![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Total population | |
---|---|
165,000 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Namibia, South Africa | |
Languages | |
Afrikaans, English, German | |
Religion | |
Protestantism, Catholic, Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Baster, Khoikhoi, Namaqua, Griqua, Afrikaners |
Coloured people in Namibia are people with both European and African, especially Khoisan and Bantu ancestry, as well as Indian, Malay, and Malagasy ancestry especially along the coast and areas bordering South Africa. Coloureds have immigrated to Namibia, been born in Namibia or returned to the country. These distinctively different periods of arrivals, from diverse backgrounds and origins have led to a diverse Coloured population. This diversity was even further exploited by South African officials who referred to three distinct groups amongst the coloureds, namely: "Baster", "Cape Coloureds" and "Namibian Coloureds".
In addition, another element in the coloured makeup was the coloured community in the enclave of Walvis Bay (which remained part of South Africa until 1994) that was closely linked to the people and traditions of the Cape Coloured.
The biggest cultural clash occurred in the mid-1980s when the school students were becoming politically aware through teachers returning primarily from the University of the Western Cape (UWC). This led to them challenging their elders (elected to the Coloured Councils and Rehoboth self-government) who were anti-SWAPO. This embracing of black nationalism, and rejecting of the term "so-called coloured" led to many young coloured people rejecting their cultural history and insisting on a racially unified, Independent Namibia. Many would agree with Norman Duncan who asserted that "there‘s no such thing as a coloured culture, coloured identity." [1]
However, since the early 2000s, more and more writings have appeared arguing that Coloureds are being marginalised. [2]
The coloured people represent a very wide range of genetic and cultural backgrounds. They are a mixed race with European and African ancestry. Their history under the rule of South Africa was very similar to that of the Cape Coloured. The general consensus is that coloureds accept the Seven Steps of District Six to show their lineage to include:
A coloured pressure group, the African People's Organisation (APO) opposed the transfer of the German colony to the South African Authority. From the end of World War I, when South Africa took over the administration of South West Africa (now Namibia), more Cape Coloureds entered the territory. These settlers petitioned for permission to create a coloured township, and this was granted in 1921 by the South African Department of Native Affairs. The first coloured township was built in Windhoek north of the Old Location, in the area of present-day Pionierspark. [4]
The South West African (SWA) Administration and white settlers distinguished three distinct groups amongst the Coloureds:
The first local branch of the APO was established in February 1923. Its aims were to defend "the Social Political and Civil Rights of the Cape Coloured Community throughout the SW Protectorate". Two years later, the African National Bond (ANB), another political organisation with its aim of representing the Coloured community in South West Africa was established. Both the APO and ANB sympathised with the two South Africa "white" parties, (South African Party and National Party). [5]
The SWA Administration dealt a significant blow to the status of the "Coloured" group when it promulgated Proclamation No 34 of 1924 (Native Urban Areas Proclamation). The proclamation states that "a coloured person who lives in the native location shall be regarded as native". The Colour Bar Law of 1926 that reserved certain positions in the mining industry for Whites was made applicable in South West Africa.
In 1946, Andrew Kloppers moved to Windhoek from South Africa. Before his arrival he was involved in politics in the Cape and was a member of the Kleurling Ouer-Onderwyser Vereniging (KOOV), the Coloured Parents-Teachers Organisation. In 1947 he forms the South West African Coloured Teachers' Association (SWACTA). Clemens Kapuuo becomes the President of the South West Africa Coloured Teachers Association from 1950 to 1953.
In 1950, the National Party of SWA (NPSWA) won the elections for the Legislative Assembly. [6] The blurring of ethnic lines between the "Coloureds" and poor whites was the major motivation for the introduction of the Group Areas Act in 1950. The Act prescribes ownership and occupancy of land on racial grounds.
On 18 April 1955, SWACTA and SWA Coloured People's Bond (SWACPB) presented a petition to the SWA Administration and the South African Department of Native Affairs for the creation of a new "coloured" township in Windhoek. In addition, SWACTA requests the establishment of a Council for Coloured Affairs. Till this point, the "coloured" population in Windhoek is represented by a "coloured" member on the Native Advisory Board of the Old Location.
Herman Andimba Toivo ya Toivo launched the Ovamboland People's Organisation in Cape Town on 2 August 1957. Among the founding members are "coloured" political activists, Ottiliè Schimming and Kenneth Abrahams.
Two "coloured" organisations are established in 1959:
Both parties oppose the creation of the new "coloured" township, Khomasdal, to be built west of the town Centre of Windhoek. [7] [ page needed ]
On 10 December 1959,the police move into the "Old Location" to break up a crowd of people demonstrating against the moves to Khomasdal and Katutura, the "coloured" and "black" townships. The first shot fired killed the "coloured" leader, Willem Cloete, the representative on the Native Advisory Board. According to official reports 11 people were killed and 25 injured. [8]
The Basters are a Southern African ethnic group descended from Cape Coloureds and Nama of Khoisan origin. Since the second half of the 19th century, the Rehoboth Baster community has been concentrated in central Namibia, in and around the town of Rehoboth. Basters are closely related to Afrikaners, Cape Coloureds, and Griquas of South Africa and Namibia, with whom they share a largely Afrikaner-influenced culture and Afrikaans language. Other groups of similar mixed ethnic origin, living chiefly in the Northern Cape, also refer to themselves as Basters.
The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic Front, it formed the official opposition in Parliament until the parliamentary elections in 2009. The party currently holds 16 seats in the Namibian National Assembly and one seat in the Namibian National Council and is the official opposition. McHenry Venaani is president of the PDM.
Katutura is a township of Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia. Katutura was created in 1961 following the forced removal of Windhoek's black population from the Old Location, which afterwards was developed into the suburb of Hochland Park. Sam Nujoma Stadium, built in 2005, is located within Katutura. Katutura Community Radio, a community-based radio station, also operates from the township. Katutura State Hospital, one of two State Hospitals in the Windhoek area, is located in the township.
Fanuel Jariretundu Kozonguizi was a Namibian lawyer and politician. He served as permanent petitioner to the United Nations on the issue of Namibian independence, and was a high-ranking administrator in South-West Africa prior to Namibian independence, both under South African administration and in the Transitional Government. In independent Namibia he was a member of Parliament and ombudsman. Kozonguizi was a founding member and first president of the South West African National Union.
Clemens Kapuuo was a Namibian school teacher, shopkeeper, president of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), now called Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), and chief of the Herero people of Namibia. Kapuuo was one of the leading opponents of South African rule of his country until his assassination following the Turnhalle Constitutional Conference.
Heroes' Acre is an official war memorial of the Republic of Namibia. Built into the uninhabited hills 10 kilometres (6 mi) south of the city centre of Windhoek, Heroes' Acre opened on 26 August 2002. It was created to "foster a spirit of patriotism and nationalism, and to pass [this] to the future generations of Namibia".
Dawid Bezuidenhout was a teacher and politician in South West Africa.
The Turnhalle Constitutional Conference was a conference held in Windhoek between 1975 and 1977, tasked with the development of a constitution for a self-governed South West Africa (Namibia) under South African control. Sponsored by the South African government, the Turnhalle Conference laid the framework for the government of South West Africa from 1977 to independence in 1989.
The Federal Convention of Namibia (FCN) was a political party based in Rehoboth, Namibia. It was created in the wake of Namibian independence in 1988 by a merger of several smaller parties and gained a seat in the Namibian Constituent Assembly. After also-ran results in 1994 and 1999 it ceased to be publicly active.
Nora Schimming-Chase was a Namibian politician and Namibia's first ambassador to Germany from 1992 to 1996. After changing her party membership from South West Africa National Union (SWANU) to Congress of Democrats (CoD), Schimming-Chase became a member of the National Assembly of Namibia from 2000 to 2010.
Peter Mweshihange was a Namibian revolutionary and guerrilla leader, and after Namibian independence, a politician and diplomat. He was the Namibia's first Minister of Defence from 1990 to 1995, and first ambassador to the People's Republic of China from 1996 until his death.
Parliamentary elections were held in South West Africa between 4 and 8 December 1978. These first elections conducted under universal adult suffrage—all previous elections had been Whites-only—were won by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, which claimed 41 of the 50 seats. The elections were conducted without United Nations (UN) supervision, and in defiance of the 1972 United Nations General Assembly's recognition of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) as the "sole representative of Namibia's people". The UN henceforth declared the elections null and void. The resulting government, dependent on South African approval for all its legislation, was in power until its dissolution in 1983.
Dawid Bezuidenhout is a high school in the suburb of Khomasdal in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It is a government owned school with approximately 1300 learners and 43 teachers. The school was named after Dawid Bezuidenhout who was a teacher and Minister of Transport of the Transitional Government of National Unity.
Hans Beukes is a Namibian writer and former activist. Beukes was one of the leaders of the Coloured Baster community and one of the earliest petitioners for South West African independence when he travelled to the United Nations in 1956. To visit the UN, Beukes had to be smuggled out of South Africa in a Volkswagen Beetle. Beukes later earned a scholarship to study in Norway, where he still lived as of 2010. He only returned to Namibia briefly prior to independence in 1989. Beukes is the Scandinavian correspondent for the Cape Town-based Die Burger newspaper. He published his memoirs Long Road to Liberation. An Exiled Namibian Activist's Perspective in 2014.
Hermanus van Wyk (1835–1905) was the first Kaptein of the Baster community at Rehoboth in South-West Africa, today Namibia. Under his leadership, the mixed-race Basters moved from the Northern Cape to leave white racial discrimination, and migrated into the interior of what is now central Namibia; the first 30 families settled about 1870. They acquired land from local natives and were joined by additional Baster families over the following years. The Baster people developed their own constitution, called the Paternal Laws. They relied on the herding of sheep, goats and cattle as the basis of their economy.
Aminuis is a cluster of small settlements in the remote eastern part of the Omaheke Region of Namibia, located about 500 km east of Windhoek. It is the district capital of the Aminuis electoral constituency.
Constance Letang Kgosiemang was the paramount chief of the Tswana people in Namibia, a parliamentarian, and the leader of the Seoposengwe Party until its merger into the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA).
The Augustineum Secondary School, established in 1866, is among the oldest schools in Namibia. Originally situated in Otjimbingwe, it was relocated to Okahandja in 1890, and finally to Windhoek in 1968. Previously also known as the Augustineum Training College and today the Augustineum Secondary School, it is a public school located in Khomasdal, a suburb of Windhoek.
Petrus "Piet" Matheus Junius was a Namibian politician who served as the Deputy Education Minister of the Interim Namibian Government from 1985 to 1989.