ACTUAL PERIOD FROM 1920 TO 1990 AS FAR AS WITBOOIS WERE CONCERNED.
8. THE DEFENSIVE PERIOD WAS COINED BY TWO OUTSTANDING COMMUNITIES:
THE WITBOOI NAMA AND THE ORLAM AFRIKANERS. THE ORLAM AFRIKANERS CREATED THE
FORTIFIED TOWN OF ||KHAUXA!NAS WHICH SYMBOLISED THE FIRST RESISTANCE TO
EUROPEAN OCCUPATION IN THE 18<sup>TH</sup> CENTURY AND WHICH IS THE OLDEST
NAMIBIAN PRE-COLONIAL SETTLEMENT IN AN ENGINEERING SENSE (RE-DISCOVERED BY
MYSELF IN 1986). IT IS THE FIRST NAMIBIAN RESISTANCE SYMBOL ON RECORD. WHERE
HAVE THE WITBOOIS BEEN PLACED IN THE ORLAM MOVEMENT IN THE 1820s? FIRSTLY
THEY HAD TO FIND A PERMANENT HOME UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF KIDO WITBOOI.
KIDO WITBOOI AND HIS COMMUNITY WENT TO GRIQUALAND, AND LATER, TWO DECADES
LATER TO SOUTHERN NAMIBIA. WHILE THEY HAVE BEEN AT THE ORANJE RIVER REGION,
CONTACT WITH THE FIRST EUROPEAN MISSIONARIES (FIRSTLY THE LONDON MISSIONARY
SOCIETY; SECONDLY THE WESLEYAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY AND THIRDLY THE RHENISH
MISSIONARY SOCIETY) WAS MADE THERE IN THE 1820s. IN 1863 THE WITBOOIS
ESTABLISHED THEMSELVES AT GIBEON (KHAXA-TSÛS) UNDER KIDO WITBOOI. THE
RHENISH MISSIONARY AT THIS TIME WAS JACOB KNAUER (UNTIL 27.11.1867),
FOLLOWED BY JOHANNES OLPP (1867-1879). THIS BRINGS US TO THE SECOND
PERIOD: THE MISSIONARY PERIOD.
9. THE MISSIONARY PERIOD
TODAY WE KNOW THAT THE MISSIONARIES PLAYED A VERY SINISTER ROLE IN THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NAMIBIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE MID 1800s, ESPECIALLY
BETWEEN NAMA AND OVAHERERO COMMUNITIES; BUT EVEN IN THE RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN NAMA COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHERN NAMIBIA. IN THE 1860s KIDO WITBOOI,
UPON ESTABLISHING HIMSELF AS GIBEON, BECAME A MEMBER OF THE NAMALAND LEADERS
- THE SOUTHERN ALLIANCE - WHO BY 1863 PREPARED WAR UPON THE DOMINANT ORLAM
AFRIKANER POWER UNDER JAN JONKER AFRIKANER. THIS WAS IN SPITE OF THE FACT
THAT OLD JONKER AFRIKANER HAD FOR MANY YEARS HOPED TO WIN KIDO WITBOOI AS AN
ALLY: THE MISSIONARIES OF THE RHENISH MISSIONARY SOCIETY AGAIN PLAYED A
MALEVOLENT ROLE IN THESE TRAGIC EVENTS WITH THE RESULT THAT EUROPEAN
TRADERS, HUNTERS AND MISSIONARIES COULD OPERATE WITHOUT ANY MAJOR HINDRANCES
IMPOSED BY INDIGENOUS NAMIBIANS UNTIL THE BEGINNING OF FORMAL COLONISATION.
BY LATE 1882 THE PICTURE WAS AGAIN ONE OF DECENTRALISATION AND OF ISOLATED
SKIRMISHES BETWEEN NAMA AND OVAHERERO. THIS ROUGHLY WAS THE GENERAL SETTING
AT THE TIME OF HENDRIK WITBOOI'S (H.W.) ASCENDANCY IN 1884. THIS EVENT
COINCIDED WITH THE ADVENT OF THE GERMAN COLONIAL POWER AND THE THIRD
BASIC PERIOD.
10. THE ACTIVE PERIOD OF ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLE
10.1 IN 1884 HENDRIK WITBOOI PREPARED TO LEAVE GIBEON WITH HIS FOLLOWERS
AND TO EMIGRATE TO THE NORTH. THIS MOVEMENT NATURALLY BROUGHT HIM IN CONTACT
WITH THE OVAHERERO LEADER MAHARERO (KAMAHARERO). IT WAS A BIG SUCCESS FOR
HENDRIK WITBOOI WHEN HE CONCLUDED A PEACE AGREEMENT WITH MAHARERO BUT
HOSTILITIES CONTINUED THROUGH THE 1880s IN SPITE OF THIS PEACE TREATY DUE TO
WEAK COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN NAMA AND OVAHERERO.
10.2 FOR TWO YEARS AFTER HENDRIK WITBOOI HAD LEFT GIBEON, HE LIVED IN THE
AREA OF GURUMANAS RATHER QUIETLY WITH HIS GROWING FOLLOWING. BY THIS TIME
THE PRESENCE OF THE GERMANS HAD COMMENCED - WE CAN CALL IT PHASE ONE OF
THE GERMAN COLONISATION: 1884 - 1885 WHOSE ADMINISTRATION HAD HARDLY
BEEN NOTICED BY NAMIBIANS.
10.3 THE NEXT TWO - THREE YEARS FROM JULY 1888 - 1890 SAW THE WHOLE OF
NAMALAND IN RE-ARRANGEMENT. THE PERIOD WAS COINED BY TREMENDOUS DIPLOMATIC
AND MILITARY EFFORTS BY HENDRIK WITBOOI TO UNITE THE WHOLE OF NAMALAND
BEHIND HIM. WHILE IN 1888 HENDRIK WITBOOI LIVED AROUND HOACHANAS, SINCE
SEPTEMBER 1889 HE HAD BEEN FIRMLY ESTABLISHED AT HORNKRANZ, A FULLY
FORTIFIED AND STRATEGICALLY-PLACED SETTLEMENT EAST OF THE GAMSBERG.
10.4 BY THIS TIME PHASE 2: 1890-93 WAS ENTERED WHEN GERMANY
DECIDED TO SEND A FIRST MILITARY FORCE : 21 MEN; THE NUCLEUS OF THE
"SCHUTZTRUPPE" LED BY CURT V FRANCOIS. THEY ARRIVED IN JULY 1889 AT WALVIS
BAY. THEY WERE FIRSTLY STATIONED AT OTJIMBINGWE, TSAOBIS (WILHELMSFESTE) AND
AS FROM 1890 WINDHOEK. THEY WERE REINFORCED BY ANOTHER 40 SCHUTZTRUPPE
SOLDIERS IN JANUARY 1890.
10.5 THE VON FRANCOIS ERA 1890-93 WAS CHARACTERISED BY THE GRADUAL
REALISATION ON THE PART OF GERMANY THAT NO COLONISATION OF NAMIBIA COULD BE
EFFECTED UNLESS HENDRIK WITBOOI WAS DEFEATED AND BROUGHT UNDER GERMAN
CONTROL. HENDRIK WITBOOI CLEARLY COMPREHENDED THE GRAVE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE
NAMIBIAN PEOPLE. HE REALISED THAT THE INTERNAL NAMIBIAN CONFLICTS WERE
SECONDARY TO THE TREMENDOUS THREAT TO THE NAMIBIAN NATION BY THE GERMAN
COLONIAL POWER.
10.6 CONSEQUENTLY BY THE END OF 1892 HENDRIK WITBOOI SUCCESSFULLY
NEGOTIATED PEACE WITH THE OVAHERERO, AS HE THEN PERCEIVED THEIR
CONFLICT AS MUCH LESS HARMFUL TO THE THREAT POSED BY GERMAN IMPERIALISM.
10.7 IN APRIL 1893, THE GERMANS LAUNCHED INTO OPEN WAR AGAINST HENDRIK
WITBOOI ANS HIS NAMA COMMUNITY. THIS LED TO PHASE THREE OF GERMAN
COLONISATION AS FROM 1893. IN MARCH 1894 VON FRANCOIS WAS REPLACED BY
THEODOR LEUTWEIN, WHO BROUGHT NEW GERMAN TROOPS WITH HIM. AT THIS STAGE
LITTLE ELSE COUNTED BUT TO SUBDUE WITBOOI, BECAUSE BY NOW THE GERMANS
UNDERSTOOD THAT OTHERWISE NO "SETTLERS COLONY" COULD BE ESTABLISHED. THE
GERMAN-NAMIBIAN WAR LASTED NEARLY TWO YEARS WITH THE CULMINATE EVENTS OF THE
BATTLES OF HORNKRANZ IN APRIL 1893 AND THE NAUKLUFT CAMPAIGN IN SEPTEMBER
1894. AFTER THE NAUKLUFT BATTLE BOTH ARMIES WERE EXHAUSTED. THE GERMANS HAD
SUFFERED MANY CASUALTIES. LEUTWEIN NOTED THAT STRATEGICALLY LITTLE HAD BEEN
WON, THE WITBOOI FORCE WAS INSIDE THE MOUNTAIN AND THE GERMANS WERE OUTSIDE
WHEN WITBOOI OFFERED A CONDITIONAL SURRENDER WHICH LEUTWEIN IMMEDIATELY
ACCEPTED.
10.8 IN THE YEARS BETWEEN THE GERMAN-NAMIBIAN WAR 1893/94 AND THE
OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT RESISTANCE WAR 1903-1909 BOTH THE SPIRIT AND LETTER OF
THE LEUTWEIN-WITBOOI TREATY WAS RESPECTED BY BOTH PARTIES. THE KHOWESIN,
HOWEVER WERE KEEPING HENDRIK WITBOOI’S WORD, BUT IN DEFIANCE OF GERMAN
COLONIALISM, HENDRIK WITBOOI LEFT GIBEON AND WITHDRAW TO RIETMOND, KEEPING
DISTINCTLY DISTANT FROM BOTH THE GERMAN GARRISON AT GIBEON AND THE RHENISH
MISSIONARY SOCIETY WHICH HAD PLAYED SUCH A SINISTER ROLE IN ALL THESE TRAGIC
EVENTS.
10.9 THE THIRD PERIOD - THE ACTIVE PERIOD - IN NAMIBIA'S HISTORY
OF STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM REACHED ITS FIRST CULMINATION POINT IN THE GREAT
RESISTANCE WAR AGAINST GERMANY: 1903-1909.THE PATTERNS OF ALL
SOCIAL-POLITICAL RELATIONS IN NAMIBIA WERE FUNDAMENTALLY ALTERED BY THIS
WAR. THE "LEUTWEIN SYSTEM" BASED ON A COMBINATION OF DIPLOMACY AND MILITARY
FORCE BROKE DOWN. LEUTWEIN WAS UNSEATED IN 1904 AND GENERAL LOTHAR VON
TROTHA WAS CALLED IN. THE EXTREME SUFFERING AND THE GENOCID AGAINST THE NAMA
AND OVAHERERO COMMUNITIES THIS WAR HAD CAUSED CAN BE DEMONSTRATED BY THE
FACT THAT FROM ± 20,000 NAMA IN 1901 ONLY 9 810 WERE LEFT IN 1911.THUS 50%
OF THE NAMA HAD FALLEN - VICTIMS TO GERMANY COLONIAL RULE.
