THE RHENISH MISSION AND THE COLONIAL WAR IN GERMAN SOUTHWEST AFRICA
"Mission operations often found themselves in an ambiguous situation during a war of colonial conquest. On the one hand, the missionaries wanted to protect the people among whom they were working and keep the door open for the preaching of the gospel. On the other hand, they were expected to conform to the demands of the colonial authorities, and as nationals of the metropolitan power they might even welcome colonial rule from a purely selfish, nationalistic standpoint. An excellent example of this dilemma was that faced by the Rhenish or Rhine Mission in its field in Southwest Africa"
Richard V. Pierard
http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/Resources/NAMP-CWC/PositionPapers101-155/139%20PIERARD.PDF
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE FACULTY OF DIVINITY CENTRE FOR ADVANCED RELIGIOUS AND THEOLOGICAL STUDIES Currents in World Christianity
2000
© Richard V. Pierard, 2000
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English
Ein unsichtbares Denkmal Für eine Anerkennung des Monumentcharakters eines Otjiherero Praise Poems (Omutando) für die Old Location in Windhoek
Ich möchte einführend einige Gedanken zur An-ikonizität (also nicht-Bildlichkeit) formulieren. In seiner Betrachtung sogenannter an-ikonischer Gesellschaften, also Gesellschaften die keine Bilder von Menschen, Tieren oder Gottheiten produzierten, weist Fritz Kramer darauf hin, dass der Umstand des Nicht-Vorhandenseins von Bildern oder Skulpturen nicht auf technisches Unvermögen hinweist (2001: 17). Im Bezug auf die Herero Gesellschaft in Namibia kann nicht von kompletter Nicht-Bildlichkeit gesprochen werden. Tatsächlich geschah die Aneignung der Photographie bereits im 19. Jhd; es wurden Portraits der gesellschaftlichen Elite hergestellt (siehe Silvester 1998 und Wallace 1998). Wir haben es auch nicht mit einer Gesellschaft zu tun, die sich einem Bilderverbot gebeugt hätte. Tatsächlich erscheint die Abwesenheit von Bildern – also beispielsweise traditioneller Skulptur oder Malerei - nur aus westlicher Sicht als Mangel. Dabei wird eine an materiellen Objekten orientierte Erinnerungskultur als Norm konstituiert, von der aus nicht an materielle Objekte gekoppeltes Erinnern als lückenhaft begriffen wird. Nichtsichtbare, immaterielle, kulturelle Produktionen, wie omitandu, also oral überlieferte Texte, die als ausserpersönliche Referenzpunkte und Plattformen des kollektiven Erinnerns operieren, werden dementsprechend oftmals übersehen, oder besser, aufgrund ihrer nicht-Sichtbarkeit, wie in diesem Falle, nicht wahrgenommen. Eine die Vergangenheit interpretierende, charakterisierende, diskursive und eben auch konservierende (erinnernde) Aneignung der Welt ist aber keineswegs notwendigerweise visuell. Anstelle des Abbildens oder Aneignens durch Bilder steht hier die kulturelle Aneignung der Welt durch Rede, performance und Dichtkunst, die bis heute nicht vollständig durch Bildmedien oder geschriebene Texte ersetzt wurde. BAB Working Paper 2006:05 Presented at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien 13 June 2006.
Anette Hoffmann
http://baslerafrika.ch/wp-content/uploads/WP_2006_5_Hoffmann.pdf
Basler Afrika Bibliographien
2006
© The author © Basler Afrika Bibliographien
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German
Land and landscape in Herero oral culture: Cultural and social aspects of the land question in Namibia
1 Introduction 2 The area around the Waterberg in Herero oral tradition 3 The “oral character” of the Waterberg area 4 Interpretation 4.1 The mountain itself: Fauna, flora and natural resources 4.2 The surrounding landscape: Wells and settlements 4.3 People and cattle: A landscape of pastures 4.4 The living and the dead: Graves and ancestral land 4.5 Venues of the 1904-1908 wars: The political dimension of landscape 5 Conclusion 6 References
Larissa Förster
http://www.nid.org.na/images/pdf/analysis_views/Land_and_landscape_in_Otjiherero_oral_culture.pdf
Namibia Institute for Democracy & Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
2005
© Namibia Institute for Democracy & Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
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English, Otjiherereo
Charles John Anderson: Trade and Politics in Central Namibia 1860-1864
Charles John Andersson Papers, vol. 2 - "The author of the present record, Charles John Andersson, is not unknown among students of Namibian history, or Africana book collectors. He was born in Vanersborg (Sweden) to a Swedish mother (Kajsa Andersdotter) and an English father (Llewellyn Lloyd) in 1827. His papers record at least six siblings: Marie, Sophie, Henrietta, Joseph, Wilhelm and Philip. After a short spell at the University of Lund in 1847, he left to hunt and trade with his father. In 1849 he sailed to England from where he planned to take up a life of hunting and exploration In Iceland. However, meeting Galton and being Invited to accompany him to South Africa. Andersson changed his plans, and in early 1850 the two sailed for Cape Town. For a decade, interrupted only by two years In England and one year as manager of the Matchless copper mine, he travelled and hunted for Ivory in south-western Africa, visiting King Nangolo in Ondonga, exploring Lake Ngami and even reaching the Okavango River. By 1860 he had set himself up as the principal trader in central Namibia, purchasing the WBMC's assets in Otjimbingwe and fitting out a number of hunter/traders to bring in oxen and ivory. His financial situation - probably in many aspects similar to that of other European traders - remains obscure. No doubt he returned from his explorations of Lake Ngami with a fortune in ivory, stock and other saleable goods. Furthermore, the publication of his book, 'Lake Ngami', was an immense success; there were intimations of Cape civil service posts offered him until at least I860, and he was courted by British officials and scientists for his then highly interesting and precious map of the interior of southern Africa. Between 1856 and 1860 Wallis records a series of major cash outlays for fitting out hunters and traders and especially his partner Green; however, no details concerning the exact nature of these 'partnerships', nor the returns of these outlays, could be traced. Wallis claims that the establishment in Otjimbingwe, set up only five years after his return from Lake Ngami, was based partly on credit and in spite of the fact that Andersson recorded the huge sum of £20.000 as due to him in April and May 1864, by September of that year he was in financial difficulties and a few months later seems to have been a pauper. For reasons which this editor could not exact it seems that the Cape-Namaland cattle and ivory trade held the constant promise of immense profits to be made; yet it was precarious enough to ruin a trader's fortunes within months. The next four years are traced in detail by the present record; Andersson's trading activities in the early 1860s, marred by the spreading lungsickness epidemic, soon brought him into direct conflict with the Namaland chiefs and especially the sovereign, Jonker Afrikaner (succeeded by his sons, Christian and then Jan Jonker, following Jonker's death in 1861). By 1864, immobilised by a nasty leg wound received in battle against the Oorlam Afrikaners, Andersson's career as a trader came to a near standstill. [...]"
Brigitte Lau (ed.)
National Archives of SWA/Namibia
1989
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English
The Matchless Copper Mine in 1857: Correspondence
Charles John Andersson Papers, vol. 1 - "The present text documents a year's copper mining activity in Namaland, SWA/Namibia. The year is 1857 and the country ruled by groups of chiefs, the mine is called Matchless, the company exploiting the mine is the Walfisch Bay Mining Company, and the mine manager whose letters to the directors have been published here, is Charles John Andersson." (p.vi)
Brigitte Lau (ed.)
National Archives of SWA/Namibia
1987
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English
Life Among the Hereros in Africa: The Experiences of H. Beiderbecke, Lutheran Pastor
"These reminiscences refer particularly to the first years of my activity in Africa. To me, they are the most delightful, and I am sure that to the friends of missions they will be the most interesting."
Heinrich Beiderbecke
Ernst Kaufmann, New York
1922
Unclear, likely orphan
PDF
English (translated from the German)
A Critique of the Historical Sources and Historiography Relating to the Damaras in Pre-Colonial Namibia
Despite being only a B.A. Honours Thesis, Brigitte Lau's work has stood up as a solid resource in Central Namibian historiography and early Namibian history
Brigitte Lau
University of Cape Town
1979
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English
To heal the wounds : Namibian Ovaherero's contests over coming to terms with the German colonial past
Doctoral Dissertation: Anthropology - This dissertation describes why events of 100 years ago, during the German colonial period, remain so salient for many Ovaherero today as well as what it means to them to come to terms with that past. A national contest emerged about whether and how to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1904-1907 Herero genocide, or war, in Namibia. These commemorations and their planning illustrate some of the social and political context in which restorative justice has proceeded. Fissures among Herero and Namibian communities emerge in the commemorations as well as contests over the production of accounts of the past within Namibia. Different versions of the past circulated within different communities and came into conflict in the context of the commemorations and the broader restorative justice project. These divergent histories all had to be reconciled, even if temporarily, for the purposes of bringing multiple parties together to address an agreed upon past through restorative justice. Remembering for the past for Ovaherero, generally and 1904-1907 in particular, incorporates narratives, embodied memory, and daily practice. Because remembering for Ovaherero makes such use of contemporary contexts of suffering as prompts to talk about the past, remembering the past has much to do with how the past is felt in the present. As some Ovaherero pursued restorative justice with Germany, meanings of these attempts were constantly framed and re-framed and restorative justice ideas were negotiated with Herero understandings of the impact of the past in the present. Finally, I argue that restorative justice as cultural practice produces new social forms—understandings of the past, relationships, and subjectivities. For Ovaherero, this process has created new truths about the past, shaped the role of their ancestors as victims, and focused the forms of violence remembered into those pertinent to claims of genocide.
Karie L. Morgan
https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/record/uuid:1f474386-fd2a-4d28-8ba8-6218f58de29e
University of North Carolina
2010
PDF
English
An economic and social history of the Herero of Namibia, 1915-1946
PhD Dissertation (University of Cape Town)
Wolfgang Werner
https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/15858
University of Cape Town
1989
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English
Namibia Review (No. 10) April 1978
Special Issue: The Assassination of Chief Clemens Kapuuo - by Kenneth Abrahams
The Namibian Review Group: Spånga, Sweden
Namibia Review: A Journal of Contemporary South West African Affairs
1978
PDF
English
Newsletter
Gobabis: A Brief History of the Town and Region
P.H. Van Rooyen & Peter Reiner
Municipality of Gobabis
1995
© P.H. Van Rooyen & P. Reiner
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English
Three Views into the Past of Namibia
Originally Compiled by Annemarie Heywood and Brigitte Lau as a contribution to the History Conference 1-3 June 1993 sponsored by the Namibisch-Deutsche Stiftung fur kulturelle Zusammenarbeit, published privately.
Annemarie Heywood & Brigitte Lau
1993 (first edition)
© Annemarie Heywood & Brigitte Lau, 1996
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English
A History of Resistance in Namibia
Documents resistance to the German conquest by the Herero and Nama peoples; the South African take-over under the League of Nations mandate; land, labour and community resistance from 1920-1960; the emergence of Nationalist organisations; appeals to the UN and the ICJ; the launching of SWAPO's armed struggle, and nationalist responses to South Africa's Bantustan policy.
Peter H. Katjavivi
UNESCO Press
1988
© UNESCO Press 1988
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English
Let us die fighting : the struggle of the Herero and Nama against German imperialism (1884-1915)
"This book covers the entire period of German colonial rule in what is today Namibia. Using previously unpublished German government documents, Drechsler covers not only official government policy but also an analysis of missionaries and traders who enable the colonial government. There is also strong emphasis on underlying economic factors that shaped colonial policy."
Horst Drechsler
Zed Books
1980
Akademie-Verlag 1966
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EnglishEnglish (trans. from German)
Manasse Tjiseseta: Chief of Omaruru 1884-1898, Namibia
“Biographies of Namibian leaders of the nineteenth century are rare. We have indepth studies of Hendrik Witbooi, Samuel Maharero and Kahimemua for that period, but few comprehensive analyses of other leading figures. This book, a biography of the Herero chief Manasse Tjiseseta, who reigned in central-western Namibia between 1884 until his death in 1898, is thus to be welcomed. Its importance is enhanced by the fact that the editors of the series have added fourteen documents, including letters written by Tjiseseta himself, reproduced here in facsimile, and providing the reader with a personal glimpse of the chief. Joris de Vries reconstructs the life of one of the first Herero chiefs deeply embedded in a Christian context. He was a schoolteacher for the Rhenish Mission before succeeding his uncle, Tjaherani. He was also one of the first chiefs who had to act in a political environment increasingly influenced by German colonialism. He had to do so much earlier than the later paramount chief Samuel Maharero, whose biography partly resembles that of Tjiseseta. The structural confines of Christianity and colonialism, and the political and economic possibilities these entailed for a chief, became important for all central Namibian Herero polities from the late 1880s onwards. De Vries’ study provides an insight into the skilful means by which a fairly young chief (some 34 years of age at the beginning of his reign) used these contexts to carve autonomous spaces for himself and his people. The author shows convincingly how the particular economic possibilities of the Omaruru region provided an essential power base for the chief. Omaruru was an important commercial centre along several major trade routes connecting western, central and northern Namibia, and Tjiseseta set up a coherent taxation system. In addition, the area provided for regular agricultural activity which, next to the pastoral economy, provided an important source of income. In the case of the Damara community at Okombahe, relations of dependency, including the control of labourers, added to the power base of Tjiseseta and that of several other Herero petty chiefs. As de Vries shows, Tjiseseta played out these economic possibilities and social differences while maintaining political autonomy, not only vis-a-vis the encroaching German military, but also vis-a-vis the dominant Maharero polity. To characterize Tjiseseta as a ‘ tycoon’ (pp. ff.) with respect to his economic ventures and wealth might, however, be an overstatement, not least as he did not act solely by himself but in accordance with a council. This raises the question of the distribution of wealth, and relations with other enterprising Herero families, analyses of which are missing. The analysis of the transformations faced by Tjiseseta in the s (chapter ) remains superficial. While the general lines of conflict with the German administration are well outlined, resulting in the chief losing more and more control, the complexities of the dynamics within the polity are not addressed coherently. A case in point are the transformations of the chief’s relations with the Damara community in Okombahe. De Vries omits an important manoeuvre by Tjiseseta in 1894 through which he transformed the tribute payments of the Okombahe agriculturalists into a lucrative annual revenue granted by the German administration without himself and his petty chiefs losing de facto control of Damara labour, while the Damara chief in turn had to enter into agreement with the German administration for the provision of labour (de Vries only mentions the latter). The case is important as it raises questions about the changing relations between Tjiseseta, his petty chiefs and the Damara population, as well as issues relating to the manipulation of pre-colonial relations of dependence by the Herero elite during the initial phase of German administration. In-depth analyses of these issues are missing. De Vries’ study is a slightly revised version of his MA thesis submitted at the Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden in 1997. This explains the limited source basis on which the book is based. The omission of the rich correspondence of the Rhenish missionaries of Omaruru, Okombahe and Omburu limits de Vries’ understanding of the internal dynamics of the Herero polity and results in a rather sketchy picture of Tjiseseta’s (extended) family. Although the author acknowledges some of the shortcomings (in chapter and the conclusion), one wonders for example why such important political bodies as the chief’s council and the church council are not analyzed in their own right ? Despite these limitations, the book is a welcome contribution to the biographical and regional studies of central Namibian history. This reviewer hopes that the publisher (who has failed to provide an index) has made it available to the Namibian readership at an affordable price, as it is biographies that often lend themselves much better to discussions of history in its broader contexts than any other so-called history books. -- Dag Henrichsen, Journal of African History”
Joris de Vries
Rüdiger Köppe
1999
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English
Frühe Kolonialgeschichte Namibias 1880-1930
Contents: 1. Einführung - Wilhem J.G. Möhlig 2 - Unmaking a Market: The Encapsulation of a Regional Trade Network: Northwest Namibia between the 1860s and 1950s. - Michael Bollig 3. Mit Kreuz, Gewehr und Handelskarre: Der Kavango 1903 im kolonialen Fokus - Andreas E. Eckl 4. Herero and Missionaries: The Making of Historical Sources in the 1920s - Jan-Bart Gewald 5. Diversifizierung und politische ökonomie der Damara im 19. Jahrhundert - Martina Gockel 6. Demographische Entwicklung und ökonomie im Norden Namibias zwischen 1900 und 1930 - Carmen Humboldt 7. Hendrik Witbooi und das Versaeumnisurteil: Ein Herrscher der Nama begegnet deutschem Recht in Namibias kolonialer Frühzeit - Harold Sippel Index "Der vorliegende Sammelband vermittelt dem Leser einen Einblick in die vielfältigen Aspekte der laufenden Forschungsprojekte vor allem aus der Abteilung „Raumnutzungs- und Überlebensstrategien“. Grundthese der Untersuchungen ist, daß die im südlichen Afrika ablaufenden Anpassungsprozesse an zunehmend schlechter werdende Umweltbedingungen grundsätzliche Erkenntnisse erlauben, die sich auch auf die wesentlich älteren Prozesse in den heutigen Wüstengebieten Nordost-Afrikas anwenden lassen. Dabei wird mit der Fülle ethnohistorischer und zeitgeschichtlicher Quellen und Methoden ein möglichst breiter geographischer bzw. ethnischer Bereich abgedeckt."
Wilhem J.G. Möhlig (ed.)
Rüdiger Köppe
2000
PDF
German and English
Geschichte und Entwicklung der Stadt Okahandja
Der bereits von Krankheit gezeichnete Fritz Gaerdes hatte diese Ortchronik von Okahandja zusammengestellt und bezog sich auf damals vorhandene Quellen und auf die eigenen Erlebnissen in den vergangenen 50 Jahren. Zwei Memoranden zur Geschichte der Schule und der Öffentlichen Stadtbibliothek fügte er dem seltenen Büchlein über die Geschichte und Entwicklung der Stadt Okahandja an: • Geschichte und Entwicklung der Stadt Okahand ja von 1800 bis 1970 • Memorandum zur Geschichte der Schule in Okahandja • Memorandum zur Geschichte der öffentlichen Bibliothek Okahandja
Fritz Gaerdes
S.W.A. Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft - Namibia Scientific Society
1970
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German
Hugo Hahn Addressing the Herero before the battle against the Oorlam-Nama Afrikaners, June 1864
Courtesy National Archives of SWA/Namibia
Thomas Baines
Print of Painting
Namibia in the 1860s: As Seen and Painted by Thomas Baines
National Archives of SWA/Namibia
Bernard C. Moore
© National Archives of SWA/Namibia
JPG File