Kaokoveld

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Himba women in the Kaokoveld
Map of the Kaokoveld

The Kaokoveld is an area of ​​around 50,000 square kilometers in northwestern Namibia . From 1970 to 1989 it formed a homeland within South West Africa under the name Kaokoland .

geography

The Kaokoveld borders in the west on the Skeleton Coast , in the north on the border river to Angola, the Kunene ( Epupa Falls ), Ruacana, in the east on the former Ovamboland (today Omusati region) and in the south on the Damaraland . With less than 350 mm of annual precipitation , no arable farming is possible in the Kaokoveld . The Himba and Herero who live here traditionally live as hunters and gatherers or cattle breeders.

The Kaokoveld includes the following landscapes and especially mountains:

With 7900 inhabitants, Opuwo is the only town in the Kaokoveld; the place Sesfontein closes the Kaokoveld in the south.

history

Kaokoland
Capital Ohopoho
size 48,982 km²
Residents 9234 (1960)
Form of government Homeland
founding 1970 (1980)
resolution May 1989
(before Namibia's independence )
currency South African rand
license plate SWA
LocationBantoustanKaokoveld.PNG
Location of the former homeland Kaokoland in South West Africa

The Kaokoveld was acquired from the natives by the Bremen merchant Adolf Lüderitz before the founding of German South West Africa and was therefore not a concession land. In 1885 he sold his acquisitions to several buyers who in turn transferred their rights to the German Colonial Association on October 10, 1885 - which became the German Colonial Society in 1887 .

On August 12, 1893, L. Hirsch & Co. acquired the area that was then specified as 100,000 square kilometers and on April 11, 1895 founded the Kaoko-Land- und Minen-Gesellschaft based in Berlin. The company tried unsuccessfully to develop the huge area economically and financed expeditions in 1894, 1895, 1897 (carried out by Georg Hartmann ) as well as in 1906 and 1910 . Recently, two iron ore deposits were discovered which, however, could not be mined due to a lack of transportation. After the end of the First World War , the company was expropriated by the South African Union .

In the 1964 Odendaal Plan , Kaokoland was designated as a homeland for the Himba as part of the apartheid policy of the South African government . From 1970 to 1989 it held this status.

Flora and fauna

The Kaokoveld is known for its wildlife population, which is now rich again thanks to the consistent fight against poaching, including the more common rhinos (not least thanks to the “Save the Rhino Trust”) and desert elephants . It is unclear whether this is already a separate subspecies or a group of African elephants that has been settled and adapted there for decades . Their behavior differs in many ways from that of their conspecifics living in the African savannahs . The inaccessibility of the area on the one hand and the fight against poaching on the other have led to a steady increase in the elephant population in the Kaokoveld. In some places, the damage caused by elephants is a problem. Some elephants have been shot after they have harmed tourists.

traffic

Apart from the few main connections, all-wheel drive vehicles and GPS navigation are required to drive on the roads. The Van Zyl's Pass can only be conquered by off-road drivers in an east-west direction. An alternative route that is easier to drive leads from Okongwati to the Epupa Falls. This route can only be traveled at low speed.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Busso Peus: History of the Kaoko Land and Mining Society. Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG, accessed on April 6, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon (1920), Volume I, p. 305 ff.
  3. ↑ Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, Volume II, p. 225 f. 1920, accessed April 6, 2013 .

Coordinates: 18 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  S , 13 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  E