South West Africa, renamed to Namibia from 12 June 1968, was an occupied part of the Union of South Africa and later the Republic of South Africa from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola, Botswana, South Africa, and Zambia. During its administration, South Africa applied its own apartheid system in the territory of South West Africa.
A Bantustan was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa, as a part of its policy of apartheid.
The Griquas are a subgroup of mixed-race heterogeneous formerly Xiri-speaking nations in South Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Dutch Cape Colony. Like the Boers they migrated inland from the Cape and in the 19th century established several states in what is now South Africa and Namibia. The Griqua consider themselves as being South Africa’s first multiracial nation with people descended directly from Dutch settlers in the Cape, and local peoples.
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.
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. In 2023, it had increased further to 40,788 people.
Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan and later a non-geographic ethnic-based second-tier authority, the Representative Authority of the Ovambos, in South West Africa.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ben Africa is a Namibian politician, medical doctor, and former Baster captain.
John McNab was a Namibian politician who served as Rehoboth Baster captain from 1999 until 2020.
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).
The Captainsof the Rehoboth Baster were the traditional leaders of the indigenous Baster community in central Namibia, until the dissolution of the Rehoboth Homeland in 1990, upon Namibian independence.
Cornelius van Wyk was the second Captain of the Rehoboth Baster, serving from 1914 until his death in 1924.
The Rehoboth Uprising of 1924-25 was the bloodless revolt of the Rehoboth Baster against the South African Administration in South West Africa. The revolt was caused by diminishing Baster autonomy and territory, as a result of Administration policies.
