| 1957 |
Construction of the first paved road begins
– between Windhoek and Brakwater. During the session of the SA Parliament, authority
is obtained for the "dieselisation" of the SWA railway system and the broadening
of lines to the "Cape gauge" standard (1 067 mm). Of the total 2 354 km of
railway line in SWA, 1 786 km are of the broad Cape gauge type and the remaining 568 km
are of the 600 mm narrow-gauge type. The latter consists of the Usakos- Tsumeb (404 km),
Otavi- Grootfontein (92 km) and the Otjiwarongo-Outjo (72 km) lines.
Bishop Joseph Gotthardt ordains Rudolf Koppmann of Otjiwarongo as a Roman Catholic
Werner Bertelsmann from the Allgemeine Zeitung is again replaced by Karl Friedrich
Lempp.
The copper mines of Otjosonjati and Onganja in the Okahandja district start production.
Further vanadium, lead and zinc deposits are found at the Berg Aukas Mine. Underground
production starts that same year.
Ovambanderu Chief Stephanus Hoveka dies. His successor is Gerson Hoveka. |
| 02.08. |
The Ovamboland People’s Congress (OPC) is
launched by Herman Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo in Cape Town (in formal terms the OPC was never
constituted). Before this launch Andimba belongs to the African Nation Congress (ANC).
Among the founding members are Simon "Mzee" Kaukungua, Eliazer Tuhadeleni
(Kaxumba kaNdola), Peter Hilinganye Mweshihange, Solomon Mifima, Maxton Joseph
Mutongulume, Jariretundu Kozonguizi, Emil Appolus, Andreas Shipanga, Ottiliè Schimming
and Kenneth Abrahams.
Toivo meets during this time Cape Town based South African socialists and liberals such as
Brian Bunting, Sam Khan, Fred Carneson, Solly Sachs, Jack Simons, Patrick Duncan and
Randolph Vigne. He establishes also close contacts with the two South African parties the Congress
of Democrats (COD) and the Liberal Party. |
| October |
The UN establishes a Good Offices Committee to
negotiate with SA "a basis for an agreement which would continue to accord to the
Territory of South West Africa an international status". The Good Offices Committee
consists of Brazil, Great Britain and the USA. The Soviet bloc opposes the creation of the
committee on the grounds that the Western powers want to remove the SWA issue from the UN
agenda. The Afro-Asian bloc is not satisfied either. |
| 04.10. |
Bishop.Rhenish "black" pastors are
opposed to the idea of a federal Church (as decided during the Missionary Conference in
Okahandja, December 1955) and demand one single, entirely united Church, with no division
into different population groups; and it should be called the Evangelical Lutheran Church
of SWA (ELC). ELC is constituted at a synod held in Okahandja. The church is led by Preses
Hans Karl Diehl and Günther Reeh (Windhoek), Hendrik Isaak (Maltahöhe), Andreas Kukuri
(who dies on 29.12.1966) and Otto Milk (Okahandja), Daniel Strydom (Rehoboth) and Herrmann
Tötemeyer (Keetmanshoop).
Immediately this becomes a problem with the Baster parishes in Rehoboth since the Baster
do not wish to align themselves with "black" people. Furthermore, it is also
pointed out in Rehoboth that the German DELK does not form part of the ELC.
Grave of the Rhenish Missionary Andreas Kukuri on the Rhenish
Missionary Cemetery in Okahandja: Otjozondjupa Region: August 2003
Copyright of Photo: Dr. Klaus Dierks |
