Homelands in South West Africa

Map of the homelands in Namibia and South Africa

Planned homelands according to the Odendaal Plan 1964

Homelands in South West Africa 1976

Aroams Oos in Tswanaland , Namibia (2017)

The establishment of Homelands in South West Africa was proposed in 1963 in the Odendaal Plan , which contained recommendations for the infrastructural and economic development of South West Africa (today: Namibia ). The steps proposed by a government commission envisaged a development analogous to the racist segregation policy in the area of South Africa in what was then South West Africa.

history

A spatial separation of settlement areas between the indigenous and the European population was already beginning to emerge during the German colonial rule in South West Africa. In 1902, Kurt Streitwolf proposed that two areas be designated as reserves for the tribal groups of the chiefs of Okahandja and in the Waterberg area. Further similar determinations in other parts of the colony were planned, but remained unrealized by the outcome of the First World War.

The subsequent mandate power, the South African Union , initially proclaimed additional areas as guaranteed living space for some indigenous groups, but because of the attractive agricultural land drove some of such tribal groups from the areas originally intended for them.

New reserves were created in 1947 with a total area of ​​over 3 million hectares. The largest areas were called Aminius Reserve , Epukiro and Waterberg East Reserve . Due to a lack of water, they were sometimes characterized by very unfavorable living conditions.

The development of the settlement area of ​​the Rehoboth Basters had taken a separate path. Since they immigrated to South West Africa around 1868, an awareness of self-government had gradually developed among them. In 1923, the South African government had promised them the recognition of their Raad as one of several independent administrative bodies. But there were also trends among the Basters that pushed for full independence. This caused South Africa to withdraw the offer of recognition and to set up a local administration by means of a government ordinance. Later, in the course of the investigations of the Odendaal Commission (1962–1963) into this population group, these different perspectives came to light again. It was not possible to clarify which type of self-administration was desired over a longer period of time. This prompted the South African Prime Minister Vorster, together with his administrator for South West Africa, to pay a visit to the Rehoboth magistrate in January 1969 to discuss these differences. As a result, on April 1, 1969, the South African government, in the form of the Minister of Colored Affairs, took control of the area of ​​the Rehoboth Basters .

In 1962 the South African government founded the Odendaal Commission ( Commission of Inquiry into South West African Affairs ) with the ostensible aim of promoting economic development and the material and social advancement of the population of South West Africa, especially groups of non-European origin, on the basis of a five- To advance the annual plan. In 1964, in the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into South West Africa Affairs, 1962-1963, she suggested that "reservations" were necessary for the individual ethnic groups and the relocation of their relatives. The plan, named after the chairman of the commission, Fox Odendaal , allocated about 40 percent of the entire area of ​​South West Africa to the black and colored populations, separated by tribes.

Members of the commission were:

• Frans Hendrik Odendaal , Administrator ("Governor") of the South African province of Transvaal ,
• H. Jan van Eck, CEO of the Industrial Development Corporation ,
• HW Snyman, University of Pretoria , Faculty of Medicine,
• Johannes P. van S. Bruwer, Professor of “ Ethnology ” University of Stellenbosch , Commissioner-General for the Indigenous Peoples of South West Africa , later Founding Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Port Elizabeth
• PJ Quin, Agriculture and Food Specialist

as an external consultant:

• HJ Allan, former Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner of South West Africa (German for example: " Main Commissioner for Bantu Affairs in South West Africa").

Their staff also included:

• CJ Claassen, Secretary of the Commission
• WJ Weidemann, assistant to the secretary.

The plan was based on apartheid policy and the official principle of "separate development" ( racial segregation ) expressed therein . Specifically, however, it was intended to divide the black majority by allocating tribal reserve areas - the so-called homelands - to keep it dependent on the white government in Pretoria and its administrators for South West Africa and thus to secure the supremacy of the white minority population. For this reason, the non-white residents were initially divided into twelve ethnic groups, eleven of which were to have their own homeland under self-administration . The Cape Coloreds were excluded from this .

The first six homelands in South West Africa, which together with all the others ultimately took up a good 40 percent of the country's area, were established in 1968. To this end, the South African parliament passed the Development of Self-Government for Native Nations of South-West Africa Act, No. 54 of 1968 ( German  about the law for the development of self-government of the native nations in South West Africa ), which initially left the Tswana and San unmentioned and was not valid for the Coloreds, Nama and Rehoboth Baster , as they came under the jurisdiction of the Department of Colored Affairs ( German about the Ministry of Colored Affairs ) fell.

Of the total of ten homelands in South West Africa, three received an autonomous status : Ostcaprivi , Okavangoland and Ovamboland .

Table of homelands

Surname	flag	founding	Ethnicity	Population (1960)	surface	Capital
Bushmanland		1970	San	11,762	23,927 km²
Damaraland		1970 (1968)	Damara	44,353	47,990 km²	Welwitschia
Hereroland		1968	Herero	35,354	58,997 km²	Okakarara
Kaokoland		1970 (1968)	Himba	9.234	48,982 km²	Ohopoho
Namaland		1980	Nama	34,806	21,677 km²
Okavangoland		1970 (1968) Autonomy: 1973	Kavango	27,871	41,701 km²	Rundu
Ostcaprivi from 1976 Lozi		1972 (1968) Autonomy: 1976	Lozi	15,840	11,534 km²	Katima Mulilo
Ovamboland		1968 Autonomy: May 1st 1973	Ovambo	239.363	56,072 km²	Ondangua
Rehoboth also: Basterland		1976	Baster	11,257	13,860 km²	Rehoboth
Tswanaland		1968	Batswana	9,992	1,554 km²
TOTAL				439.832	326,294 km²

literature

• Molly McCullers: Lines in the Sand: The Global Politics of Local Development in Apartheid-Era Namibia, 1950-1980. Dissertation at Emory University , Atlanta 2012. ( PDF )
• United Nations Department of Political Affairs, Trusteeship and Decolonization (Ed.): Decolonization. Issue 1, No. 3, December 1974. ( PDF )
• Anthony A. D'Amato: The Bantustan Proposals for South-West Africa. in: The Journal of Modern African Studies, 1966, pp. 177–192.
• Government of South Africa (Ed.): Report of the Commission of Inquiry into South West Africa affairs, 1962-1963. Staatsdrukker, Pretoria 1964.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Christo Botha: The Odendaal Plan: "Development" for colonial Namibia. History Department, University of Namibia, Windhoek. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
2. ^ Ruth First : South West Africa . Penguin Books , Harmondsworth, Baltimore, Mitcham 1963, pp. 140-141.
3. ^ Ruth First: South West Africa . 1963, pp. 143-144.
4. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1969 . Johannesburg 1970, pp. 260-261.
5. ^ ^{A b c} SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1962 . Johannesburg 1963, pp. 231-232.
6. ^ Anthony A. D'Amato: The Bantustan Proposals for South-West Africa ( Memento of February 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Journal of Modern African Sudies, Cambridge, University Press. 1966, Vol. 4, Issue 2 pp. 177–192, online at www.anthonydamato.law.northwestern.edu Bibliographical evidence ÖNB.
7. ^ Robert J. Gordon: Anthropology in the World Court: The 1966 South-West Africa Case ( Memento April 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). In: History of Anthropology Newsletter, Vol. 31, (1), 2004, pp. 3-11.
8. ^ André du Pisani : SWA / Namibia: The Politics of Continuity and Change . Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg, 1986 p. 161, 176 footnote 46. ISBN 0-868-50-092-5 .
9. ↑ ^{a b c d} United Nations Department of Political Affairs, Trusteeship and Decolonization (Ed.): Decolonization. Edition 1, No. 3, December 1974, p. 7ff. ( PDF )
10. ^ Development of Self-Government for Native Nations of South-West Africa Act, No. 54 of 1968 Republic of South Africa, 1968.
11. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1968 . Johannesburg 1969. p. 307.
12. ^ ^{A b} Anthony d'Amato: The Bantustan Proposals for South-West Africa , in: The Journal of Modern African Studies , 4/2, 1966, p. 181.
13. ^ Anthony d'Amato: The Bantustan Proposals for South-West Africa , in: The Journal of Modern African Studies , 4/2, 1966, p. 179.