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Zacharias Lewala
Zacharias Lewala ( fl. 1908) was a Namibian worker, considered to have started a diamond rush in the area of Lüderitz in the former colony of German South West Africa, now Namibia, with his discovery of a diamond on 14 April 1908. Life Lewala came from southern Africa and was a worker in a diamond mine in Kimberley, where he gained experience in the recognition of rough diamonds. Later he worked under his superior August Stauch at the maintenance of the Lüderitz railway. In 1908, when he was scouting near the railway station at Grassplatz near Kolmanskop, he discovered several stones in which he suspected diamonds. He dutifully handed these over to Stauch and said: "Look, Mister, moy Klip (beautiful stone)." Stauch sent it to the analysis at Swakopmund Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floruit
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicating the time when someone flourished. Etymology and use la, flōruit is the third-person singular perfect active indicative of the Latin verb ', ' "to bloom, flower, or flourish", from the noun ', ', "flower". Broadly, the term is employed in reference to the peak of activity for a person or movement. More specifically, it often is used in genealogy and historical writing when a person's birth or death dates are unknown, but some other evidence exists that indicates when they were alive. For example, if there are wills attested by John Jones in 1204, and 1229, and a record of his marriage in 1197, a record concerning him might be written as "John Jones (fl. 1197–1229)". The term is often used in art history when dating the career ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lüderitz
Lüderitz is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island. The town is known for its colonial architecture, including some Art Nouveau work, and for wildlife including seals, penguins, flamingos and ostriches. It is also home to a museum, and lies at the end of a decommissioned railway line to Keetmanshoop. The town is named after Adolf Lüderitz, founder of the German South West Africa colony. Economy and infrastructure The centre of Lüderitz' economic activity is the port, until the incorporation of the exclave Walvis Bay in 1994 the only suitable harbour on Namibia's coast. However, the harbour at Lüderitz has a comparatively shallow rock bottom, making it unusable for many modern ships. The recent addition of a new quay has allowed larger fishing vessels to dock at Lüderitz. The town has also re-styled itself in an attempt to lure tourists t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German South West Africa
German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of 835,100 km², it was one and a half times the size of the mainland German Empire in Europe at the time. The colony had a population of around 2,600 Germans. German rule over this territory was punctuated by numerous rebellions by its native African peoples, which culminated in a campaign of German reprisals from 1904 to 1908 known as the Herero and Namaqua genocide. In 1915, during World War I, German South West Africa was invaded by the Western Allies in the form of South African and British forces. After the war its administration was taken over by the Union of South Africa (part of the British Empire) and the territory was administered as South West Africa under a League of Nations mandate. It became independent as Namibia on 21 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although Kazungula, it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Botswanan right bank of the Zambezi, Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the Commonwealth of Nations. The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San people, San, Damara people, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigration, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Anglo-Boer war. British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, and Rhodes established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town. On 2 September 1882, Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States to integrate electric street lights into its infrastructure. The first stock exchange in Africa was built in Kimberley, as early as 1881. History Discovery of diamonds In 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm ''De Kalk'' leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, which was h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
August Stauch
:''This article has been translated from the German Wikipedia article.'' August Stauch (15 January 1878 – 6 May 1947) was a German prospector who discovered a diamond deposits near Lüderitz, in German South West Africa (now Namibia). August Stauch was the third of seven children of a railway worker's family in Ettenhausen, Thuringia. He was a railway employee in Thuringia. Stauch arrived in Lüderitz in 1907. He suffered from asthma and received medical advice that the drier desert climate may be suitable for his health. He took up mineralogy as a hobby in his spare time but later worked as a ''Bahnmeister'' (chief railway foreman) on the Lüderitzbucht- Aus railway line. August developed a fascination for diamonds, after listening to the tales about Adolf Lüderitz, who believed there lay diamonds in the desert and obtained a prospecting license from Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft fur Südwest Afrika. He consequently informed his workers, who had been brought in from South Af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kolmanskop
Kolmanskop (Afrikaans for “Coleman's head”, german: Kolmannskuppe) is a ghost town in the Namib in southern Namibia, ten kilometres inland from the port town of Lüderitz. It was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during a sand storm, abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement. Once a small but very rich mining village, it is now a tourist destination run by the joint firm Namibia- De Beers. History Foundation and peak In 1908, in what was then German South-West Africa, the worker Zacharias Lewala found a diamond while working in this area and showed it to his supervisor, the German railway inspector August Stauch. Realizing the area was rich in diamonds, German miners began settlement, and soon after the German Empire declared a large area as a "'' Sperrgebiet''", starting to exploit the diamond field. Driven by the enormous wealth of the first diamond miners, the residents built the village in the architectural style of a German ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swakopmund
Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers of land. The city is situated in the Namib Desert and is the fourth largest population centre in Namibia. Swakopmund is a beach resort and an example of German colonial architecture. It was founded in 1892 as the main harbour for German South West Africa. Buildings in the city include the '' Altes Gefängnis'', a prison designed by Heinrich Bause in 1909. The ''Woermannhaus'', built in 1906 with a prominent tower (Damara tower), is now a public library. Attractions in Swakopmund include a Swakopmund Museum, the National Marine Aquarium, a crystal gallery, and spectacular sand dunes near Langstrand south of the Swakop River. Outside the city, the Rossmund Desert Golf Course is one of only five all-grass desert golf courses in the world. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South West Africa
South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1975), Botswana ( Bechuanaland before 1966), South Africa, and Zambia (Northern Rhodesia before 1964). Previously the German colony of South West Africa from 1884–1915, it was made a League of Nations mandate of the Union of South Africa following Germany's defeat in the First World War. Although the mandate was abolished by the United Nations in 1966, South African control over the territory continued despite its illegality under international law. The territory was administered directly by the South African government from 1915 to 1978, when the Turnhalle Constitutional Conference laid the groundwork for semi-autonomous rule. During an interim period between 1978 and 1985, South Africa gradually granted South West Africa a limited for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Namibia
The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colony, colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990. From 1884, Namibia was a German colony: German South West Africa. After the First World War, the League of Nations gave South Africa a League of Nations Mandate, mandate to administer the territory. Following World War II, the League of Nations was dissolved in April 1946 and its successor, the United Nations, instituted a United Nations Trust Territory, trusteeship system to reform the administration of the former League of Nations mandates and clearly establish majority rule and independence as eventual goals for the trust territories. South Africa objected arguing that a majority of the territory's people were content with South West Africa#Bantustans, South African rule. Legal argument ensued over the course of the next twenty years until, in October 1966, the UNGA, UN General Assembly decided to end the mand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
