Oshikoto

Oshikoto joins two worlds. In the north is the Ondonga kingdom of the Ovambo, where Finnish missionaries arrived in 1870. In the south is Tsumeb, a copper town that grew around a German-owned mine from 1905, and the lake where German troops sank their guns in 1915. Between them lies eastern Etosha, where an Ondonga army overran the German fort at Namutoni in 1904.

1. 1850s

   Ovambo people lived north of the Etosha pan, Herero-speaking groups just beyond today's park boundary, and the Haiǁom, a San people, close to the pan itself. The Haiǁom recognised the authority of the Ondonga king. source

2. 1870 to 1871

   Finnish Lutheran missionaries, among them Martti Rautanen, began work in Ondonga in 1870 and founded the mission station at Olukonda in 1871. source

3. 1885 to 1886

   After a succession quarrel Nehale lyaMpingana broke away in 1885 and ruled eastern Ondonga from Onayena. In 1886 his men defeated the Boer settlers of the Dorsland Trek, who had acquired land between Otavi and Grootfontein and declared it the Republic of Upingtonia, and shot their leader William Worthington Jordan. The settlers scattered. source

4. 1903 to 1906

   The Otavi Mining and Railway Company (OMEG), founded in Berlin in 1900, built a 567 km narrow gauge railway from Swakopmund to its copper mine at Tsumeb, reaching it in 1906. The building years coincided with the genocide of the Herero and Nama, and labour shortages delayed the work. source

5. 28 January 1904

   Weeks after the Herero rose against German rule further south, about 500 Ondonga fighters under Nehale attacked the German fort at Namutoni. The seven defenders slipped away at night and the fort was destroyed. The Germans later rebuilt and enlarged it. source

6. 1915

   When South African troops conquered German South West Africa, the Schutztruppe (the German colonial army) threw their guns and ammunition into Lake Otjikoto as they surrendered. One account puts it at 30 cannons and 400 to 500 boxes of ammunition. source

7. 1954

   In 1954 the authorities forced the Haiǁom out of Etosha. They lost the land they had hunted and gathered on, and most ended up as farm labourers with no land of their own. Since 2007 the government has bought farms south of the park to resettle displaced families. source

8. 1966 to 1990

   The liberation war between PLAN, the armed wing of SWAPO, and the South African Defence Force began on 26 August 1966 and ended with Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990. source

Language

In the 2023 census Oshindonga was the main home language in 47.5 percent of households, Oshikwanyama in 34.8 percent and Khoekhoegowab in 5.2 percent. Afrikaans and English follow at about 2 percent each. source

Peoples

The Aandonga are the largest group at 46.3 percent, then the Aakwanyama at 32.6 percent. About 10,100 people identify as Damara and about 7,200 as Haiǁom San. source

Ondonga kingship

Ondonga still has its own king, the omukwaniilwa, who governs with a council of elders. Succession runs through the female line, first to the king's brother and then to a sister's son, and the royal residence is wherever the king chooses to live. Olukonda was once one of them. source

Finnish influence

The Finnish Missionary Society founded Oniipa in 1872, and the town still shows it: a teacher training school from 1913, the old church hospital at Onandjokwe, and what is said to be Namibia's only public sauna. source

Farming and copper

Ondonga people mined copper at Tsumeb for rings and tools long before colonial times. Today mahangu (pearl millet) is the main crop in the north, while the south runs cattle in the Mangetti and the Tsumeb district. source