Berseba ( Nama: ǃAutsawises) is a village in the

ǁKaras Region The ǁKaras Region (pronounced , with a lateral click) is the southernmost and least densely populated of the 14 regions of Namibia; its capital is Keetmanshoop. The name assigned to the region reflects the prominence of the Karas mountain rang ...

of southern

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 ea ...

and the district capital of the Berseba electoral constituency. It is situated north-west of

Keetmanshoop Keetmanshoop is a city in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia, lying on the Trans-Namib Railway from Windhoek to Upington in South Africa. It is named after Johann Keetman, a German industrialist and benefactor of the city. History Befo ...

near the

Brukkaros Mountain Brukkaros Mountain (Khoekhoe: ''Geitsi Gubib'') is a collapsed caldera in ǁKaras Region, Namibia. Measuring 1,590 metres at its peak on the eastern edge of the crater, Brukkaros is located about 15 kilometres northeast of the primarily Nama tow ...

, a famous tourist destination.

History

The first people to permanently settle at this place, then known under its

Khoikhoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also ''Hottentot (racial term), Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 ...

name ''ǃAutsawises'', were a group of

Orlam The Oorlam or Orlam people (also known as Orlaam, Oorlammers, Oerlams, or Orlamse Hottentots) are a subtribe of the Nama people, largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony (today, part of South Africa) to Namaqualand and Dam ...

herder clans from the

Cape Province The Province of the Cape of Good Hope ( af, Provinsie Kaap die Goeie Hoop), commonly referred to as the Cape Province ( af, Kaapprovinsie) and colloquially as The Cape ( af, Die Kaap), was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequen ...

, driven across the

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...

by encroaching European settlers and the law enforcement of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

. They arrived in the area of Berseba in 1812. In 1850 their patriarch Paul Goliath established himself as independent leader of this community that subsequently became known as the "Berseba Orlam" ( Nama: ǀHai-ǀkhaua). The foundation of Berseba is recorded on 17 October 1850 when Rhenish Missionary Samuel Hahn founded the missionary station and gave it a biblically inspired name. In 1857 a church was built.

People

Since the establishment of the

chieftain A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categori ...

ship of the ''Berseba Orlam'' it been held by the Goliath and Isaak clans who often were in dispute about the succession. In the 1960s the two clans split over the leadership issue and only reunited in April 2010. , ''Kaptein'' Johannes Isaak is the traditional leader of the ǀHai-ǀkhaua.

Development and Infrastructure

The first

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

in Namibia was found in this area in 1898, and oil explorations were conducted in 1900 and 1929, though neither led to substantial industrial development. The settlement is riddled with poverty, substance abuse, and crime. It features a secondary school, the ''Ecumenical Community School'', which was in 2010 declared "unfit to serve as an educational institution" and has since been abandoned. Berseba is connected by road to

Tses Tses is a village in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia with a population of approximately 1000; probably 1000 more live in the surrounding semi-desert farming hinterland. It is situated one kilometre off the main B1 highway from Windhoek t ...

(MR98), Bethanie (D3901 and D3905),

Asab Asab ( Nama: ''new thing'') is a settlement in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It is situated on the B1 national road about halfway between Mariental and Keetmanshoop. east of Asab is the Mukurob rock pinnacle, a tourist attraction t ...

(D3903),

Helmeringhausen Helmeringhausen is a settlement in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia in the Berseba Constituency. It is located 200 km northeast of Lüderitz and 500 km south of Windhoek on the crossing of the national roads C14 (Goageb - Walvis B ...

(D554) and Keetmanshoop (D531), as well as to the Brukkaros tourist site (D3904).

Politics

Berseba is governed by a village council that has five seats. In the 2010 local authority election it was one of a few local authorities in Namibia where an opposition party obtained more votes for the village council than

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...

when the

Democratic Turnhalle Alliance The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...

(DTA) defeated SWAPO 221 votes to 200. No other party participated in the election for the Berseba Village Council. The 2015 local authority election was narrowly won by SWAPO party which gained three seats (266 votes). The DTA finished second and gained the remaining two seats (200 votes). In the 2020 local authority election the

Landless People's Movement The Landless People's Movement was an independent social movement in South Africa. It consisted of rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The Landless People's Movement boycotted parliamentary elections and had a histor ...

(LPM, a new party registered in 2018) won with 278 votes and gained two seats. SWAPO was the runner-up with 211 votes and also two sets. The remaining council seat went to the

Popular Democratic Movement The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...

(PDM, the new name of the DTA since 2017) with 104 votes.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Namibia Populated places in the ǁKaras Region 1850 establishments in South West Africa