1864-1867 | Fighting between different Namaland
communities becomes increasingly violent and weakens the Nama-Orlam alliance. The first
skirmishes are against the missionaries, and subsequently, to obtain cattle. Now, the very
people who twentzy years earlier had been vehemently opposed to the official introduction
of the death penalty (Ryksboek), are carrying out mass executions of prisoners of
war. Some communities increasingly fight against European influences and interference in indigenous politics spearheaded by the missionaries of the Rhenish Missionary Society. Swartbooi and Topnaar Nama raid Kaokoland from Franzfontein and later from Zesfontein. Consequently many Ovahimba and Ovatjimba escape to Angola. The Otjimuhaka drift at the Kunene river is since then called Swartbooisdrift. The Kunene River at Swartbooisdrift in the Kaokoveld |
1864 | Urieta Kazahendike marries
Rhenish missionary Samuel Gertse in Otjimbingwe. Amraal Lambert of the Kai|khauan dies in the smallpox epidemic which enters the territory in 1863. Kololo king Mbololo is replaced by the Lozi King Lewanika (1864-1909) from the Barotse kingdom (in the present-day Caprivi Strip and northwestern Zambia). Lewanika forces Mbololo out the present-day Caprivi Strip. Mbololo shifts his capital from Linyanti to Sesheke-Mwandi (not to beconfused with Sesheke in present-day Zambia). After Mbololo left, there was no Kololo left to rule. Lewanika sends his representative Simata Kabende (1864-1914). With his appointment and in accordance with Lozi tradition, the honourary title of Mamili is given to him by the king. Simata Mamili becomes Headman of the Fwe, again under Lozi (or Luyi) rule which follows the demise of the Kololo kingdom in the present-day Caprivi Strip. Simata is in control of the western part of the Eastern Caprivi Strip. He controlls not only the Fwe but also the Yeyi, Mayuni, Totela, Mbukushu and Kxoé communities. He again establishes Linyanti on the Chobe River as capital of the Fwe community. The Yeyi are very interesting because they have some clicks in their language (Shiyeyi) although they belong to the Bantu group of peoples. They remain for the next 130 years (until 1993) the subjects of the Fwe. Samuel Afrikaner, a Griqua, together with a group of Nama and San people, attack the expedition of Robert Lewis, James Todd and JJL Smuts into Kaokoland. The |Gowanin Dama under their leader Abraham ||Goreseb support the Ovaherero and as a result are allowed to settle at Okombahe. From the 1860s the !Gomen also settle at Okombahe. |
09.01. | Carl Hugo Hahn lands with his first two mission colonists, Johann Carl Eduard Hälbich and Franz Tamm, in Walvis Bay and goes from there to Otjimbingwe. The objective of his return is to finally save the Ovaherero mission and to expand the missionary work into Ovamboland. In Otjimbingwe he hoists the Prussian flag. |
01.03. |
Hälbich, marries Friederike Amalie
Bartel. He manages later one of the most successful trading companies in the country.
Eduard Hälbich establishes a successful Trading
Company at Otjimbingwe in 1864. The left photo shows the Hälbich Store and the right one
the "Powder Magazine" which is erected in 1872 by Hälbich as
a Protection Tower in Periods of Unrest |
05.03. | Anderssons Ovaherero army and
the ||Khau-|gõan (or Swartboois), together with the ||Ô-gain (or "Groot Doden"
Chief Jager #Aimab from the Kuiseb River) under the command of Green, attack the
Orlam Afrikaners in the battle of Witvley. Carl Hugo Hahn fully supports the Andersson
raid to destroy the Orlam Afrikaners and their allies, and assures Andersson of "my
and all the missionaries fullest support". Andersson and Green make a firm
decision that they will now ally themselves with Maharero and raise a large army against
the Nama alliance. The Orlams make a call on all Namaland chiefs "to come and
help them, Andersson and the missionaries want to take the country away". At the same time Gobabis is attacked by a group of Ovambanderu. During the raid Lambert Lambert, a prominent member of the Amraal Lambert family of the Kai|khauan, is killed. After the incident the Ovambanderu retreat and avoid the Gobabis area for many years. |
22.03. | Rhenish missionary Johann Albrecht Friedrich Böhm establishes and runs a mission station at Salem (until 1867) where the Swartboois settle to replace Jacobus Boois people. |
09.05. |
Queen Victoria rejects the South African Cape Colonys annexation of the Atlantic offshore islands due to diplomatic reasons during the American Civil War. |
22.06. | The Ovaherero, under the command of Andersson, defeat the Orlam Afrikaners in the battle of Otjonguere south of Windhoek but most of them escape without harm. |
25.07. | The Swartboois leave Rehoboth to escape the Orlam Afrikaners and move to Otjimbingwe and later to Ameib (1867), together with missionary Böhm. |
August | The Orlam Afrikaners attack
Rehoboth. Fleeing missionary Kleinschmidt dies from exposure (in Otjimbingwe on
02.09.1864). Kleinschmidts wife, Hanna Kleinschmidt, née Schmelen, survives for more than 20 years (she dies on 018.12.1884 at Otjimbinge). She is involved in community work in Rehoboth from 1845 until 1864. The Graves of the Rhenish Missionary Franz
Heinrich Kleinschmidt and his Wife Hanna, née Schmelen at Otjimbingwe |
24.09. | Andersson sells all his assets in Otjimbingwe to the Rhenish Missionary Society, represented by Carl Hugo Hahn, for £600. Maharero and his followers desert Otjimbingwe and all communications between him and the Europeans seem to cease. |
03.12. | ||Oaseb, Hendrik Henricks and #Aimab attack the Witbooi Nama in Gibeon, which is devastated. The ||Oaseb coalition represents the anti-missionary movement. Kido Witboois grandson, Hendrik Witbooi (Moses Witboois son), is wounded. |