Witbooi

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Hendrik Witbooi with his family

The Witbooi , actually ǀKhowesin , belong to the Orlam ( Nauba-xu gye ǀki-khoen ) and these in turn emerged from the union of Dutch people living on the Cape and Nama women (often disparagingly called Hottentots ). Similar to the Africans ( ǃGû-ǃgôun ), the Witbooi had learned to read and write a lot through their work in the Dutch environment, acquired certain knowledge of agriculture and, to some extent, had also mastered the use of guns. Witboois, like their former captain Hendrik Witbooi in the picture on the right, wear white, knotted scarves around the calotte and brim of their hats to distinguish themselves from other Nama. The name of the family association has also developed from this or based on contacts with whites . Witbooi literally means "white boy". Another Nama clan, known as Swartbooi , or “black boys”, owes this to a similar ascription. Regarding the connotation of the term “Booi” (English boy ) it must be noted that in the linguistic usage then , more than today, it had a clearly derogatory meaning in the sense of servant or servant .

Captain

The proximity to the Dutch sailors was also made clear that the chiefs of the Witbooi captain or Kaptein were called. Based on the succession plan from 1940, the name of the captain is incumbent on the named persons. Only the eldest sister of the politician Hendrik Witbooi , Alwina Petersen, lives on this. On October 3, 2015, Salomon Witbooi was probably the last captain in the history of the Orlam-Witboois.

history

At the end of the 18th century, Pella, south of the Oranje , was the main settlement area of ​​the Witbooi. The later Kaptein of the Nama Kido Witbooi ( ǂA-ǁêib ) , who was born in 1780, grew up there . He maintained very close relationships with the neighboring Africans, namely with their captain son Jonker Afrikaner ( ǀHara-mûb ). These went so far that both mutually promised to take over the other's people if, after the death of one of the two, no suitable successor could be found.

The Witbooi were the last Orlam tribe to immigrate to south-west Africa via the Orange River around 1850 and submitted to the authority of the Upper Cape of the Red Nation ( ǀKaiǁkhaun ), who lived in Hoachanas . After 13 years of wandering, the Witbooi found a permanent tribal seat near Gibeon (( Karas region, approx. 60 km south of Mariental ) in 1863 . There, however, their captain, Kido Witbooi, had to fend off several attacks by the Nama from Hoachanas under their chief captain Oasib ( ǃNa-khomab ). The fighting did not end until - after the death of Oasib - with the peace treaty of Hoachanas in December 1867, in which the supremacy of the Nama over the Orlam tribes was finally ended.

The extremely successful leadership of the captain Kido Witbooi was continued in 1875 by his son Moses Witbooi ( ǀGâbeb ǃA-ǁîmab ) and - after his violent death in 1888 - by his grandson Hendrik Witbooi ( ǃNanseb ǀGabemab ). Witbooi's first battle against the Schutztruppe took place at Hornkranz in 1893 . After an ultimately unsuccessful rebellion against German colonial rule ( German South West Africa ), Hendrik Witbooi concluded a peace and protection treaty with the German colonial power in 1894, in which he also committed himself to actively support the protection force. In accordance with this obligation, the Witbooi fought against the Herero on the German side at the Battle of Waterberg in 1904 . Only after the atrocities that emerged did the Witbooi turn away from the Germans and, for their part, began the uprising against the German colonial power, known as the Nama War, in October 1904 .

During the Nama War the Witbooi suffered heavy losses and Hendrik Witbooi also fell in 1905. The war was led by Jakobus Morenga and Simon Kooper ( ǃGomxab ), a Fransman-Nama ( ǃKhara-khoen ), and the son of Hendrik Witboois, Isaak Witbooi ( ǃNanseb ǂKharib ǃNansemab ), initially continued until they too had to lay down their arms in December 1905. Morenga and Kooper, however, continued the resistance until their deaths in 1907 and 1908. Many of the captured Witbooi were shipped as work slaves to German East Africa , where many of them perished. Only in response to international protests were they returned to South West Africa in 1913. Their descendants still live near their original tribal area near Gibeon .

Remarks

  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 .

See also

literature

  • Jeremy Silvester: Re-Viewing Resistance In Namibian History . Windhoek 2015, ISBN 978-99916-42-27-7 .
  • Victor L. Tonchi et al .: Historical Dictionary of Namibia . Scarecrow, Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-5398-0 .
  • Guy Lamb: Civil Supremacy of the Military in Namibia . An Evolutionary Perspective . Cape Town 1998.
  • Tilman Dedering: Hate the old and follow the new . Khoekhoe and missionaries in early nineteenth century Namibia . Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-06872-4 .
  • Ludwig Helbig, Werner Hillebrecht : The Witbooi . Longman, Windhoek 1992, ISBN 99916-1-000-6 .

Web links

Commons : Hendrik Witbooi  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brigitte Weidlich, Namibians pay homage to chief who fought Germans (English)
  2. ↑ Salomon Witbooi new / Khowese Captain. Lela Mobile, October 5, 2015.
  3. ↑ TO ENIGMATIC RETURN TO HORNKRANZ. Namibia Press Agency , March 10, 2019.