Cornelius van Wyk

Last updated

Cornelius van Wyk (died 24 April 1924) was the second Captain of the Rehoboth Baster, serving from 1914 until his death in 1924. [1]

Life and death

Van Wyk succeeded his father, Hermanus, upon his death in 1905. However, the German colonial government abolished the role of the Baster Captain, replaced instead by a Council of Basters (Basterrat). [1]

In 1915, the Basters, whom had signed a protection agreement with the German Empire almost thirty years prior, rebelled against the military force in German South West Africa. Van Wyk had previously met with Union of South Africa Prime Minister Louis Botha, to seek conflict resolution, but to no avail. The rebellion finally ended after van Wyk's wife and children, among others, were killed in the Battle of Sam Khubis. [1] As of 2013, the battlefield is in the process of being recognized as a national monument of Namibia. [2]

Under Cornelius van Wyk, the de facto independence of the Rehoboth area as a homeland was approved by the Union of South Africa on 9 July 1915.

Van Wyk died on 24 April 1924, and was succeeded by Albert Mouton.

Related Research Articles

The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990.

Khoekhoe African pastoralist indigenous group

Khoekhoen are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of southwestern Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San peoples. The designation "Khoekhoe" is actually a kare or praise address, not an ethnic endonym, but it has been used in the literature as an ethnic term for Khoe-speaking peoples of Southern Africa, particularly pastoralist groups, such as the !Ora, !Gona, Nama, Xiri and ǂNūkhoe nations.

Baster Southern African ethnic group

The Basters are a Southern African ethnic group descended from white European men and black African women, usually of Khoisan origin, but occasionally also enslaved women from the Cape, who resided in the Dutch Cape Colony in the 18th century. 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 Coloured and Griqua peoples of South Africa, with whom they share a language and culture.

Popular Democratic Movement Political party in Namibia

The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), 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.

Rehoboth, Namibia Town in Hardap Region, Namibia

Rehoboth is a town in central Namibia just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. Located 90 kilometres south of the Namibian capital Windhoek, Rehoboth lies on a high elevation plateau with several natural hot-water springs. It receives sparse mean annual rainfall of 240 millimetres (9.4 in), although in the 2010/2011 rainy season a record 731 millimetres (28.8 in) were measured. In 2005, it had a population of 21,378 later increased to 28,843 in 2011, according to the 2011 Namibian Population and Housing Census.

Hermanus Christoffel Beukes was a Coloured Namibian politician and activist. Beukes was a frequent petitioner of the United Nations because of Apartheid South Africa's actions while Namibia was held under its mandate.

Johannes Gerard Adolph Diergaardt, more commonly known as Hans Diergaardt was a Namibian politician active for nearly a decade after Namibia gained independence. Prior to that, he was elected as the fifth Kaptein of the then-autonomous Baster community at Rehoboth, succeeding Dr. Ben Africa in 1979 after winning a court challenge to the disputed election of 1976.

Coloured people in Namibia

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".

Hermanus van Wyk

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.

Joseph Frederiks II

Joseph Frederiks II, Nama name: ǃKhorebeb-ǁNaixab was a Captain of the ǃAman, a subtribe of the Orlam. He became Captain when his uncle and stepfather David Christian Frederiks was killed in 1880 in the Battle of Otjikango.

Johannes Theophilus Hahn was a merchant and agent in South West Africa (SWA), linguistic expert on the Khoekhoe language, one of seven languages in which he was fluent.

Jan Johannes van Wyk is a Namibian politician who has served as a Member of the National Assembly of Namibia since 2015, first as a representative for the United People's Movement (UPM) and later for the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) from 2020 onwards. He is the UPM's current vice-president and former national chairperson. Van Wyk represented the UPM on the Rehoboth Town Council from 2010 to 2015 and was the UPM's sole parliamentary representative before the party formed a pact with the PDM ahead of the 2019 general election.

Ben Africa is a Namibian politician, medical doctor, and former Baster captain.

Petrus "Piet" Matheus Junius was a Namibian politician who served as the Deputy Education Minister of the Interim Namibian Government from 1985 to 1989.

John McNab was a Namibian politician who served as Rehoboth Baster captain from 1999 until 2020.

Rehoboth area Place

The Rehoboth area, historically the Free Republic of Rehoboth is an unrecognized state in central Namibia, inhabited by the indigenous Baster people.

The Baster Council, is the parliament of the unrecognized state of the Rehoboth area in Namibia. It forms the legislature, or Volksraad, of Rehoboth together with the executive Captains Council (Kapteinsraad).

Captains of the Rehoboth Baster

The Captainsof the Rehoboth Baster were the indigenous Baster community in central Namibia, until the dissolution of the Rehoboth Homeland in 1990, upon Namibian independence.

Albert Mouton was the third Captain of the Rehoboth Baster in South West Africa from 1924 to 1925.

David Jacobus "Dap" Izaaks (1932/1933–2005), also known as Oom Dap, was a Namibian Baster politician who served as Acting Captain of the Rehoboth Baster between February 1998 and January 1999. He also served as Mayor of Rehoboth.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "BIOGRAPHIES OF NAMIBIAN PERSONALITIESin alphabetical order". www.klausdierks.com. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  2. "INVENTORY OF POSSIBLE HERITAGE SITES AND OBJECTS WITHIN THE HARDAP REGION, NAMIBIA | National Heritage Council of Namibia". www.nhc-nam.org. Retrieved 2022-03-17.