Okahandja

This article is about the church. For the constituency, see Okahandja (constituency) .

local community Okahandja
Details Details
Okahandja Station (2018)
motto	Semper prorsum (always forward)
Basic data
Population Area Population Density	22,500 (2011 census) 164.2 km² 137 inhabitants / km²
State Region Constituency	Namibia Otjozondjupa Okahandja
Establishment date	1800
License plate phone code	OH 62
Website	www.okahandja.org.na

Pronunciation of okahandja

Okahandja ( Otjiherero for place where two rivers flow together ) is a municipality in the constituency of the same name and is located in the south of the Otjozondjupa region and in the center of Namibia on the railway line and the intersection of the national roads B1 and B2 between Swakopmund and Windhoek (today the Windhoek railway line –Kranzberg , until 1990 railway line Swakopmund – Windhoek ). The community has 22,500 inhabitants.

The two rivers Okakango and Okamita join in Okahandja . The confluence is rarely referred to as the Okahandja River .

history

At the end of the 18th century, Okahandja became the preferred place of settlement for the Herero tribes migrating from Bechuanaland , today's Botswana , under their chief Mutjise. In the following period there were relocations to Windhoek, the neighboring Groß-Barmen or Otjimbingwe , but the Herero kept returning to Okahandja and the neighboring Otjikune. This is where the chief chieftain and keeper of the ancestral fire, Tjamuaha , had his ancestral seat and this is where the two most important chiefs of the Herero were born: Maharero (1820) and Samuel Maharero (1856–1923).

Festival Okahandja (before 1910)

Okahandja was repeatedly the scene of bloody events: for example on August 23, 1850, when Jonker Afrikaner and his tribe attacked the Okahandja-based Herero tribe of the Kahitjene and caused the "Okahandja bloodbath" among the Herero. In 1861 Jonker Afrikaner, who was now friends with Tjamuaha, died here and a few weeks later Tjamuaha himself. In the following years, Okahandja lost its importance in favor of Otjimbingwe, but in 1870, with the "conclusion of the 10-year peace", it became the focus of interest again because of this Date marked the absolute lowest point of power for Africans. On August 23, 1880 - exactly 30 years after Jonker Afrikaner's bloodbath against the Herero - Okahandja was again the scene of a bloody act. Only this time it was Maharero who murdered the Africans present in Otjimbingwe in their sleep and thus initiated their complete destruction.

In 1876 the Rhenish Mission Church was built as the oldest colonial building in Namibia.

The Herero resident in Okahandja were then the most important power in South West Africa , so that from 1884 the German protecting power also tried to reach a contractual agreement with the Herero - with only moderate success at first. In 1888 the German officials were even chased out of Okahandja and had to seek refuge in Otjimbingwe. After strengthening the German protection force , the relationship with the Germans improved, so that in 1890 another protection treaty was concluded with Curt von François in Okahandja. The initially harmonious relations between the German protecting power and the Herero deteriorated due to various clumsiness, attacks by German farmers and arbitrary German companies and culminated on December 12th , when most of the protection force was bound in the south by an uprising by the Bondelswarte . January 1904 in a rapidly spreading Herero uprising from Okahandja; this war ended only seven months later with the almost complete annihilation of the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and the subsequent expulsion to the Omaheke .

Okahandja then sank into historical insignificance and emerged from this only in 1923, when the chief Samuel Maharero, who died in Botswana exile, was transferred to Okahandja and was ceremonially buried there on August 26, 1923.

Todays situation

Okahandja is still the most important traditional center of the Herero , where their great leaders Tjamuaha , Maharero , Samuel Maharero , Hosea Kutako and Clemens Kapuo are buried. In her memory and in memory of the Battle of Waterberg, the traditional Herero Day takes place here every year in August - probably the largest tribal event in Namibia, but with an increasingly touristy character.

Okahandja is also the economic center of the region and has a hospital, doctor's offices, a pharmacy, various large chain stores, car repair shops and a number of restaurants. The large woodcarving market in Okahandja is of particular tourist importance.

Since August 2016, the city is during the day with electricity from photovoltaic - power plant InnoSun supplies.

The Groß Barmen ( Otjikango ) recreation area is 28 km west of Okahandja . Groß Barmen is a popular destination. The warm, sulphurous healing water is directed into an indoor and an outdoor pool.

Local politics

The following official final result was determined in the 2015 local elections .

Political party	be right	Share of votes	Seats
SWAPO	2572	70.7%	5
DTA	0236	06.5%	1
UDF	0213	05.9%	1
Okahandja Rate Payers Association	0176	04.8%	0
NUDO	0156	04.3%	0
RDP	0112	03.1%	0
RP	0.060	01.7%	0
UPM	0.040	01.1%	0
WRP	0.014th	00.4%	0
All in all	3650	100%	7th

Educational institutions

There are several elementary and secondary schools in Okahandja, including:

• Mountain Op Academy
• Okahandja Military School
• Okahandja Secondary School

Town twinning

•  Maqiao , People's Republic of China (since 2003)
•  Schwaebisch Hall , Germany

sons and daughters of the town

• Richard Gariseb (* 1980), football player

See also

• Okahandja (ship) - a ship named after the city

literature

• Fritz Gaerdes: History and Development of the City of Okahandja , Namibia Scientific Society , Okahandja 1970. ( available online (PDF) )
• Walter Paschasius: The liberation of Okahandja, a railway history , Glanz & Gloria Verlag, ISBN 9789991687292 .

Web links

Commons : Okahandja  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Historical information and photographs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Namibia 2011 Population and Housing Census Preliminary Results. Namibia Statistics Agency, April 2012  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) accessed on May 9, 2012
2. ↑ Okahandja. Otjozondjupa Regional Council. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
3. ↑ Official election results of the regional and local elections 2015, ECN, December 4, 2015 ( Memento of December 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 150 kB)
4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of March 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Hindjou dismisses allegations of land being sold to Germany. Namibia Press Agency, October 15, 2019

Coordinates: 21 ° 59 ′  S , 16 ° 55 ′  E