2. THE PERIOD OF THE EXPLORERS, HUNTERS AND TRADERS
Around 1400–1800
| Around 1400 | The earliest accounts of
mining date back some 500 years, according to archaeological evidence of copper smelting
near what is today known as the Matchless Mine in the Khomas Hochland. Also in the Otavi
Mountains copper has been mined, processed and traded for hundreds of years. The copper
ore is smelted in anthills with the aid of charcoal. Around this time probably the first Ovambo enter present-day Namibia. The Ovambo language Oshivambo and the related Otjiherero of the Ovaherero is still spoken around Lubango and among the Mwila and Kipungu peoples of Matala up to Bailundo of the Iimbundu people in Angola. Some historians believe that the ancestors of the Ovambo and Ovaherero peoples moved through Central Africa to Angola and later Namibia, originating from the areas around the Great Lakes in East Africa where people still speak languages related to Oshivambo, Otjiherero, Shona of Zimbabwe, Kalanga of Botswana and Tonga of Zambia. Between 1400 and 1600 A.D. the F Period occurs in Namibia. |
| 1486 | January Diogo Cão sets foot on Namibian soil and erects a padrão at Cape Cross (21°47'S). So begins the seizure of Namibia by European advances. The purpose of the colonial conquest is to acquire wealth, and the way to acquire wealth is to acquire land. |
| 1487 04.12. |
Bartholomeu Diaz visits a place on the Namibian coast which he calls "Terra de Santa Barbara" (probably located near present-day Swakopmund). |
| 08.12. | Angra da Conceição is visited and identified as present-day Conception Bay. |
| 23.12. | Golfo de Santa Vitória is visited and identified as present-day Hottentot Bay. |
| 26.12. | Golfo de Santa Estevão is visited and identified as present-day Elizabeth Bay. |
| 1488 24.07. |
Bartholomeu Diaz erects a padrão, which he dedicates to São Tiago, at a bay he names Angra de São Christóvão. Later the bay is renamed Angra Pequeña (present-day Lüderitz). Angra das Voltas, which is also used as an anchoring site, is located further south – at the Oranje River mouth. |
| 1489 | The oldest map depicting the Namibian Atlantic coast is Heinrich Hammer’s world map, Insularium Illustratum. |
| Around 1500 | The migrating Ovaherero enter present-day Namibia. The Sub-Group of the Ovambanderu settles around Lake Ngami in Bechuanaland. Later they are expelled by the community of the Ngwaketse and escape to the eastern areas of Namibia. |
| 1589 | Andrew Battels, an Englishman captured by the Portuguese in Brazil, is sent to Angola as a soldier. He deserts and lives for sixteen months among the Ovambo in present-day Namibia. Probably he is the first "white" man to see the interior of the territory. He writes the earliest description of Ovamboland. |
| 1650 | The First Ondonga (Aandonga) king is King Nembulungo lyNgwedha from the Aakwanekamba (Hyena Clan)(ca. 1650-1690) wo was born around 1620. He might have been an Ondonga king around the time of the third King Heita yMuvale or the fourth King Hautolonde uaNdja of the Uukwanyama area (the first Uukwanyama-Kings, Kambungu kaMuheya and Mushindi uaKanene, as well as the second Uukwanyama King, Kavonga kaHaidongo, cannot be dated). During Nembulungo’s reign the Aambwenge (Uukwangali Kingdom) from the Kavango invade the Ondonga area and Nembulungo’s rule is terminated. |
| 1670 March |
Grundel reaches the Namibian coast for the first time. |
| 14.04. | The vessel "Grundel" leaves Cape Town under the command of Captain GR Muys. |
| 26.04. | Grundel lands at Angra Pequeña. |
| 01.05. | Grundel reaches Sandwich Harbour, south of present-day Walvis Bay. |
| 26.05. | Grundel reaches Cape Town again. |
|
|