BITTERSWEET KARAS HOME - 25

Set in southern Namibia, Great Namaqualand, ‘Bittersweet Karas Home’ is the story of three families, the Hills, Walsers & Hartungs, whose lives merge and intertwine in a semi-arid land that presents both hardship and blessings. Over the next few months, we would like to share this bittersweet saga with you from the (as yet) unpublished book.

CHAPTER TWO

The sparks of war

When the rinderpest war broke out in 1897, the Afrikaner Oorlams reacted to the stringent quarantine measures by raiding indiscriminately, enraging the British, Germans, Bondelswarts and Veldschoendragers who formed a united front against them. The Walsers had been close to their Oorlam staff and neighbours but were angry when 700 goats went missing. The Oorlams promised to return Walser livestock if they supplied them with guns and ammunition, a barter arrangement they could not accept.

The Walsers knew many of the fighters holed up in the Xamsib Kloof and the soldiers and volunteers fighting against them, and were concerned. Their sons Charles Adrian and Cyrus William were fortunately far away in Switzerland and too young for service. Margaret’s brother, James Henry Hill, was seriously injured and transported to Ukamas by ox-wagon ambulance where he died in the presence of the Walsers. They heard the sad story of the Oorlam women and children who were killed by the shrapnel bomb, many of the women who had worked on the farm over the years while their children played out in the fields. They also felt compassion for the men who attempted to flee across the Orange River only to be apprehended and face execution.

The rinderpest outbreak was curbed and a semblance of peace returned but there was an underlying feeling of resentment and hopelessness among the local people. If their wounds were allowed to fester or if friction increased, the tiniest spark could ignite an already volatile situation.

In October 1903, Warmbad’s Lieutenant Jobst decided to intervene in an altercation about a goat between Herero Oorlams from the copper mines in O’okiep and Warmbad Bondelswarts. He summoned Captain Jan Abraham Christian who disregarded the command because legal matters among indigenous people were outside his administrative jurisdiction. When Jobst and his soldiers arrived at the captain’s house, a quarrel developed and shots were fired, killing the captain. Warmbad Bondelswarts retaliated by killing Jobst and some of the soldiers, triggering the 1903–1908 war. In January 1904, cases of maltreatment and reports of traders overcharging their customers created further conflict that escalated when Okahandja District Chief Zürn threatened Chief Samuel Maharero.

When the Bondelswarts rose in October 1903, Carl Wilhelm and his wife and children moved across the border into the Cape Colony, camping there for three months while they sought a more permanent solution. One option was to leave for St Gall where their four children were at school. Margaret Susan liked this plan although she dreaded leaving her mother and sisters. But Vryburg, the second option, was eventually chosen. Carl Wilhelm demonstrated considerable planning skills. He made an agreement with a Transvaler, Van Oordt, who had been adversely affected by the Anglo-Boer war, to manage the farms. He would farm the Walser land for a period of five years. Carl Wilhelm and his brother-in-law, Karl Arthur Örtendahl, decided to farm together. They acquired the farm Kinderdam, halfway between Vryburg and Madibogo, and they employed A J Finck as their farm manager.

Keeping two farms went beyond what the Walsers could afford. Carl sold the Ukamas farm to Hugo Friedmann in 1906 and mortgaged Gapütz to the state. This was equivalent to the amount that the German colony was willing to pay in the form of reparations for the damage to houses, dams and wells during the 1903-1908 war. Years later Carl Wilhelm could therefore convince the post-1915 British government that Gapütz was mortgage free.

(Join us every Sunday to take a step back in time and follow the interesting, sometimes sweet, sometimes heart-wrenching tale.)