What’s in the name? – Jonkersgrab

The farm ‘Jonkersgrab’ – ‘Jonker’s Grave’ – is the burial site of Jan Jonker Afrikaner, an Oorlam-Afrikaner leader of the late 1800s. The interesting farm name takes us back to early Windhoek days.

His father, Jonker Afrikaner, leader of Nama group the Oorlam Afrikaners, is recognised for establishing the Klein Windhoek area in the 1840s. Attracted to the hot springs, he and his followers built a church that was visited by several missionaries of the time. They also built roads over the Auas Mountains to the south and westwards to Walvis Bay, linking the settlement to the rest of the country. It’s unclear whether Jonker Afrikaner called the place ‘Winterhoek’ (Winter Corner) after the farm he was born on in South Africa or ‘Wind Hoock/Windhoeken’ (Windy Corner), adding to several names already given to the area.

The Oorlams, a force to be reckoned with at the time, originated in the Cape and moved northwards into what is Namibia today in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, bringing with them their weapons and superior raiding techniques. The Oorlam Afrikaners played a major part in one of the most hostile periods in Namibian history when there were clashes between Nama, Oorlam and OvaHerero groups, influenced by the missionaries and traders. Jonker Afrikaner died in Okahandja in 1861. He was succeeded by his sons Christian and then Jan Jonker, who was the sixth and last of the Oorlam-Afrikaner leaders. Under Jan Jonker, the Oorlams were defeated by the OvaHerero in 1881 and by Hendrik Witbooi and his followers in the Battle of Tsaobis in 1889. Jan Jonker died (133 years ago today) on 10 August 1889, allegedly shot by his son Phanuel, who had aligned himself with Witbooi. He was buried on what is now the farm Jonkersgrab no. 7, eighty kilometres south-west of Windhoek. After Jan Jonker’s death, the Oorlam Afrikaners disintegrated as a political power. The memory of this volatile period in history and the names of Jonker Afrikaner and Jan Jonker live on, as does the name Windhoek and the farm name ‘Jonkersgrab’.

(Reference: Klaus Dierks: Biographies of Namibian personalities)