Herero

Herero (Ova-Herero), a large south-west African people, who are the "Cattle Damaras" of English writers, and who occupy all the low steppe region of Damaraland between Ovampoland and Walvisch Bay north and south. The Hereros are a branch of the Bantu race, speaking.a Bantu dialect closely related to that of their Ovampo neighbours and kinsmen. The chief divisions are the Zerawa, Kambazembi, Kavingava, Kamureti, Kandyii, Kukuri, and Ovambanderu. The Hereros are essentially a pastoral people, who own numerous herds of a fine breed of cattle largely exported to Cape Colony and to the European settlements on the west coast as far north as the Gaboon. For generations they have been at constant feud both with the northern Ovampos and the southern Namaquas (Hottentots). But this inter-tribal warfare has almost entirely ceased since 1886, when Kamaherero, lord paramount of the Hereros, accepted the German protectorate for himself and all his people. The true national name is Herero, meaning the "Merry" or "Light-hearted," whereas Damara (properly Damaqna), meaning the "Vanquished," is a Hottentot word applied to them in contempt by the Nama Hottentots (Namaqua) of Great Namaqualand, Hence the Germans have rightly replaced Damaraland by the term Hereroland as the proper designation of their territory, The confusion is also thus avoided between the "Cattle Damaras" and the "Hill Damaras" of the eastern uplands, who are not Bantus at all, but half-caste Hottentots speaking a corrupt Hottentot dialect, and calling themselves Hou-Khoin, that is, "True Men," meaning "True Hottentots." (Francis Galton, Travels, 1853; Schinz, Deutsch Siid- West Afrika, 1891.)