Driving the route from Fransfontein to Kamanjab, I would always notice the Weerlig (Lightning) farm. Its powerful name caught my attention. One day while I was listening to the radio, I heard that Daantjie ‘Weerlig’ van Vuuren bred Damara sheep. It fascinated me and the next time I drove past, I made a turn there to find out more.
Over coffee I learned how unique this breed of indigenous sheep is, not only for Namibia, but for Africa as well. The sheep originated in the Middle East and North Africa more than 2000 years ago. They are even portrayed in ancient rock engravings. As people migrated southwards, they took their sheep with them and gradually made their way down Africa. Their long migration southwards strengthened the sheep’s gene pool, enabling them to adapt to harsh climatic conditions and to build up a high tolerance to diseases and parasites.
When the Ovahimba people settled in the north-western section of Namibia in the sixteenth century they are said to have brought their cattle, sheep, dogs and goats with them. The remoteness of the area and the red line veterinary fence that restricts the movement of animals between the northern and southern parts of Namibia kept the sheep from interbreeding with other European breeds that were brought into the country in later years. The fat-tailed African sheep are referred to as Damara sheep, the name taken from the Great Damaraland region (as it was known in the early days), where they were mainly found.
Van Vuuren told me how Toy Maritz, another farmer in the area, managed to bring some Damara sheep over the red line to his farm in the late 1940s and 50s, and began to breed them. Both Van Vuuren and Maritz were instrumental in establishing the Damara sheep stud association, recognised for breeding pure lines. When at one stage Toy was caught bringing sheep southwards, the sheep were confiscated and taken to an experimental agricultural farm, but they mingled with other sheep there and their bloodline didn’t remain pure. Both Maritz and Van Vuuren are considered to be the fathers of Damara sheep today, a breed now well known in South Africa and Namibia, and slowly making its way to other parts of the world like New Zealand.
After photographing the sheep, I asked Van Vuuren about the name ‘Weerlig’, both his nickname and the farm’s name, and he told me that the granite koppies on the farm glow during lightning storms, appearing as if they are attracting the lightning. A land surveyor in the early days noticed this phenomenon and named the farm ‘Weerlig’. More force was added to the name when Daantjie van Vuuren came along, his surname originating from Dutch and translated as ‘from fire’.
I left the Weerlig farm with a strong feeling of patriotism for the continent which had produced such a hardy animal. It is thanks to breeders like Maritz and Van Vuuren that they remain purely and proudly African, and to the Ovahimba of Kaokoland for preserving this indigenous breed.
Daantjie ‘Weerlig’ van Vuuren passed on in 2019 and is remembered for the part he played in breeding pure African sheep.
(Reference: Interview with Daantjie van Vuuren; ‘The origin of the Damara Sheep’, Damara Skaap Nieuws, vol 2, 1990; ‘Who were the artists?’ I&J Rudner, Archaeological Notes from South West Africa; Damara sheep, Wikipedia)
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