state of affairs in the South” Chapter 3: The Herero Uprising (1904) - uprising was caused by systematic appropriation of the Herero and their status of being “rightless” - like the Shona uprising, Dreschler says it took the Germans by surprise o unfair treatment, whipping, the Germans also forgot about the treaties of protection and friendship offered to the Herero - the Otavi railway also left no grazing land for the Herero cattle - the Germans then ran an anti British campaign, they also blamed the missionaries for colluding with the Herero eventually they settled on blaming Leutwein for the outbreak. - It was strategic, like the Shona uprising (the bulk of the German troops had left Hereroland to deal with the Bondelswarts) - The uprising was also directed against the Germans only (not the Boers nor the English) - The Herero fought a very humane war – did not kill woman and children as the German reports had made it seem. - When Von Trotha came in and things went from bad to worse - The battle of Waterberg Chapter 4: The Nama Uprising - The Nama sode of the war had numerous players/leaders – Witboois, Morenga and Simon Kopper including the sons of Witbois and Morenga - The war ended because of British diplomacy - In the closing stages of 1904, the Nama under Jakob Morenga – a man who proved to be problematic for the Germans - Caused by the systematic expropriation of Nama cattle and land by the Germans even though the numbers were less. - The major cause was the fact that the Nama had no rights in the eyes of the Germans. - (the idea of religion features here) the Ethiopian Movement according to Dreschler, strengthened Hendrik Witbooi. - They killed about 40 Germans but numbers were exaggerated to justify a stronger response - The Witboois later fought a guerrilla type warfare – hit and run tactics on German posts but pulled out of the fight when Hendrick Witbooi was killed. - Morenga was killed by the Cape Police later after that Simon Kopper continued hostilities against the Germans. - In the end, those who survived probably had the worst life – slave labourers, most died because of the climate - the Germans believed that the Nama were lesser humans (this is what drive their colonial policy) - The Witboois and Bethenie people were taken to Shark Island where they died like flies - In the end it seems that the companies were the big winners. Chapter 5: The Peace of the Graveyard - Forced labour is worse than slavery itself which gave rise to the class structure in SWA? - The Germans had absolute power until 1915, even after that, the Namibian people never had any of that power because South Africa extended its apartheid rule into Namibia

Review # 2 was written on 2017-04-05 00:00:00 Carmen T Saliceti Maldonado A remarkable, and very readable, look into the lost world of East German scholarship. Marxist and proud, this book pulls no punches when describing the horrific events of colonial Namibia.