Dorsland trekker
Dorslandtrekker (literally: "Thirsty pullers") was the name given to the groups of Boer farming families who fled the British from the South African Republic (now part of South Africa ) in 1874 and in the following years .
history
After the United Kingdom took control of the Cape Province at the end of the 18th century , tensions arose between the Boer colonialists and British rulers, as a result of which the Boers made a great trek north and east into the early 19th century Inland South Africa evaded in order to found a very strongly religious community there that corresponds to their ideas. This is how the two independent Boer republics, Orange Free State and Transvaal, came into being .
But the British also moved here, especially since the first gold discoveries in the Transvaal quickly generated an economic interest. As a result, many Boers feared again for their national independence and on May 20, 1874, under the leadership of the farmer Gert Alberts, set out again in a first wave of wanderings. Further treks followed under du Plessis, Jan Greyling, Gert Mair and van Rensburg. The adventurous trek, full of privation, led the Boers first to Bechuanaland (today's Botswana ), through the dry Kalahari , the "thirst country" - hence the Afrikaans name "Dorsland Trekker" - to the eastern border of South West Africa near Rietfontein (east of Gobabis - not to be confused with "Riedfontein" east of Keetmanshoop ).
In Bechuanaland and Angola
In Bechuanaland, however, the Dorsland trekkers came across Herero , Mbanderu , San and Nama alike , all of whom claimed sovereignty over this region. Settlement agreements with one of the tribes inevitably led to tension with all the other tribes. In addition, the newcomers did not have a good reputation with the local tribes, as some of their tribe members had already had experiences with Boers from the Cape and got to know them as bossy, stubborn and complacent. So the Dorsland trekkers had no choice but to move further north in the east of the country into the Etosha Pan area. Rietfontein was again the new base in 1878 - this time the name of a spring south of the salt pan. Here the Dorsland trekkers lived mainly from hunting - and within a short time they shot down the entire elephant population and also drastically reduced the other game population. The Boers robbed themselves of their livelihood and had to move on to the Kaokoveld in order not to collide with the Ovambo . However, this area had been awarded to the British by contract between Palgrave and Maharero of 1876 as a "government reserve", so that the Boers were again threatened with British supremacy. So at the end of 1880 the Dorsland trekkers moved over the Kunene to Angola , where they were welcomed by the Portuguese, who ruled there as a colonial power, in order to establish a stronger European presence in the south of the country. In 1880 they founded Humpata there .
However, the Boers could not found an independent community here either, and so some of them tried, in coordination with the Ovambo, to settle in the fertile "corn triangle" of the later towns of Tsumeb , Grootfontein and Otavi . Here they founded the Boer Republic of Upingtonia in 1885 and planned to expand Grootfontein into its capital. Most, however, stayed in Humpata, while some families settled further north in the central highlands of Angola. All in all, they remained a self-contained group which - somewhat like the Amish - rejected both integration and renewal of any kind. Over the decades they became impoverished and migrated back in waves, especially to what is now Namibia, where some of them took over farms after the First World War that had been abandoned by German owners. As "Angolaburen" they initially formed a separate group, which gradually integrated. The last Boers left in Angola migrated back in 1975 when Angola gained independence in the middle of a civil war.
Republic of Upingtonia
The leader of the Dorsland trekkers, William Worthington Jordan, a hunter, trader and adventurer, had acquired the mentioned area from Ondonga king Kambonde kaMpingana in 1885 and offered the Boers to settle there. As early as 1884 he had acquired Rehoboth from the Swartboois, who had left the area, in order to settle 22 Boer baster families there. The Basters moved to that area, but signed a protection treaty with the German Empire in June 1886.
Instead, Jordan made another attempt and asked the Prime Minister at the Cape of Good Hope , Sir Thomas Upington , protection for the area he had named, which he named Upingtonia in order to give weight to his request and established it as a Boer republic. Sir Upington refused to give his consent to the naming and could not grant protection, as it fell under the control of the German Empire. In addition, the Herero, under the influence of their advisor, the trader Robert Lewis, disputed the acquisition.
This "state foundation" could not last long after the Germans also began to gain a foothold in South West Africa in 1884 and found not only good farmland in Upingtonia, but also rich ore deposits in the Otavi Mountains (the latter, however, were long before the Ovambo and Damara known). When Jordan was murdered in Ovamboland in June 1886, the situation became increasingly difficult. The Republic of Upingtonia remained a myth and the district of Upingtonia, as the area was temporarily called, was incorporated into the German colony in 1887.
Further development
The Swiss botanist Dr. Hans Schinz traveled to South West Africa in the years 1885–1887 and was the first to describe his stay in Upingtonia and the conditions there in his book German South West Africa . The area was finally transferred in 1892 as a Damaraland concession to the German-British South West Africa Company with all mineral and railway rights for development and exploitation (see also OMEG ).
Nevertheless, the relationship between the Boers and the German colonial administration remained very good, as the Boers enjoyed a great deal of freedom in the absence of an efficient German colonial administration, and the orderly presence of the Boers in the north of the colony meant that the Schutztruppe did not have to fear any uprisings from locals. So it was not surprising that after the outbreak of the First World War in South West Africa the Dorsland trekkers set up a volunteer association on the part of the Germans and fought against the British together with the Boer associations that had defected from South Africa.
The relationship with the German settlers only deteriorated after South Africa took over the mandate administration (1920) and the targeted settlement of Dorsland trekkers returning from Angola on formerly German farms (1928). The last Dorsland tractors still settling in Angola did not return to South West Africa until after the outbreak of the civil war in Angola and integrated into the Boer population there.
See also
literature
- Roger Webster: The Dorsland Trekkers. In: Roger Webster: The Illustrated At The Fireside. True Southern African Stories . Global, London 2004, ISBN 978-0-86486-558-8 , pp. 17-22 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- Martti Eirola: ”Janomaan vaeltajat” yes Upingtonian buuritasavalta 1885-1887 . University of Oulu, Oulu 1991, ISBN 978-951-42-3273-2 .
- JG Prinsloo, JG Gauché, Stephanus P. Engelbrecht: In the woeste west. The lydensgeskiedenis van the Dorslandtrekker. Opgeteken uit die mond van 'n Dorslandtrekker (= De Bussy se historiese leesboeke. Volume 9). De Bussy, Pretoria 1933.
Web links
- Map of the Boer trek (English)