Assa Riarua

Assa Riarua (* 1848 , † after 1904 ), also Asser Riarua , was a traditional leader of the Herero .

Assa Riarua was the son of Riarua (also Amadamap ), an adviser to the Herero chief Maharero . After his death he did not recognize the rule of Maharero's son Samuel Maharero at first, but later came to an understanding with him.

Assa Riarua is mentioned for the first time as a participant in a raid by the Herero on Hendrik Witbooi's settlement Hornkranz on July 5, 1892. He later became one of the most important advisers to Samuel Maharero. A complaint by Assa Riarua is known that he was forcibly thrown out of a bakery while visiting Windhoek in 1901. Since that incident, he has been considered an enemy of the Germans.

Assa Riarua was suspected by contemporary German sources as one of the real initiators of the Herero uprising in 1904, because together with the sub-chief Ouandja he "broke loyalty" to the German colonizers in German South West Africa , the "weak and alcoholic" Herero chief Samuel Maharero , what is now Namibia .

Assa Riarua was one of the Herero leaders who tolerated the free withdrawal of German women and children from the rebellion area. Under the leadership of the missionary Wilhelm Eich , they reached the town of Okahandja, held by the Germans, on April 9, 1904 .

Assa Riarua survived the battle at Waterberg . In September 1904 he was one of the Herero who, under the leadership of Samuel Maharero, tried to escape through the Omaheke to British Bechuanaland . According to Zacharias Zeraeua, he was last seen in 1904 at the Osombo Onjatu waterhole in the Omaheke. There is evidence that his daughter Diana Riarua made it to what is now Botswana .

literature

Klaus Dierks : Chronology of Namibian History. From prehistoric times to independence . Namibia Scientific Society, Windhoek 2000, ISBN 3-933117-52-6 .
Jan-Bart Gewald: Herero Heroes: A Socio-political History of the Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923 . James Currey Ltd, 1999, ISBN 0-85255-754-X .
Helmut Bley, Leonhard Harding: Namibia under German Rule . LIT Verlag, Münster 1996.

Individual evidence

predecessor	Office	successor
Riarua	King of the Tjamuaha Royal House ( Traditional Herero Leader )	Frederik Tjamuaha II.

personal data
SURNAME	Riarua, Assa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Riarua, Asser
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Chief of the Herero
DATE OF BIRTH	1848
DATE OF DEATH	after 1904

[blog-1] Images of Herero Leaders: Assa (Asser) Riarua. Cornflower Blue & Corduroy: Wargaming the German-Herero & Nama Wars of 1904-1908, December 15, 2013.

[2] DSWA: Reports from Okahandja from the seat of Samuel Maharero, alleged atrocities committed by the Hereros against women; Book ad East Asia by A. Herrich with "Deutsch-China". Freiburg newspaper, February 17, 1904.