THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY
THE NATIVE RACES
The native races represented in South-West Africa are the Bushmen,
Hottentots, and Bantu people, and they vary not only in physical
appearance and language, but also in character and habits.
The Bushmen, so-called because of their preference for places abounding
in bushes, were probably the earliest inhabitants of the land, since
members of this race roamed the entire country south of the Zambesi
at a time of remote antiquity. These people were nomads of a most
primitive type, and lived on wild animals, wild plants and fruits,
the roots of plants, locusts, and even the larvæ of ants. Small in
stature, yellowish brown in colour, with queer, fox-like face, slender
limbs, and a language abounding in strange clicks and deep guttural
sounds, the Bushman did not seem far removed from the animals upon whom
he preyed. The people lived in small societies after a most primitive
fashion, with no religion, and no fixed abode. Though incapable of
protracted labour, they possessed marvellous keenness of vision and
fleetness of foot, and could travel immense distances in pursuit of
game without taking rest. Savages though they were, they had artistic
gifts of no mean order: on the walls of caves and the sheltered sides
of great rocks in various parts of the country there are found to-day
rude but spirited and clever pictures in profile of wild animals, in
red, and yellow and black. But they have been so ruthlessly hunted
down and destroyed by successive intruding races, that these keen-eyed
children of the wilds have almost entirely disappeared from the vast
territory which at one time was their exclusive hunting-ground. Some
of them linger yet on the Kalahari border, and some thousands of
half-breeds are found in the districts of Grootfontein, Outjo, and
Gobabis.
How and whence the Hottentots came no one can say with certainty.
Some affirm that their origin is to be sought in the intermarriage
of men of light brown or yellow colour with women of Bushmen blood,
while others incline to the view that they came from North Africa
somewhere about the end of the fourteenth century. Compared to the
Bushmen they are but recent dwellers in the land. They called
themselves the Khoi-Khoin, or men of men, and they probably travelled
slowly southward and westward, dispossessing the Bushmen of their
lands here and there, until they covered considerable areas of the
country. They were small men, but greatly superior to the Bushmen
both in physique and intellect. They lived in tribes under hereditary
chiefs, but the chief’s authority was very limited. On the whole they
were a good-natured sort of people, merry, thoughtless, and indolent.
Various tribes of Namaqua Hottentots roamed over the southern portion
of South-West Africa for many years prior to the German occupation.
They had an abundance of horned cattle, sheep, and goats, and most of
their rather frequent tribal conflicts were about flocks and herds.
Their descendants have shown themselves capable of adopting civilised
habits of life, and they have learned to cultivate the soil, and
even to act as rough handicraftsmen. More pure Hottentots are found
in Great Namaqualand to-day than in any other part of South Africa.
When the last census was taken a year or two ago they numbered some
15,000. Until brought under German rule, after the various unsuccessful
conflicts which they waged against the Germans, they enjoyed a life of
independence.
To the great Bantu family, or Kaffir races, belong the Ovahereros, or
Damaras--better known as Hereros--and the Ovambo people, but there
are well marked distinctions between these two neighbours. The name
Herero, it is said, is an attempt to reproduce the whirring sound of
the broad-bladed assagai used by these people in its flight through
the air. “The meaning of the name Ovaherero,” says G. W. Stow, “is the
men of the whirring assagais.” The Hereros migrated from the north or
north-east, and for some time they occupied the territory north of
the Namaquas, living in communities under the government of chiefs.
Their riches consisted of cattle, and they have always shown a great
reluctance to part with any of their animals. Among early travellers
they won an unenviable notoriety on account of their cruelty, filthy
habits, and degenerate tastes. In their conflicts with the German
forces they revealed remarkable and unexpected powers of resistance.
About 15,000 to 20,000 of these people are found in the country at
present.
The Ovambo people in the far north were practically unknown until the
’fifties of the last century, when travellers discovered them to be
a rich, industrious, and hospitable tribe, skilled in the working of
metals, and possessed of a real love for agriculture. They live under a
fairly strict tribal government in large communities, and for some time
have carried on trade with the Portuguese; they have even supplied such
articles as knives and iron pearls to their southern neighbours, the
Hereros. It is estimated that there are at least 80,000 of these people
in the northern territory, while the total population of Ovamboland and
the Caprivizipfel may be anything between 150,000 and 200,000.
The Bergdamaras, who for many years inhabited the mountainous district
of Western Damaraland, constitute a fascinating ethnological problem.
They are Bantu by blood, Hottentot by language, and Bushmen by habit.
Whence these strange affinities?
It is probable that the Bergdamaras were at one time connected with
the main stream of Bantu people that spread southward over the
country, but who by an eddy in the tide were left stranded in what is
now Damaraland. Enslaved there by the more powerful Hottentots, they
adopted the enemy’s language, and at length escaped from bondage to
make their home in the fastnesses of the mountains, where no other
means of subsistence remained for them but that of the Bushmen. They
number about 18,000 to-day.
South-West Africa presents then a deeply interesting microcosm of
native life, and affords glimpses of the migratory movements of the
native people in far-off days. There are the Bushmen, the descendants
of the aboriginal hunters who dwelt in the land unknown ages ago; the
Hottentots, who are the sons of the yellow-skinned people that intruded
into the hunting-grounds of the pigmy Bushmen; the Bergdamaras, who
probably represent the pioneer tribes of the virile black-skinned races
that early followed upon the trail of the yellow-skins; while in the
Ovambos are exhibited some of the best traits of the most advanced
native tribes in the whole country.
The number of natives actually counted when the census was taken in
1913 was 69,003, but the total estimated native population, excluding
Ovamboland and the Caprivizipfel, was 78,810. A few thousands of
the Ovambos have been attracted to the mines, but the Hottentots,
Bergdamaras, and Hereros find employment on the farms and as domestic
servants. About 2,500 natives from the Cape work as labourers at the
diamond fields.
THE WHITE PEOPLE
In the year 1880 the white population of South-West Africa consisted of
300 trek-Boers and 150 Europeans in Damaraland, and a dozen whites at
Walvis Bay: in 1900, that is, six years after the German annexation,
there was a total white population of 3,388, made up of 2,146 men, 452
women, and 790 children. The last census, taken on January 1st, 1913,
showed a total population of 14,830. Including the 1,819 members of
the military forces, the males numbered 10,147, the females 4,683, and
the children 1,625. There was an increase of 250 women against the
preceding year, and this is a healthy sign, since it goes to show
that existence is becoming more stable in the colony, and that social
conditions are improving.
The Windhoek district has the largest population, as it claims 2,871
people; Luderitzbucht is second with 1,616; Swakopmund third with
1,463; Karibib has the fourth place with 1,170; while Keetmanshoop is
not far behind with 1,155.
The nationality of the population was, of course, largely German;
there were only 272 Englishmen, but there were 1,630 “other British
subjects.” The percentage of other nationalities to the population was
very small.
There has been a slow but steady increase in population since the close
of the native wars in 1906; but the increase is small in proportion to
the size of the country; it should be noted, however, that the many
native wars have had a most unsettling effect for years, and only a
comparatively brief period has elapsed since they were brought to a
close. There is no doubt that colonists will find their way to the
country in increasing numbers in the near future, for the large areas
in the central region constitute a fine “white man’s country.”
Up to the present the land has only claimed the labours of 24 per cent.
of the adult males, while the commercial community has been responsible
for 18 per cent., and “other professions” no less than 45 per cent.
It is evident that mining activities have absorbed the energies of the
great number of whites, and that the farming profession has not yet
been brought into the position of prominence that it must have before
permanent success can be assured to the country.
It is somewhat surprising to learn that of 2,368 adult females, only
1,761 were married. Boys and girls exist in about equal numbers.
The majority of the people are Protestants in religion; Roman Catholics
number 17 per cent., while “other religions” claim 2 per cent.