This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(July 2018) |
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Namibia Botswana South Africa | |
Namibia | 112,156 (2023 census) [1] |
Languages | |
Nama, Namibian Black German (rare) | |
Religion | |
Christianity, African Traditional Religion, Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Khoekhoe |
Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans. The Nama People (or Nama-Khoe people) are the largest group of the Khoikhoi people, most of whom have disappeared as a group, except for the Namas. Many of the Nama clans live in Central Namibia and the other smaller groups live in Namaqualand, which today straddles the Namibian border with South Africa. [2]
For thousands of years, the Khoisan peoples of South Africa and southern Namibia maintained a nomadic life, the Khoikhoi as pastoralists and the San people as hunter-gatherers. The Nama are a Khoikhoi group. The Nama originally lived around the Orange River in southern Namibia and northern South Africa. The early colonialists referred to them as Hottentots. Their alternative historical name, "Namaqua", stems from the addition of the Khoekhoe language suffix "-qua/kwa", meaning "place of" (found in the names of other Southern African nations like the Griqua), to the language name.
In April 1652, Jan van Riebeeck, an official of the Dutch East India Company, arrived at the Cape of Good Hope with 90 people to start initial Dutch settlement at the request of the company. They found the indigenous settlers called the Khoikhoi there, who had settled in the Cape region at least a thousand years before the Dutch arrived. [3] [4]
The Khoikhoi at the Cape practiced pastoral farming; they were the first pastoralists in Southern Africa. They lived beside the San people, who were hunter-gathers. The Khoikhoi had a lot of Nguni cattle and small livestock which they grazed around the Cape. The region was well suited to their lives as pastoralists because it provided enough water for them and their livestock. [4]
Initially, when the Dutch made a stop at the Cape on the way to the Indonesian archipelago, they were concerned with getting fresh produce and water for their people. Indonesia was rich in crops and spices which could not be produced in Europe, which is why the Dutch had major interest there. The Dutch had enslaved a large number of Indonesians to work on their plantations. [4] In the Cape, Van Riebeek initially attempted to get cattle, land, and labour from the Khoikhoi people through negotiation, but when these negotiations failed, conflicts began to occur. The Dutch settlers waged wars against the Khoikoi, and seized their lands to construct farms for wheat and other produce, and forced many Khoikoi people to work as labourers. Their livestock was also taken and they were denied access to grazing and water resources unless they worked for the Dutch settlers. [5]
During the 18th and 19th centuries, as conflicts intensified and Dutch settlement was expanding and taking up much space in the colony, the expansion of the colony frontier pushed the Khoikhoi Eastwards into the easternmost Cape & the eventual "closed frontier" native reserves (Transkei &Ciskei) and Northwards across the so-called "open frontier" (Northern Cape & South West Africa/Namibia). [6] Some descendants of Khoikhoi communities, including the Nama, fled north of the colony and crossed the Orange River into German South West Africa (present day Namibia). [7]
In 1991, a part of Namaqualand (home of the Nama and one of the last true wilderness areas of South Africa) was named the Richtersveld National Park. In December 2002, ancestral lands, including the park, were returned to community ownership and the governments of South Africa and Namibia began creating a trans-frontier park from the west coast of southern Africa to the desert interior, absorbing the Richtersveld National Park. Today, the Richtersveld National Park is one of the few places where the original Nama traditions survive. There, the Nama move with the seasons and speak their language. The traditional Nama dwelling – the |haru oms, or portable rush-mat covered domed hut – protects against the blistering sun, and is easy to move when grazing becomes scarce.
Some Khoikhoi groups including the Nama under the leadership of David Witbooi (Hendrik Witbooi's grandfather) had crossed the Orange River into South West Africa. David Witbooi was the first Khoikhoi leader to establish a permanent Namaqua settlement north Orange River beginning in the mid-1840s. In 1863, he eventually led his people to Gibeon (south-central Namibia) where he developed a communialist society centered on cattle, trade and Christianity. After his death in 1875 Moses Witbooi (Hendrik Witbooi's father) assumed chieftaincy and remained in that position until 1883. Like his father Moses followed Christian practices and worked closely with Johannes Olpp, a Protestant missionary affiliated with Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft (Rhenish Mission Society, RMG) who arrived in Gibeon in 1868. Moses supported Olpp's efforts to build a church and mission station, and also helped found an RMG school in the settlement. [8]
In June 1884 Hendrik Witbooi had taken over leadership from his father, and in that year he began the first of his several treks with his people north into central Damaraland in search of new settlement. He had just resigned from his position in church as an elder a year before (1883), he styled himself as a biblical prophet and gained support of the most prominent families in Gibeon. Witbooi established a settlement in Hoornkrans the very same year he moved from Gibeon. Hoornkrans was an important stronghold territory controlled by the Herero, powerful Bantu pastoralists community led by Chief Maharero. Witbooi's decision to expand his influence into Hoornkrans sparked a protracted military conflict between the two tribes. However, a few months before the conflict began, Maharero had finalized a protection agreement with officials from the newly arrived German colonial administration. Although he knew about Maharero's treaty with Germany, Witbooi never waivered in his decision to confront the Herero people. Witbooi was campaigning for his tribe's supremacy in the colony and he continued to clash with other tribal communities that were under the auspices of the German protection. These rivalries between the Nama people and other tribes posed a significant problem for the imperial government because the Germans' mandate for the colony was gradually being weakened. German leaders therefore sought to bring immediate end to the conflicts between Herero people and Witbooi Namaqua. [8]
In June 1886, Reichskomissar Göring wrote Witbooi, encouraging him to end his hostile actions in the colony. He pleaded with the Nama Chief to return home to Gibeon to be with his father and tribe and live in peace there; he warned that the German government could not allow chieftains who have placed themselves under German protection to support his ambition of driving a protected chiefdom into war. Witbooi and his people ignored this warning and continued his campaign for dominance against the Herero. Later that same year Louis Nels, a deputy officer to Göering wrote to Witbooi inviting him to participate in a conciliatory meeting between the various warring communities in Walvis Bay. With this meeting German authorities had hoped to facilitate a peace treaty, however the Namaqua chief did not comply with the request but instead he wrote a letter in response telling Nels that he will not listen to him. He made it known to Nels that he (Witbooi) is a chief of his tribe who is free and an autonomous man who answers only to God. The German officials did not respond to Witbooi's diplomatic reproach. With the limits of German on full display, imperial officials were at a loss about how to end the violence in GSWA. [8]
In June 1888, Göring wrote Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck and described the overall situation as "not very encouraging". April 1889 Göring went so far as to threaten open war against Witbooi and his tribe if he did not halt his attacks against groups allied with Germany. Witbooi's resistance prompted policy makers to seek immediate solutions to the instability in GSWA. The Namaqua resistance provoked the German authorities to act decisively, after 1889 Germany's military presence in the colony began to grow exponentially. In March 1893 Chancellor Von Caprivi proclaimed GSWA a German settlement colony. November same year Kaiser Wilhelm II appointed Curt von François as Landeshauptmann. A fanatic, François looked at Witbooi with disdain and called him a mere "tribesman" whom he could defeat easily. He had a notion that his predecessors acted weakly in dealing with the Nama chief and they made too many concessions. François strongly believed that nothing but relentless severity would end Witbooi's resistance decisively. Initially the German official tried to entice with an annual payment of five thousand marks if he would submit, however the Nama chief maintained his stand. [8] [9]
François was pressured by the Colonial Society to take action against Witbooi, subsequently on April 12, 1893, he launched a surprise attack on Witbooi and his tribe at Hoornkrans. 214 soldiers had been sent with an ultimate objective to "destroy the Witbooi Nama tribe". Though Witbooi and majority of his male soldiers escaped the encirclement, German troops killed nearly one hundred Namaqua women and children in their sleep. The Namaqua were unprepared for the raid believing François was still committed to neutrality. Previously Hendrik had scrupulously avoided harming Germans, but now was compelled to join the colonizers in war. In a series of running skirmishes that lasted for more than a year the Namaqua had great success, stealing horses and livestock from the German headquarters in Windhoek. At the end of 1893 Theodor Leutwein replaced Von François, he was appointed to the colony to investigate the reasons for continuing failure to subdue the Nama people. In July 1894 Leutwein asked for 250 troops, with the enlarged army he was able to defeat the Nama people who at the time had run out of ammunition; the English at the Cape and Walvis Bay had refused them assistance. Leiutwein successfully subdued the Nama and forced Hendrik to sign a protection treaty. [8] [9]
June 1904 Kaiser Wilhelm replaced Leutwein with Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha; like his predecessor, von Trotha believed that violence would ultimately put an end to the wars in the colony. He employed a policy of extermination of the whole African tribes in the colony.[ citation needed ]
The Nama people were fighters in pre-colonial times, the Namas and the Herero people fought for control of pastures in central Namibia. The battle continued for a long part of the 19th century. [10]
From 1904 to 1908, the German Empire, which had colonized present-day Namibia, waged a war against the Nama and the Herero (a group of Bantu pastoralists), leading to the Herero and Namaqua genocide and a large loss of life for both the Nama and Herero populations. [11] This was motivated by the German desire to establish a prosperous colony which required displacing the indigenous people from their agricultural land. [12] [13] Large herds of cattle were confiscated and Nama and Herero people were driven into the desert and in some cases interned in concentration camps on the coast, [14] [15] for example at Shark Island. Additionally, the Nama and Herero were forced into slave labor to build railways and to dig for diamonds during the diamond rush. [16]
In the 1920s diamonds were discovered at the mouth of the Orange River, and prospectors began moving there, establishing towns at Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth. This accelerated the appropriation of traditional lands that had begun early in the colonial period.[ citation needed ] Under apartheid, remaining pastoralists were encouraged to abandon their traditional lifestyle in favour of village life.[ citation needed ]
At the dawn of the 19th century, Oorlam people encroached into Namaqualand and Damaraland. They likewise descended from indigenous Khoikhoi but were a group with mixed ancestry including Europeans and slaves from Madagascar, India, and Indonesia. [17] After two centuries of assimilation into the Nama culture, many Oorlams today regard Khoikhoigowab (Damara/Nama) as their mother tongue, though others speak Afrikaans. The distinction between Namas and Oorlams has gradually disappeared over time to an extent where they are today regarded as one ethnic group, despite their different ancestries. [18]
In general, the Nama practice a policy of communal land ownership. Music, poetry and story telling are very important in Nama culture and many stories have been passed down orally through the generations.
The Nama have a culture that is rich in the musical and literary abilities of its people. Traditional music, folk tales, proverbs, and praise poetry have been handed down for generations and form the base for much of their culture. They are known for crafts which include leatherwork, skin karosses and mats, musical instruments (such as reed flutes), jewellery, clay pots, and tortoiseshell powder containers.
Many of the Nama people in South Namibia have lost their lands during German colonialism. New Namibian minister of land reform, Uutoni Nujoma has been accused of preferring other Namibians from other regions over native Namas. [25]
The traditional dress of Nama women consists of long, formal dresses that resemble Victorian traditional fashion. The long, flowing dresses were developed from the style of the missionaries in the 1800s, and this traditional clothing is today an integral part of the Nama nation's culture.
The Nama people's hut, also called matjieshuis, is a round hut traditionally made of beautifully designed reed mats on a skeleton of sticks. It corresponds to their nomadic life of the past; matjieshuis is still part of the life of the inhabitants of Richtersveld– a region made up of mountainous deserts in the northwest of South Africa. In fact, this is the last place where we can still find them in significant numbers. In the villages currently in the Richtersveld, the matjieshuis are used as a depot to store, as a kitchen, as an additional place to sleep, or even to provide to tourists, like accommodation. These huts, called haru oms in the Nama language, are made of reed mats woven neatly into a beehive shape. It is a dwelling house for all seasons– it is cool and well ventilated in summer, it is naturally insulated by reed carpets in winter, and protected from the rain by the porous stems which swell with water. All materials are organic and not over-harvested; this is a home that truly respects the environment. Women and men take part in the making of it, in the collection of materials, in the preparation of the rugs, and in the assembly of the hut, in a very meticulous process which has remained a true Nama art. [26]
Traditionally, Nama camps had 5-30 huts. These huts were circular domes and their doors faced the center of camp. They were also arranged hierarchically; the chief's was placed west and faced east. Other families were placed based on their seniority. Elder brothers and their families were on the far right, while younger brothers and their families on the left. [27] There are no enclosures for adult livestock. They are expected to sleep in front of their owners huts. Calves and lambs are placed in an enclosed area in the middle of camp. The huts were lined with reed mats made by women, [28] and the mats are placed on wooden frames. The reeds are able to soak and absorb water well, thus being able to protect the Nama people from summer rain. These Huts are very mobile, but also stable, being able to break them down in less than an hour. The huts are also reusable.
They have largely abandoned their traditional religion through the sustained efforts of Christian (and now Muslim) missionaries. The majority of the Nama people in Namibia today are therefore Christian while Nama Muslims make up a large percentage of Namibia's Muslims. [29]
In the past funerals were not a big social gathering. The Nama people simply buried the body and never spoke about the person again due to fear of spirits. Today funerals are social solidarity. The position of the person in the community being buried matters– that determines the burial site. Members of close relatives of the deceased person spend a week preparing the grave site, digging, and using flattened oil drums as sheets. The mourning takes place three days before the actual burial. During the first two nights of the mourning, there is singing of hymns, preaching, and praying. On the last day of the mourning and the day of the burial, there are speeches presented and messages of condolences. [30] The grave site itself is lined with brick, and once the body is inside, a wooden board is laid upon the top before it is covered with dirt. This style of the burial site makes it easy for preservation of the body.
Namas have a complicated wedding ritual. First, the man has to discuss his intentions with his family. If they agree they will advise him of the customs to ask the bride's family and then accompany him to the place she lives. The yard at the bride's living place is prepared prior to the future husband's family's arrival; animal hides are laid out in the corners for the different groups to sit down and discuss. [31]
The groom's family will ask for the gate to be opened. If this is granted, the groom is interrogated about details of the bride, including the circumstances of their first meeting and how to identify her body marks to make sure both know each other well. If the bride is pregnant or already has children from her future husband or someone else, the bride is subjected to the "door cleansing" ceremony (slaughtering and consuming a snow-white goat). After several days the wedding ritual continues in reverse; the bride's family visits the clan of the groom. If all is to the satisfaction of the two clans, an engagement day is announced. [31]
At the engagement, the groom's family brings live animals to the woman's family home. The animals are slaughtered, hung on three sticks, and each part is offered to the bride's family. Other items like bags of sugar or flour are only offered in quantities of two or four to indicate that there will always be abundance of food. This process is also celebrated in reverse at the man's family home. White flags are mounted on both families' houses which may not be taken off but wither or are blown off by the wind one day. [31]
The wedding preparations can take up to a year. The family of the groom makes a gift to the bride's mother, traditionally a cow and a calf, for she has raised the bride at her breast. A bargaining process accompanies the gift that can take weeks in itself. On wedding day, both families provide animals and other food and bring it to the bride's home. The wedding itself takes place in a church. Festivities afterward go on for several days. The first night after the wedding the couple spends separately. On the next morning, they set off for their own home. [31]
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 are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South 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 Griqua, Gona, Nama, Khoemana and Damara nations. The Khoekhoe were once known as Hottentots, a term now considered offensive.
The Herero Wars were a series of colonial wars between the German Empire and the Herero people of German South West Africa. They took place between 1904 and 1908.
The Herero and Nama genocide or Namibian genocide, formerly known also as the Herero and Namaqua genocide, was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment which was waged against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa by the German Empire. It was the first genocide to begin in the 20th century, occurring between 1904 and 1908. In January 1904, the Herero people, who were led by Samuel Maharero, and the Nama people, who were led by Captain Hendrik Witbooi, rebelled against German colonial rule. On 12 January 1904, they killed more than 100 German settlers in the area of Okahandja.
Namaqualand is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over 1,000 km (600 mi) and covering a total area of 440,000 km2 (170,000 sq mi). It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions – Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the north.
Hendrik Witbooi was a chief of the ǀKhowesin people, a sub-tribe of the Khoikhoi. He led the Nama people during their revolts against the German colonial empire in present-day Namibia, in connection with the events surrounding the Herero and Namaqua Genocide. He was killed in action on 29 October 1905. Witbooi is regarded as one of the national heroes of Namibia, and his face is portrayed on the obverse of all N$50, N$100, and N$200 Namibian dollar banknotes.
Jacob Morenga, also Jakob, Jacobus, Marengo, and Marenga, known as the "black Napoleon", was an important figure in Namibia, then the German colony of German South West Africa. He was chief leader in the insurrection against the German Empire which took place between 1904 and 1908, and was best known for forging an alliance between the rival Herero and Namaqua tribes.
Maharero kaTjamuaha was one of the most powerful paramount chiefs of the Herero people in South-West Africa, today's Namibia.
The Oorlam or Orlam people are a subtribe of the Nama people, largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony to Namaqualand and Damaraland.
German South West Africa was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
Captain Hendrik Samuel Witbooi, Nama name: ǃGae-nûb ǃnagamâb ǃNansemab, was the sixth Kaptein of the ǀKhowesin, a subtribe of the Orlam, in the area of South-West Africa (SWA), today's Namibia. He was born in Gibeon; Hendrik Witbooi was his grandfather. He was selected to be the successor of his uncle David Witbooi who died in 1955.
Hoachanas is a settlement of 3,000 inhabitants in the Hardap Region of southern central Namibia, located 55 kilometres (34 mi) northeast of Kalkrand. It is situated at the junction of the main road C21 from Kalkrand, and C15 from Dordabis to Stampriet and belongs to the Mariental Rural electoral constituency.
Simon Kooper was the Captain of the ǃKharakhoen, a subtribe of the Nama people in Namibia from 1863 to 1909. He became famous for leading the Nama in the Herero and Nama War of 1904–1907.
Shark Island or "Death Island" was one of five concentration camps in German South West Africa. It was located on Shark Island off Lüderitz, in the far south-west of the territory which today is Namibia. It was used by the German Empire during the Herero and Namaqua genocide of 1904–08. Between 1,032 and 3,000 Herero and Namaqua men, women, and children died in the camp between March 1905 and its closing in April 1907.
The Red Nation is the main subtribe of the Nama people in Namibia and the oldest Nama group speaking Khoekhoegowab, the language often called Damara/Nama.
Manasse ǃNoreseb Gamab was the thirteenth Kaptein of the Khaiǁkhaun, a subtribe of the Nama people in Namibia, between 1880 and 1905. At the start of Imperial Germany's colonisation of South-West Africa, Manasse was one of the most powerful leaders in the area.
Cornelius Fredericks was a leader of the ǃAman, a subtribe of the Orlam people, in the southern area of German South-West Africa, today's Namibia. He was a rival Kaptein of the Bethanie Orlam, contesting the chieftaincy of Paul Fredericks. Among the Orlam people living in Bethanie, Cornelius had more followers, but Paul was the official leader who also had the support of the German colonial powers.
Isaak Witbooi, Nama name: ǃNanseb ǂKharib ǃNansemab, was the fourth Kaptein of the ǀKhowesin, a subtribe of the Orlam, in Gibeon, South-West Africa. When during the Herero Wars his father, Hendrik Witbooi, fell on 29 October 1905, he inherited the chieftaincy and continued fighting the German troops, but surrendered on 3 February 1906. The German colonial government formally abolished the traditional leadership structures and kept the ǀKhowesin including Isaak Witbooi detained in the North of Namibia, unable to return to Gibeon until the World War I surrender of local German troops to invading British-South African forces in 1915. At Gibeon, Isaak Witbooi succeeded in rebuilding the social organisation of the ǀKhowesin, despite being only recognised as "local headman" by the South African administration. He reigned until his death in 1928, when his brother David Witbooi succeeded him.
Johannes Theophilus Hahn was a merchant and agent in South West Africa (SWA), linguistic expert on the Khoikhoi language, one of seven languages in which he was fluent and a librarian.
Johann Georg Krönlein was a Rhenish Missionary pioneer in South West Africa and a Bible translator and lexicographer of the Khoekhoe language. A neighborhood in Keetmanshoop, which he founded in 1866, is named after him.
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(help)When the war finally ended in 1908 no less than 80% of the Herero had lost their lives. The majority of the Herero who remained in Namibia, primarily women and children, survived in concentration camps as forced labourers employed on state, military and civilian projects (Pool 1979; Nuhn 1989; Bley 1971:142–169; Drechsler 1966:132-167; Gewald 1999:141-230).