Otavi

Otavi grew up around a spring and then around a railway. A Berlin mining company laid its line from the coast past here to the Tsumeb copper mines in the same years as the war against the Herero and Nama, and in July 1915 the German colonial army surrendered beside that track just north of town. Today Khoekhoegowab (the Damara and Nama language) and the Oshiwambo languages are the main home languages around Otavi, in the middle of Namibia's maize country.

1. Before 1900

   The town takes its name from a spring nearby. One explanation traces the word to Oshiwambo, where tava describes the movements of a baby being born. source

2. 6 April 1900

   The Otavi Mining and Railway Company (Otavi Minen- und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, OMEG) was founded in Berlin, with the Disconto-Gesellschaft bank and the South West Africa Company as its main shareholders. It went on to build a railway from the coast to the copper mines at Tsumeb. source

3. 1903 to 1908

   Work on the 567 km narrow gauge line from Swakopmund to Tsumeb started in October 1903 and the whole line opened on 12 November 1906, passing Otavi at kilometre 497. Building was held up by the Herero and Nama uprising. In 1907 and 1908 the South West Africa Company added a 91.3 km branch from Otavi to Grootfontein, built in only nine months, which made Otavi the railway junction it still is. source

4. 1904 to 1908

   The Herero rose against German rule on 12 January 1904 and the Nama followed in September 1904. In the war and the camps that followed, as many as 80,000 Herero (80 percent of the people) and 10,000 Nama (half) died. Prisoners in the camps were forced to build roads, railways and harbours. Germany acknowledged in 2015 that this was genocide. source

5. 1 to 9 July 1915

   In the First World War South African troops under Louis Botha pushed north through the territory. On 1 July about 800 Germans fought 8,000 South Africans at Otavifontein, and a last skirmish followed at Ghaub on 4 July. On 9 July the Schutztruppe (the German colonial army) surrendered near Khorab, at the point 500 km up the line from Swakopmund, and German rule in the territory was over. source

6. 1915 to 1919

   Under the surrender terms the non-commissioned officers, troops and police were to be held as prisoners until the end of the war. 1,552 German prisoners were kept in a camp at Aus in the south, which closed on 13 May 1919. source

7. 1920 to 1990

   After the war the League of Nations gave South Africa a mandate to run the territory. In 1962 the Odendaal commission set out to bring South Africa's apartheid homeland system to Namibia, and in October 1966 the UN General Assembly ended the mandate, but South African rule and the liberation war led by SWAPO went on until independence on 21 March 1990. source

8. Since 2004

   Money troubles cost Otavi its town status in 2004, but it was restored in November 2010, around the time the Ohorongo cement works and the Otjikoto gold mine brought new jobs. SWAPO won the town council elections of 2015 and 2020, and the population roughly doubled between the 2011 and 2023 censuses. source

Languages

In the 2023 census the main home language in 37.6% of households in the Otavi constituency was Khoekhoegowab, the Damara and Nama language with its click sounds, and in 21.1% Oshikwanyama, an Oshiwambo language from the north. English, Rukwangali, Afrikaans and Oshindonga each came to between 5.6% and 5.7%, and Otjiherero to 4.3%. source

Maize country

The Otavi Triangle between Otavi, Tsumeb and Grootfontein is known as the maize triangle, an area with above-average rain and a name for its farms. Namib Mills has a factory in Otavi and is one of the town's biggest employers. source

Wine

Bertus Boshoff began planting vines in the Otavi Mountains in 1998, among them Shiraz, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage, and sells the wine as Thonningii. Otavi Vineyards next door followed in 2004. In 2020 a Boshoff Family Wines blend, the Red Catholic 2019, won a gold medal at the Michelangelo International Wine and Spirits Awards. source