diff --git a/ompi/mpi/java/c/mpi_MPI.c b/ompi/mpi/java/c/mpi_MPI.c
index d2fab4318c1..d8f8ac90cef 100644
--- a/ompi/mpi/java/c/mpi_MPI.c
+++ b/ompi/mpi/java/c/mpi_MPI.c
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ jint JNI_OnLoad(JavaVM *vm, void *reserved)
 
     if(libmpi == NULL)
     {
-        fprintf(stderr, "Java bindings failed to load liboshmem.\n");
+        fprintf(stderr, "Java bindings failed to load libmpi: %s\n",dlerror());
         exit(1);
     }
 
diff --git a/oshmem/shmem/java/c/shmem_ShMem.c b/oshmem/shmem/java/c/shmem_ShMem.c
index 55720de2094..2ea5210a6dc 100644
--- a/oshmem/shmem/java/c/shmem_ShMem.c
+++ b/oshmem/shmem/java/c/shmem_ShMem.c
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ jint JNI_OnLoad(JavaVM *vm, void *reserved)
 
     if(liboshmem == NULL)
     {
-        fprintf(stderr, "Java bindings failed to load liboshmem.\n");
+        fprintf(stderr, "Java bindings failed to load liboshmem: %s\n",dlerror());
         exit(1);
     }