| 1950s | SWA’s unique salt-gravel
roads along the Atlantic coast are developed. From the 1950s until the present day conflicts around land issues and the borders between the Fwe and the Subya areas arise. |
| 1950 | The AIS intends to establish a
newspaper Ondjerera (Light)(Desiderius Kukuri). German becomes again medium of education at various schools. E Müller from the Allgemeine Zeitung is replaced by Karl Friedrich Lempp. SWA has 62 telephone exchanges with a total of 1 033 private and 2 467 business lines. Furthermore there are countrywide 134 public telephone boots and 451 farm lines. |
| May | Ovambo contract labourers go on strike at Lüderitz and Walvis Bay. |
| June | The triune point between SWA, Angola and Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) near the Kwando River is agreed to between Portugal (Angola) and SA. |
| 11.07. | The ICJ states in an Advisory Opinion that SA has no obligation to conclude a trusteeship agreement with the UN because the mandate is still in force. SA’s right to alter the status of SWA is denied. SA, however, does not recognise this opinion. The UN General Assembly establishes under UNGA Resolution 449 A (V) an Ad Hoc Committee for South West Africa to negotiate with SA on the status of SWA. The Assembly reiterates its request that SWA should be placed under UN trusteeship. The Advisory Opinion makes the indigenous African leadership in SWA more articulately opposed to the policy of ethnic fragmentation. |
| 30.08. | Elections for the Legislative
Assembly in terms of the South West Africa Affairs Amendment Act, No. 23 of 1949, result
in an overwhelming victory for the National Party. The NPSWA’s election victory leads
to a remoulding of the existing system of segregation and the introduction of Apartheid.
The blurring of ethnic identities amongst "Coloureds" and poor
"Whites" is a major motivation behind the introduction of the Group Areas Act,
1950, in which occupancy and ownership of land is prescribed on racial grounds. Six members of the Legislative Assembly are elected to the SA Parliament. The reputation of the Rhenish Missionary Society sinks to a new low when the Rhenish ex-preses Heinrich Vedder accepts the position of senator in the SA Senate, in charge of "Native Affairs" in SWA. In his maiden speech he commends the South African apartheid policy: "Our Government in South West Africa has been the depositary of a fine heritage. From the very beginning the German Government carried out that which has unfortunately not yet been attained in South Africa - namely, apartheid". |
| 23.09.-01.10. | The question of apartheid is the
main topic of the Rhenish Missionary Conference in Windhoek. Missionary Otto Milk states
that apartheid promotes "the native’s separate development in accordance with
their distinctive character". Apartheid is also supported by the Finnish Mission: "we must ... view apartheid in a true sense of the term being a positive force". |
| 25.11. | A meeting between the Rhenish Missionary Society (Preses Diehl) and the Ovaherero parishes (Hosea Kutako) takes place in Windhoek. The Ovaherero have high expectations of the outcome of this meeting, hoping it might change the future for their community and in fact for all Namibians. The slogan of the meeting is Ehi Retu (Our Country). Kutako declares that according to Ovaherero’s conception, the church, as national church, could not exist outside the rights of the people. The Rhenish Mission, however, maintains that a confusion of worldly affairs and spiritual matters would mean the end of missionary work. |
| 1951 | The UN Ad Hoc Committee on SWA
holds several sessions with SA in an attempt to settle the legal dispute over SWA. SA,
however, rejects the legitimacy of UN authority in this regard, and instead proposes
negotiating on SWA’s status with the USA, England and France, and no longer the UN.
Although the Ad Hoc Committee is reconstituted in 1952 and 1953, no accord is reached with
SA. A breakthrough is achieved when the UN invite Namibian leaders to state their case before the UN General Assembly held that year in Paris. SA authorities again refuse to issue passports to Namibian leaders, inter alia Hosea Kutako. The Namibia case is again presented by Rev. Michael Scott. Albertus Johannes Roux van Rhyn suceeds Petrus Imker Hoogenhout as new Administrator for SWA. There are 15 miles (25 km) paved streets in Windhoek (built since 1916). From 1951 the demand for salt exports grows, mainly for coarse salt from the Panther Beacon Pan and some more pans between Swakopmund and the Ugab River mouth. Lithium and cesium mining takes place in the Rubikon Mine south of Karibib. The Ovambanderu Chief, Nikanor Hoveka, dies. His successor is Stephanus Hoveka. |
| 04.08. | The Trollope-Dickinson Agreement between Trollope and the District Commissioner of Kasane, VE Dickingson, on the Kasikili Island in the Chobe River leads to the conclusion that the island should be cultivated by the Subya community in the Eastern Caprivi Strip. |
| 17.11. | In Omaruru the corner stone for the German Church of the Cross is laid. |
| 24.12. | Augus Gariseb, a headman of the Dama, states in a protest note to the Trusteeship Committee of the UN that the "Damaras are opposed to the representations made by the Hereros at the United Nations, as they (the Dama) had prior claim to the territory and that the Hereros had invaded the country and enslaved them until they were liberated by the Europeans". |
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