1921 The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)and the African Communities League (ACL) are founded by West Africans and West Indians respectively in Lüderitz (Fritz Herbert Headly and John de Clue). (The Jamaican Marcus Garvey had created the so-called "Garveyite movement" with its base in the USA.) These movements soon spread to Windhoek. The millenarian ideas contained in Garveyism attract Ovaherero especially, but other indigenous groups as well. Expectations of a new uprising are raised.
Carl "Cocky" Hahn becomes Resident Commissioner in the north.
Essential elements of the German land policy are perpetuated in terms of Proclamation No. 14 of 1920. The confiscated tribal lands from the German era become "Crown Lands of South West Africa", and 8 000 square miles of this land are allocated to "white" farmers. The first farms under the new scheme are granted to settlers in the Keetmanshoop and Warmbad districts. An unavoidable clash of interests between "Whites" and "Blacks" is one of the more important causes which leads to the "Bondelswarts Affair of 1922".
Of the 19 432 "whites" living in the territory, 7 855 are German and 10 673 British subjects.
A direct railway service is introduced between Windhoek and Cape Town, the journey taking 93 hours.
The copper mine at Tsumeb resumes full production. The company OMEG retains the mining rights in the area.
E Adler takes over the management of the Great Namaqua Diamonds (Pty) Ltd.
The bilingual newspaper (German and Dutch), Die Voortrekker, becomes firstly a pure Afrikaans newspaper Die Suidwest and later the Suidwes Nuusblad.
01.01. A civilian colonial administration, the Advisory Council, replaces the military administration which has ruled according to martial law. The council mainly represents settler interests. This state of affairs lasts until 1925, when a limited form of self-government is granted to all British subjects in SWA while the Namibian "blacks" in the Police Zone (the area south of Ovamboland, the Kaokoveld and Kavango) are under the direct administration of the Administrator for SWA, the communities outside the Police Zone are controlled by Carl "Cocky" Hahn, the Resident Commissioner in the north.
07.02. Construction of the remaining section of the Otjiwarongo-Outjo railway line starts.
April The inspector of the Rhenish Missionary Society, Eduard Kriele, observes the phenomenon of a growing "infatuation with freedom coupled with a spririt of unrepentance" in Namibian "blacks" which manifests itself through an unwillingness to work.
May From the end of the First World War a group of "Coloureds" from the South African Cape Colony settles in Windhoek. It petitions the SWA Administration for land to build a "coloured" township. This is granted by the South African Department of Native Affairs. The "Coloureds" are allowed to construct a settlement north of the native location (Old Location). South African officials and "white" settlers refer to three distinct groups: "Baster", "Cape Coloureds" and "Namibian Coloureds". "Coloureds" and "Natives" share generally the same discriminatory experiences.
24.08. Construction of the Windhoek- Gammams railway line to Gobabis starts.
20.12. The railway line from Otjiwarongo to Outjo is completed and officially opened by Administrator Gysbert Reitz Hofmeyr.
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