After 1945 the major lines of cleavage in "white" politics relate more to ideology than anything else, and language is no longer a major issue of contention.
This year’s census finds a combined total of 269 569 "blacks" and "coloureds" living in SWA, and 38 020 "whites".
SA tables a report to the UN regarding the administration of the territory.
Simon "Mzee" Kaukungua joins the South West Africa Railway Police.
Andrew Kloppers moves from the South African Cape to Namibia. He has already in the Cape been involved in the Kleurling Ouer-Onderwyser Vereniging (KOOV) in "Coloured" politics. He works together with EL Cloete and Mr Olivier from the Baster community.
There are strikes of Ovambo contract labourers at diamond mines at Lüderitz and Bogenfels.
Graves of the Witbooi Dynasty at the Gibeon Cemetery: Tomb Stone
for Markus Witbooi
Copyright of Photo: Dr. Klaus Dierks
Opposition to incorporation comes from various quarters. Hosea Kutako (together with Nikanor Hoveka) of SWA is the first to petition the United Nations. Kutako favours being placed under British trusteeship. He is, however, refused a passport by the SA authorities. He contacts Frederick Maharero in Bechuanaland to assist him in sending the petition. Maharero again contacts Thekedi Khama of Bechuanaland to help the Namibians in their plight. It is through Khama that the Anglican priest Michael Scott becomes involved as petitioner to the UN to oppose incorporation. Rev. Scott is later blacklisted by the South Africans and criticised by the Anglican Church and other ecclesiastical circles. Kutako’s petition is signed by Festus Kandjou. It is remarkable that this petition is sent on the fateful date of 26.08.1946 (for the Ovaherero: 26.08.1923)(20 years later, on 26.08.1966, SWAPO begins the armed struggle against SA).
Another petitioner is David Witbooi and later, after his death in 1955, Hendrik Samuel Witbooi from the Witbooi Nama.
Nama members (33%) of the Rhenish Mission leave this church because of the apartheid attitudes of German missionaries. They join the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC), a black church from the USA linked with Ethiopianised Christianity in southern Africa. Wide-ranging political demands for the spiritual and physical upliftment of Namibian indigenes are made, especially by Petrus Jod. The successor to Rhenish missionary Spellmeyer at Gibeon, Fritz Mayer, calls AMEC "communist propaganda".
Rhenish missionary Theo Sundermeier later analyses how the Rhenish Mission Board in Germany yields to fresh thoughts and theories on missionary theology which originate from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the World Council of Churches (WCC). In the light of these new developments, the mission is required to establish independent, indigenous churches. Liberation movements are to be seen within the "black" Christian’s own cultural context, namely as an attempt to attain freedom from the twofold menace of South African Apartheid and missionary paternalism.
The OMEG-Tsumeb mine is put up for sale by the Custodian of Enemy Property.
The AIS runs a small café in the Windhoek "Old Location" as a meeting point. The first administrator is Ananius Munoko, followed by David Meroro.
Tendencies within the Ovaherero parishes of the Rhenish Missionary Society begin to liberate these congregations from the mission. This leads eventually to the formation of the Oruuano Church in the 1950s.
The Spitzkoppe Mountain is climbed for the first time by Hans Wongtschowski and Jan de Villiers Graaff.
