NAMIBIAN HERO: HENDRIK WITBOII (1830- 1905) -- Born into a family of leaders in Nambia in 1830, Hendrik Witboii was the Chief of Nama. He led his people into South West Africa in 1885 in an effort to fight the German colonization there. Appearing on most Namibia bank notes, he was inaugurated in the Heroe’s Acre in 2002, of which the founding president stated, “Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi was the first African leader who took up arms against the German imperialists and foreign occupiers in defense of our land and territorial integrity. We, the new generation of the Land of the Brave, are inspired by Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi’s revolutionary action in combat against the German Imperialists who colonized and oppressed our peoples. To his revolutionary spirit and his visionary memory we humbly offer our honor and respect. -------------------------------------------------------------- ARTICLE (by Joachim Rieck...long, but worth your time) -- Hendrik Witbooi was born in about 1830 at Pella, South Africa, close to the Orange River and what was then known as Great Namaqualand, today’s Southern Namibia. Hendrik was the third son of his parents and by 1884 the eldest surviving. Witbooi was married to !Nanses ( Katharina) who over 20 years bore him at least 12 children. She died in 1897. While he was still settled at Gibeon, he and wife and his eldest son made the church their prime occupation. Witbooi was educated as a Christian by German Lutheran missionaries and spoke many languages, including several European languages. His meticulous diaries have been subsequently published. They were baptized in 1868 by the Rhenish missionary J. Olpp (1837- 1920) who lived and worked in Gibeon from 1868-1879, and who left thereafter for health reasons. Olpp remained a friend to Hendrik Witbooi throughout very turbulent times and defended him in correspondence with other missionaries as well as to the German public. Witbooi became a church elder in 1875. He also had learned carpentry from missionary Olpp, and used this skill for instance, by making his grandfather Kido’s coffin the night he died. Hendrik Witbooi was without a doubt a confessing Christian. This fact is borne out in almost all his letters. He learned to write a neat hand. His diaries written in ‘High Dutch’ and containing numerous letters dating from 1884 to 1894, were published by the Van Riebeeck Society in 1929. He was a prolific letter writer as the ‘Hendrik Witbooi papers‘ testify. The family name Witbooi (literally, white boy) referred to the white scarves they wore around their hats to distinguish themselves from the rest of the 11 Nama speaking sub-tribes. According to his own record, preserved in his papers, his public actions were guided by divine revelation from 1880 onwards. He had a strong sense of destiny, and felt that this was the hand of God on him. In a letter to Rev. Olpp, dated 3rd January 1890 he makes reference to an experience which he had on the 23rd August 1880 (i.e. 10 years earlier). Here is a quote from that letter : “… dear Pastor, on that day I experienced the power of our Almighty God, in expressible and wonderful, as He delivered me and my three men. When the Herero rose and surrounded us in order to kill us , they suddenly did something quite unexplainable even to themselves. Instead of killing me, they released me. They gave me a horse and told me to be off. So I set off for home. And when I came to the pass of the great Khanigukha Mountains, I received three amazing words through a voice which spoke to me. This was on 23 August 1880: 1. The time is fulfilled 2. The way is opened 3. I lay a heavy task on you In 1884 Hendrik Witbooi prepared to leave the home of his father Moses Witbooi in Gibeon with a substantial amount of the citizens of Gibeon to move across Maherero’s territory with the aim of finding a land for themselves north beyond Maherero’s territory. This was quite in keeping with the Witbooi’s mindset, always viewing their present places of abode as temporary, and always in search of a promised land. Witbooi told the Rhenish missionaries and his father Moses that this exodus, this move north was the will of God. He said: “ I knew that I would continue the trek which the old Captain could not complete. I would do it when the time was fulfilled, and the time has now come.” There developed an almost biblical parallelism with the story of the Israelites who were persecuted, who had been enslaved, and who broke free and fled to a wandering life and in search of a promised land they could call their own. It might be worth our while to pause here and reflect on this restlessness of the Witboois. We need to remember where they came from. As the Khoi Khoi people of the Cape they had already experienced colonialism, slavery and dispossession of their territory in their earlier history in the Cape. This history had sensitized them, as time and again they had faced attempts at suppressing their freedoms, whether it was through their fellow Nama people (e.g. the Orlams) or the Herero, or later the Germans. In this desire for a land of their own I cannot see that they were any different to the American colonists who had left their homes and countries, predominantly in Europe, to find a land in the Americas, where they could be free from persecution. This pattern may indeed be observed in the whole history of mankind and it is ironic that such people who had been oppressed in their own countries then become the very people who would dispossess the lands of the people they were colonizing. People on the face of this earth are always in search of a place of rest. They are always seeking to escape from each other, and little do they realize that our only true rest will be when Christ the Creator comes to restore all things . The Jews in the days of Christ upon the earth longed for the Messiah to restore their land which was currently under the cruel oppression by the Romans. It was for this reason that the disciples asked Jesus this question before His ascension: “Lord , will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ? ” (Acts 1:6) In this quest for land, Hendrik Witbooi had a meeting with Herero chief Maherero in June 1884. He asked Maherero that he and his people might pass through their land in search for this new land and it seems as if this meeting was initially successful. He was assured by Maherero that he could pass through his territory unmolested. A year later he moved with about 600 Gibeon Witbooi, ‘by all evidence the best educated , wealthiest , most highly considered, leading members of the Gibeon congregation’. He met again with Maherero to reaffirm the verbal agreement. They sat together to smoke a pipe when the Witbooi camp was surrounded by an overwhelming number of Herero warriors. An attack was launched in which the Witboois lost many of their horses and wagons, with 24 dead, among them two of Witbooi’s sons. This was a bitter experience for Hendrik Witbooi, and he mentions this act of treason many times in his letters. The great trek north therefore came therefore to a halt and he settled initially at a place called Gurumanas, whilst his following was quietly growing. At this time he started consolidating the Nama tribes and subdued those who were not willing to go along. He killed his two principal opponents among the Namas: Paul Visser (1888), who had murdered his father Moses Witbooi and Jan Jonker (1889) of Windhoek. By 1891 most of the Nama chiefs had more or less lined up behind Henrdrik Witbooi. He had thereby achieved an unprecedented degree of political cohesion among the Namas. This was also what Hendrik Witbooi believed that he had seen a vision. He was convinced him that he was called by God to unite the Namas (or Red Nation) to lead them in a war against the Hereros. Up to this time they had only been a very loose grouping of tribes. By 1889 he had firmly established himself in a mountain stronghold called Hoornkrantz, west of Rehoboth. It was a fully fortified and strategically placed village with a well organized community, with its own church and central administration. From here he continued his ‘mission’ as the ‘king of Great Namaland’. He was known to his followers by the Nama name of Khaob INanseb/Gabemab (the little captain who disappears in the grass), a reference to his ability as a guerrilla fighter. As his following grew, Witbooi conducted an unrelenting campaign against the Herero between 1890 and 1892 , during which time he drove off thousands of head of their cattle. Many people on both sides died in these raids and skirmishes. As the German empire expanded its influence in the territory, Maherero signed a peace treaty with the Germans, but Witbooi consistently refused to place himself under German protection or authority. This began to incur the wrath of the Germans upon him. Witbooi now began to change his mind concerning his wars with the Herero , whom he had come to see as traitors and ‘ sell-outs’ . By the end of 1892 he had successfully negotiated peace with the Herero. He had come to see their conflict as secondary to the threat posed by German imperialism, which he passionately and with penetrating insight analysed in letter after letter to fellow leaders at the time . Here is an extract from a letter he wrote to chief Maherero on the 30th May 1890 : “I am writing to you today as supreme chief of Hereroland because I received a letter from Dr Göring… I learn from the letter that you have given yourself into German Protection and that Dr Göring has thus gained the power to tell you what to do…. I am amazed at you , and take it very ill of you who call yourself the leader of Hereroland. That you are indeed. This dry land is known by two names only, Hereroland and Namaland. Hereroland belongs to the Herero nation , and it is an autonomous realm. And Namaland belongs to all the Red nations, and those too are autonomous realms- just as it is said of the White man’s countries… these countries across the sea are autonomous realms…. No other captain or leader has any right to force his will ; for every leader on this earth is merely a steward for our common great God , and is answerable to this great God alone , the King of kings, the Lord of lords, to Whom all who live under heaven must render obeisance, and from Whom alone all may seek help , counsel and consolation, power and protection in all the afflictions of this life, for He gives freely to all who seek Him in prayer…” He then goes on to chastise Maherero for this thoughtless action and says: “you will eternally regret that you have given your land and your rule into the hands of white men, for this war between us is not nearly as heavy a burden as you seem to have thought when you did this momentous thing. He also lets Maherero know “… you know that this war… arose from your sovereign deeds… from the murderous hearts of your people… which cannot be changed by constant preaching of the gospel , so that you cannot spare a single (of our) persons you find in the veld , but must plot to murder him without guilt or provocation. To kill in war is legitimate work, but even in this respect you go too far. Inhumanly your people hack others to death , slit the throats of living people…. You regard no person a human nature of God for whose sake God gave us this commandment: thou shalt not kill!” He seems to disregard all this history between them when he pleads Maherero to forsake his alliance with the Germans. He continues to write: “I am aware that you and Dr Göring are of different nationalities…. and that you have formed this friendship solely in order to crush me. So did Herod and Pilate , in order to get rid of the Lord Jesus…” To another Nama Chief , Joseph Frederiks he writes : “The white men’s laws are quite unbearable and intolerable to us red people…. This is why I take it hard of you, Chiefs of Great Namaqualand…. I see the Germans quite differently. They claim that they want to protect you against other mighty nations , but it seems that they themselves are the mighty nation seeking to occupy our country by force… I must tell you my dear Captain , that the Germans want me too to sign their Protection treaty. But I cannot accept that. As the Germans were expanding their presence in central Namibia, Witbooi met with German representative Major Kurt von Francois to discuss the latter’s offer of German “protection”. Witbooi told him he did not understand how one could be both autonomous and protected at the same time. He then referred to the ability of the “Red chiefs” (the Nama) to band together when danger threatened, and concluded: “Come brothers, let us together oppose this danger which threatens to invade our Africa, for we are one in colour and custom and this Africa is ours. The fact that we possess a variety of chieftainships and, diverse territories does not imply any secondary division of Africa and does not sever our solidarity. The emperor of Germany has no business in Africa whatsoever.” That view was held by Hendrik Witbooi. He saw himself as a sovereign King under no ones jurisdiction but God’s! Would we disagree with such a desire today? I think that most Christians would agree with that. We would all resent heavy handed interference by other nations; we would resent a heavy handed interference of our churches even by our governments. We Baptists in our long history have generally stood firm on the policy of non interference by the state of the church, and vice versa, particularly when it came to freedom of worship. In fact the concept of the separation of church and state was formulated by the Anabaptists of the 16th century. But, let us press on with Witbooi’s story … The German government through Captain Curt von Francois tried for several years to convince Witbooi to accept an offer of protection from its emperor Kaiser Wilhelm – a so called ‘Schutzvertrag’ (Protection treaty) but as we saw, Hendrik Witbooi did not agree to forfeit his people’s freedom by signing the proposed treaty. In all this he shows a clear and remarkable understanding of international politics and colonial rhetoric. Curt Von Francois eventually looses his patience and unexpectedly attacks Witbooi’s stronghold Hoornkrantz on April 12, 1893. In this battle 88 people, mainly women and children were killed and their homes were destroyed.This event led Witbooi into a protracted guerrilla struggle with the Germans. Captain von Francois fell out of favour with his superiors and was replaced in 1894 by Major Theodor Leutwein . Leutwein convinces Witbooi to sign a ‘Schutzvertrag’ (Protection treaty) on September 15, 1894, after he had surrendered at the Naukluft. Witbooi returns to Gibeon, which has become by now their ancestral land, and for about ten years peace is maintained with the Germans. Not only was peace maintained, but Witbooi collaborated with the German military by supplying troops for numerous campaigns against local warlords! The peace however did not last, as the continued German occupation began to annoy many of the local people. ============================================= EVALUATION of HENDRIK as a POLITICIAN: Hendrik Witbooi was born into a decisive time in African history. It is the time which is described in a book by Thomas Pakenham with the suggestive title, ”The scramble for Africa“ . The year was approximately 1885. It was a time when some European nations, greedy for resources , were aggressively colonizing Africa and ultimately carving this continent into various portions without much thought concerning the will and the aspirations of the people of Africa, and without much regard concerning the demographics of any region. In Namibia the Kwanyama’s (An Ovambo tribe) were for instance divided by a border drawn through their heartland . Roughly half of this tribe now lives in Southern Angola , whilst the other half lives in Northern Namibia. The Lozi people had suffered an even worse fate . The Lozi kingdom was divided among 5 countries – Namibia , Botswana, Angola , Zambia and Zimbabwe. The land which the Witboois occupied was at this time known as “Greater Namaqualand “, today’s Southern Namibia. This too would be a part of the German colonialisation attempts of what became known as “German South West Africa”, a matter to which Witbooi never agreed. In minutes of meetings kept of a discussion between Curt von Francois and Witbooi on 9th June 1892, Witbooi declared:“This part of Africa is the realm of the red chiefs…” Hendrik Witbooi was without doubt one of the most interesting and fascinating chiefs in Namibian history.The Introduction to the Hendrik Witbooi papers has this to say: “Hendrik Witbooi was one of the most powerful African leaders at the time when European imperialism began to carve up Africa into colonies. His realization that the conflicts between Africans were secondary to a threat of entirely new , immense proportions namely conquest and colonization by Germany which could only be staved off by African unity , makes him one of the wisest pre-colonial rulers in Africa. The fact that he himself committed these thoughts and convictions to paper in the form of a journal containing diary entries, minutes of meetings and copies of correspondence… makes his record quite unique for the whole of Africa….” In his opinion, the Europeans had to be kept out of Africa by all means. For him it was one thing for Africans to fight one another. He regarded it almost as their natural right to do so , but it was a totally different story to hand African sovereignty over to a non-African power in order to gain an advantage over an African rival. The Germans, he thought would under the cover of the so called protection treaties in the end subjugate all Africans. His deep insight into the nature of colonialism, unrivalled at the time, made him see clearly the deep changes that the arrival of the Germans were to bring about. In his letters to the German authorities, he always insisted on being on equal footing with the German emperor and with whom he was eventually forced to sign a protection treaty. By doing so he always emphasized the minor status of the governor who after all was only a representative, not of highest rank himself. It was especially his role as leader against the German Empire during the Namibian War of 1904-1907 that made him a hero. He was frequently referred to as a role model during the Namibian liberation struggle against South Africa in the 1960 – 80’s. For this reason his picture is found on Namibian dollar notes.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 00:19:55 +0000
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