Hendrik Witbooi

Hendrik Witbooi, kaptein of the ǀKhowesin Nama at Gibeon, understood earlier than most what colonial "protection" treaties really meant. His letters to other leaders, and to the Germans themselves, argued in writing what he defended in arms: that no chief had the right to sign away another people's land and independence.

He fought the Germans in the 1890s, was forced into a treaty, and then, in 1904, at around eighty years old, rose again when the Herero war began. He died of wounds in October 1905 near Vaalgras. His diary and correspondence survive as one of Africa's most remarkable records of anti-colonial thought.

His face is on Namibia's banknotes; his line, that he would rather die free than live under another's law, opens The Rise of Nationalism course.