1843


Guano exploitation starts on the Atlantic offshore islands.
David Livingstone visits for the first time an area which later becomes known as the Caprivi Strip. His efforts to establish a mission station there fail.
The Wesleyan Missionary Society establishes a mission station at Naosanabis (present-day Leonardville). The first missionary there is Joseph Tindall (1843-1844, 1847-1851), who is followed by his son, Henry Tindall (November 1852 to July 1855).
09.03. The Wesleyan missionary Edward Cook dies at Warmbad.
14.04. The Chief of the Kai||khaun, ||Oaseb, visits Windhoek.
19.08. Chief Jonker Afrikaner requests missionary Kleinschmidt to write a letter to the Chief of the Bondelswarts (!Gami-#nun), Abraham, to refrain from plans to attack, together with the Kai||khaun, the Ovaherero. The relationship between Jonker and the Kai||khaun is from the very beginning characterised by a combination of alliance and conflict.
03.10. Carl Hugo Hahn marries Emma Hone, from the Victorian London. She introduces into Hereroland the Victorian dress which remains popular until the present day.
09.12. Hahn reports during his trip to Cape Town on the many lions which plague Bethany.
1844 ||Oaseb attacks Ovaherero leader Oove ua Muhoko Kahitjene without Jonker Afrikaner lifting a finger to help the latter. Kahitjene’s defeat can be directly attributed to his attempts to win independent access to guns, horses and information with assistance of a European missionary, Hahn. This leads finally to his downfall in 1851.
The first permanent European colonists, the families of Sidney Dixon, James Morris and Frank Bassingthwaighte, settle in Walvis Bay.
02.03. Carl Hugo Hahn reports during his journey from Windhoek to Walvis Bay (25.12.1843 to 18. 03.1844) that he intends to establish a mission station near Walvis Bay. He names this station Keetmansdorf (later Scheppmannsdorf, present-day Rooibank (|Awang||hans)).
06.07. Rhenish missionary Hans-Christian Knudsen reports on Jonker Afrikaner’s road building activities in the Auas Mountains, south of Windhoek and the Northern Bay Road to Walvis Bay.
August More than four hundred ships are moored at the Atlantic coast island Ichaboe (as also reported by missionary Scheppmann on 02.01.1845). Hundreds of sailors clear  250 000 tons of guano in a relatively small period. The absence of any orderly state control leads to chaotic conditions on the island. In 1845 the British Royal Navy steps in to restore order.
Jonker Afrikaner invites the Wesleyan missionaries Richard Haddy and Joseph Tindall to settle in Windhoek, which they call "Concordiaville". Subsequently Hahn and Kleinschmidt leave Windhoek, which they now call "Esek" ("fountain of the quarrel"), and go to Okahandja to work among the Ovaherero, but then they have to leave Okahandja due to lack of water, and move on to Otjikango (29.10.1844)(Nama: ||Katsabias; present-day Groß Barmen, which Hahn called "Neu-Barmen").
28.09. Hahn reports that the Kai||khaun Chief ||Oaseb has established a kind of efficient "tourist police" to assist foreigners.
03.10. The Wesleyan missionaries Haddy (until 1846), Tindall (until 1845) and Timotheus Sneeue (until 1848) start working in Windhoek.
31.10. A mission station is established at Otjikango and is run by its founding missionaries Hahn (until 18.06.1852), Kleinschmidt (until May 1845) and Johannes Hendrik Bam (until 1848), followed by Heinrich Scheppmann (1844-1845), Johannes Rath (09.04.1845-1849), Friedrich Wilhelm Kolbe (23.04.1848-1851), Heinrich Schöneberg (19.01.1851-21.11.1853), Matthäus Gorth (1852), again Hahn (28.03.1856-26.06.1859), Peter Heinrich Brincker (20.02.1864-1878), Johann Jakob Irle (1869-1870) and Freerk Meyer (from 1877).

Namibia_Otjozondjupa_GrossBarmen_4.jpg (132070 bytes)Namibia_Otjozondjupa_GrossBarmen_3.jpg (201929 bytes)Namibia_Otjozondjupa_GrossBarmen_2.jpg (168480 bytes)Namibia_Otjozondjupa_GrossBarmen_1.jpg (161130 bytes)

The Remains of the Rhenish Mission Station at Otjikango (later called Gross Barmen by Rhenish Missionary Carl Hugo Hahn) in October 2004: Otjozondjupa Region
Copyright of Photos: Dr. Klaus Dierks

With Jonker’s and his ally Tjamuaha’s approval, many poor and cattleless Ovaherero (Ovatjimba) settle at Otjikango and later at Otjimbingwe. They form the core population in these two mission stations.

16.12. The Ovaherero Chief Katjari (Chief of the Otjirungu group under the leadership of John Samuel Aron Mungunda from Otjombuindja in the Ozongoto area, son of Chief Tjoro, son of Chief Tjihahu) takes a defiant attitude against the strong social influence exercised by the Rhenish missionaries in Otjikango.
1845 The Walvis Bay traders Sidney Dixon and James Morris attempt to export cattle to St Helena via Walvis Bay. William Latham works for Dixon at Sandfontein, and later works for Charles John Andersson, supporting him in his war efforts against the Orlam Afrikaners.
Cattle are traded for wagons, guns, ammunition and alcohol. The profits of the European traders are exorbitant: 1 500 to 2 000 % gross profit and never less than 100 % net profit. Missionary Hahn, as one of the major traders, pays for example 42 % commission to one of his traders (May 1868).
The credit system evolves as early as the 1840s and starts to destroy the economic structures of many Namibian communities. Jonker Afrikaner is known, in the mid-1840s, to have incurred heavy debts with the trader Morris. There are indications that Jonker’s raids on the Ovambanderu (1846) are a direct response to pressure from Morris.
TE Eden, a London surgeon, surveys the Atlantic coast and guano islands for minerals.
The first school book in the Nama language is printed by missionary Hans-Christian Knudsen.
The first detailed map of the southern region of present-day Namibia is published by missionary Heinrich Richter.
11.05.



Missionary Kleinschmidt moves to Rehoboth where he establishes and runs a mission station (until 1861 and again during 1864). Other missionaries in Rehoboth are Franz Heinrich Vollmer (03.05.1848-1853) and Friedrich Simon Eggert (20.08.1854-1855). The foundation stone for a church is laid in the presence of missionary Hahn on 30.08.1845.
Willem Swartbooi (!Huiseb #Haobemab), Chief of the Swartbooi community (||Khau-|gõan) from the 1830s (and probably much earlier), settles with his people at Rehoboth. The Swartboois originate from the areas of Warmbad, Bethany and the upper Fish River and are.originally part of the Kai||khaun. They are the only Namaland group who do not later form an alliance with Jonker Afrikaner, but rather become allies of the Ovaherero.
July Wesleyan missionary Joseph Tindall establishes a mission station in Gobabis (until 1847).
04.12. The Rhenish missionary Heinrich Scheppmann establishes and runs (until 29.08.1847) a mission station at Rooibank near Walvis Bay. He is followed by Johannes Hendrik Bam (22.03.1848-08.05.1856), Heinrich Schöneberg (1853-04.06.1855), Engelbert Krapohl (04.09.1857-1859), Friedrich Simon Eggert (26.07.1859-1868) and Christian Baumann (from 1878).
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