Simon Cooper

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Simon Kooper, still with the armband of the German allies (probably before 1905)

Simon Kooper , actually ǃGomxab , (* in Pella , Cape Colony , today South Africa ; † January 31, 1913 in Lokgwabe , Bechuanaland , today Botswana ) was a captain of the so-called Simon-Kooper- Nama , also Fransman-Nama or ( ǃKhara-khoen ) in South West Africa , today's Namibia .

Cooper died on January 31, 1913 after a year of severe illness with partial paralysis. His grave is near the place where he died in Lokgwabe , Botswana . On June 2, 2011, the War Graves Commission erected a tombstone in Nama as well as in German .

History of the Fransman-Nama

The Fransman-Nama (also contemptuously called "Fransman-Hottentots") belonged to the Nama people who ruled the south of the country. The main part of this people (Red Nation), who formerly settled all of southern Africa, had chosen Hoachanas as the settlement center and led all other Nama groups from here according to the instructions of the captain, including the Fransman-Nama who settled in Haruchas. Simon Kooper was appointed captain in 1894. One of his first official acts in the same year was the conclusion of a "protection contract" with Theodor Leutwein , the then governor of the colony of German South West Africa . However, this did not prevent him from entering into a war with the Ostherero (Mbanderu) in 1896 against the German Schutztruppe and the Herero , Baster and Witbooi ( ǀKhowesin ) allied with them . In return for renewing his oath of loyalty to the victorious Germans, Kooper escaped the fate of the two Ostherero leaders, Nicodemus and Kahimemua , who were executed after a court martial.

After the Herero War ended in August 1904, the Witbooi, who were still allied with the Germans during the Herero War, rose up in October 1904 in the south of German Southwest Africa under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi ( ǃNanseb ǀGabemab ); Jakobus Morenga and Simon Kooper joined the Nama War that began with it. After the death of Hendrik Witboois on October 29, 1905 and the subsequent surrender of the Witbooi, Morenga and Kooper took over the leadership of the uprising, with the strategic genius of Morengas being the main reason for the rebels' success. After Morenga was interned by the British in May 1906, Kooper took over sole leadership until his surrender in March 1907. Simon Kooper was captured and imprisoned in the concentration camp on Haifischinsel (off Lüderitz ). Here, however, he managed to escape and return to the last 100 or so rebels who remained in the Karas Mountains. They tried to continue the uprising, but were wiped out in the last battle of the Nama War on March 16, 1908 in the Kalahari , already in the British Bechuanaland , by a command of the Schutztruppe under Captain Friedrich von Erckert . Simon Kooper had already left on March 15 and escaped. After long negotiations, he received asylum in Bechuanaland and a pension after he had committed himself in a contract with the local police not to leave his place of residence in Matsa near Lehutitu and not to order any more criminal offenses in German territory.

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  1. ↑ Note: This article contains characters from the alphabet of the Khoisan languages spoken in southern Africa . The display contains characters of the click letters ǀ , ǁ , ǂ and ǃ . For more information on the pronunciation of long or nasal vowels or certain clicks , see e.g. B. under Khoekhoegowab .

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predecessor Office successor
Piet Koper Kaptein der Simon Kooper (Fransman-Nama)
( Kapsteine ​​der Nama ) 		unknown
personal data
SURNAME Cooper, Simon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kopper, Simon; ǃGomxab
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Captain of the Fransman Nama
DATE OF BIRTH 19th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Pella
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1913
Place of death Lokgwabe , Botswana