History of Old Location and Katutura
Windhoek,
the capital of Namibia, was at one stage first occupied by Germany and than by
South Africa. Throughout the years of being a German protectorate, many
Namibians lost their lives in fight against the colonisers. Samuel Maharero, the
chief of Hereros, declared war on the Germans in 1904:
In
my capacity as Supreme Chief of the Herero I hereby decree and resolve that none
of my people lay their hands upon the English, the Bastards, the Berg Damara,
the Nama and the Boers. We shall not lay violent hands on any of these. I have
made a solemn pledge not to make this known to anyone, including the
missionaries.
(Drechsler
H., "Let us die fighting", Berlin: 1966; 143.).
The
Germans won all wars with the loss of only 1 626 men (
Jakob
Marengo, Simon Kooper and Mandume Ndemufayo who became king of the Kwanyama in
1911as a teenager and died in 1917 were other freedom fighters. Hendrik Witbooi's
image is printed on country's currency in recognition of his historical
importance to Namibian people.
History
Windhoek in the language of the Namas and Damaras, means Aie//gams (hot springs)
and in the language of the Herero Otjomuise (place of steam). Unlike always
historically presumed, Windhoek was not founded by Curt von Francois, as many
people would like to think and the monument suggests. Windhoek was in habitat
first by the Damaras then by the Hereros, then by the Namas who came to Windhoek
about 1840 under the leadership of Jonker Afrikaner, the son of the great Jan
Jonker Afrikaner, who came from South Africa and because of their knowledge of
how to use the gun and their possession of horses, ruled parts of modern Namibia
for many years.
In
1842, about 2000 people were living in the Windhoek area under Oorlam
leader Jonker Afrikaner (Lau: 1987; 33).
This
was however, at a time were Namibia was not yet a German colony. The only
Europeans living at that time in Namibia were missionaries, traders, travellers
and game hunters. Jonker Afrikaner named the place Winterhoek, because it
allegedly reminded him of his home in the Cape Colony.
Jonker
Afrikaner left the Windhoek area in 1852, but the area remained occupied by
Herero and Damara who planted maize and other crops near the hot springs (Pendleton: 1994;
10).
Jonker
and his followers stayed in Windhoek from 1840 until 1880, when settlement was
destroyed after war between the Hereros and Namas broke out. The 19th
century was a time where Namas and Hereros fought over the hegemony of central
Namibia. Windhoek was destroyed by the Herero, after the war of 1880 and after
the remaining Namas and the missionary J.G. Schröder had fled.
In 1885, after Germany had now declared Namibia a protectorate, on the 21
October did Reichskommissar Göring and Maharero, who resided at Okahandja and
who was the Paramount Chief of the Herero sign a so-called protection treaty.
Some years later however the protection treaty was annulled and Göring had to
flee back to Walvis Bay because he did not have any troops to protect him.
German military presence was almost non-existent at that time. After that
incident, German Chancellor Bismark decided to sent a 21-man contingent to
Namibia under the command of Curt von Francois. They landed at Walfish Bay in
1889.
Curt
von Francois and his troops arrived, at that time, at the unoccupied Windhoek on
October the 18th 1890. Windhoek was an ideal place situated in the center of the country, directly between the Namas and the Herero
and it provided a source of hot and cold water. This was the new capital to be
for the new colony, with a
Municipality, a post office and the Alte Feste (Old Fort). The first traders came in
1891-93 to Windhoek, soon followed by the first settlers.
In
1894, Windhoek had 85 white civilians (including five women), about 500 members
of the Schutztruppe, and 300-400 blacks, which were mostly Damara (Mossolow:
1965; 139).
The
town was never really threatened during the 1904-08 Nama and Herero uprisings, although trade was
interrupted for a short while.
During
the First World War, Windhoek was occupied on 12 May 1915 by the South African
Union troops under the command of general Louis Botha. The Municipality was
closed down on the 31 December 1918 and was replaced by a military magistrate
and an advisory council. The town was hit by depressions at the end of the 1920
and than again in the year 1929.
Windhoek
was again affected heavily by the Second World War and life was affected
socially, economically and culturally. However the town soon recuperated after
the war and things quickly got back to being normal.
This is however only a part of Windhoek's history. The towns history
would not be complete without mentioning the Old Location, the Klein Windhoek
Location, the shooting in 1959, which than led to the final removal of the
people in September 1968.
In 1912, the Windhoek Town Council established the Main Location where blacks
could live, west of town, (The place where the Old Location was situated has now
been developed into middle to upper class residential suburb, known as Hochland
Park), and a location in Klein Windhoek, a suburb east of the center of town.
In 1913, blacks living in various parts of the Windhoek area were moved
to these new locations.
In
1932, the Main Location was reorganized, straight streets were laid out, and the
Ethnic group section formally established. The Damara, Nama and Owambo referred
to their sections by the municipal administrative designations such as Damara
Two or Owambo One. The Herero had already adopted the practice of dividing their
section of the Main Location into smaller subdivisions of their own, naming them
either after a place or an important person. One of these divisions was called
Otjikatjamuaha, the place of Chief Tjamuaha's people, while another was called
Otjimaruru, the place of the people from Omaruru.
Control
of the locations was the responsibility of the municipality, but efforts were
made to involve residents in the administration of the locations. An
Advisory Board, consisting of twelve non-white members under the chairmanship of
the white location superintendent, was
established in the Main Location in 1927. Half the
members of the Board were elected by the residents, while the remaining
members were appointed by the location
superintendent; elections were held when a vacancy occurred.
The
most frequently discussed topics at Board meetings were health, sanitation,
education and the operation of the Board (Wagner: 1951; 115).
A subject that was periodically discussed was heavy drinking, illegal
brewing and illegal selling of alcoholic beverages.
In
1947, the municipality decided to increase the number of migrant Owambo contract
During
the 1950s the Windhoek municipality, in consultation with the South West Africa
Administration and the South African government, decided to build a new location
North-West of Windhoek and to move all location residents there. Most Main
Location residents opposed the planned closure of the Main Location and refused
to consider moving to the proposed new location. Opposition to the move reached
a climax in December 1959.
A
group of Herero women made a protest march to the Administrator's residence on 3
December. Five days later saw an effective boycott against municipally operated
facilities such as buses, the beer hall and the cinema. On the night of 10
December, a protest meeting held in the Main Location developed into a
confrontation with the police. The police shot and killed 11 people and some 44
required medical attention (Goldblatt: 1971; 262, Hall: 1961; 3).
Immediately after the confrontation, between 3 000 and 4 000 people fled
the location and refused to return because they were afraid of further trouble.
The
Old Location was officially closed on 31 August 1968. Eventually all
people in the Old Location, with the exception of about 300 people who
decided to go to their reserves (communal
areas), moved to the new location without further incident. The people named the new location, Katutura, which if literally
translated, means: we do not have a
permanent habitat.
In 1961 the residents of the Klein Windhoek location were also moved to
Katutura, and in 1963 Pokkiesdraai was closed and Owambo contract workers were
moved to Katutura. A modern shopping complex now occupies the
place where the Compound for migrant workers was erected.
As
a result of the closing down of the Old Location many activities came to an end.
Activities such as the Bunga Club, which was a burial, mutual aid and
social club. The African Improvement Society' which was established for
educational and social improvement purposes, the non-white Railway Staff
Association which might have been a forerunner of a railway
workers trade union, the 'Hakahana Turf Club',
which sponsored popular horse races, a Boy Scout troop, the tribal court'
and the brass bands
which each ethnic group used to have, were other activities which
seized to exist with the closing of the locations (Wagner: 1951; 125-131,
273, 275).
An account of life
in the Old Location by John Ya-Otto, a former resident of the location:
It was easy to be mistaken about the Old Location. Vast crowded, the shantytown
wrapped itself around the scrubby hills of Windhoek's northern fringe, on the
opposite side of the city from the white suburbs. Everyone knew one another and
strangers did not remain so for long. You knew the streets, unmarked and
unnamed, only after you have lived in the Old Location for a long time.
In spite of the hardship, there was a strange contentment with Old
Location life; in the midst of so much noise, serenity. In the mornings women
sang as they did the laundry by the water post and children played in the
puddles left after the night's rain. Later came the noise of clattering plates
and cutlery and of conversations as shadows moved back and forth behind the
kerosene lamp in each doorway. Then, as the mist crept along the hillsides, the
shadows became fewer; the lamps were brought inside, and quiet settled over the
maze of dark shanties. This was the Old Location, as I became to know it.
Councillors Alfred Mungunda and Joshua Kamberipa called the township Katutura,
which means, "We do not have a permanent habitation". This name
derives from the fact that since the whites came to our land, Katutura is the
fifth location we have had to live in Windhoek.
Life
in Katutura under apartheid:
The Katutura of 1968 consisted of about 4 000 rental houses organized into five
ethnic group section. People were required to live in Katutura in their
'own' ethnic group section. In addition
to the rental houses there was a 'single quarter' area of dormitory-type
housing estimated to accommodate about 1 000 people, and a walled
'compound' located at the entrance to Katutura where Owambo men on
migrating labour were fed and housed. Apartheid in South West Africa was
enforced more rigidly than in South Africa. Apartheid created heavy constraints
on interaction between members of different racial groups. Law forbade marriage and sexual intercourse between whites and
'non-whites'. Separate entrances
and service facilities for members of different 'racial'
groups were found at most government, administration and municipal offices as
well as at many privately owned businesses. Apartheid in South West
Africa defined geographical, economic and social boundaries between people.
In
1968, the Windhoek urban area was composed of three separate townships, each set
aside for the exclusive use of one of the three racial groups: Katutura for
blacks, Khomasdal for coloureds, and Windhoek for whites (Pendleton: 1994;
12-16, 18-19, 22-23).
Kotze C., "A Social History of Windhoek", Ph.D., Pretoria:
University of South Africa; 1990
Pendleton C. W., "Katutura A Place Where We Stay", Windhoek: 1994.
Mossolow N., "This Was Old Windhoek", Windhoek: 1965.
Wagner G., "Ethnographic Survey of South West Africa", unpublished
manuscript found in the Offices of the Department of Bantu Administration
and Development, Ethnological Section, Windhoek. A copy
of this manuscript has been placed in the National Archives by the
author; 1951.
Goldblatt I., "History of South
West Africa", Cape Town; 1991.
Hall
.C, "Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Occurrences in the
Windhoek Location on the Night of the 10th and 11th
December, 1959, and into the Direct Causes which Led (sic!) to those
Occurrences", Windhoek; 1961.
"Battlefront Namibia by John
Ya-Otto"
Related: Windhoek Windhoek city tours Katutura Face to Face tours
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