Hermanus van Wyk (1835–1905) was the first Kaptein of the Baster community at Rehoboth in South-West Africa, today

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 ...

. Under his leadership, the

mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...

Basters moved from the Northern Cape to leave white racial discrimination, and migrated into the interior of what is now central

; the first 30 families settled about 1870. They acquired land from local natives and were joined by additional Baster families over the following years. The Baster people developed their own constitution, called the Paternal Laws (Vaderlike Wette in Afrikaans). They relied on the herding of sheep, goats and cattle as the basis of their economy. Outnumbered by the native Damara, Nama and Herero peoples, the Basters had periodic conflict with them in the late 1870s and 1880s, when the latter two groups were also in conflict. They suffered losses of valuable livestock. After the German Empire annexed South-West Africa as a colony, van Wyk negotiated a kind of autonomy for Rehoboth and the land around it through a protection treaty with the Germans in 1885. In the early 1900s, the Basters joined the Germans in a colonial war against the Nama and Herero. Since Namibia gained independence in 1990, the Basters lost considerable land. While the community is influenced by their Paternal Laws, the area is under a local town council.

Trek to South-West Africa

van Wyk was born in 1835 to a mixed-race Baster family in the

Fraserburg Fraserburg is a town in the Karoo region of South Africa's Northern Cape province. It is located in the Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality. The town has some of the coldest winters in South Africa. The nearest towns are Williston, Sutherland, Lo ...

district in the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

, today

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. His mixed-race clan was living at ''De Tuin'' in the Northern Cape until 1868 when they decided to leave the Cape Colony because of the discrimination and harassment they faced from white people. van Wyk was already the clan's leader at that time. They trekked via

Pella Pella ( el, Πέλλα) is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is best-known for serving as the capital city of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great. On site of the ancient cit ...

, then crossed 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 ...

, and arrived at

Berseba Berseba ( Nama: ǃAutsawises) is a village in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia and the district capital of the Berseba electoral constituency. It is situated north-west of Keetmanshoop near the Brukkaros Mountain, a famous tourist des ...

in 1870.

Scouts Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpack ...

of the Baster clan discovered the fertile area around Rehoboth, which at that time had largely been abandoned by the Nama people after they had been attacked by the Orlam Afrikaners in 1864.

Development of Rehoboth

In 1870, Abraham Swartbooi of the Nama allowed the Basters to settle at Rehoboth for an initial payment of eight horses and an annual rent of one horse. They arrived at Rehoboth in October that year. They worked to repair and develop the existing infrastructure. Under van Wyk's leadership of the Kaptein's council, the Basters drafted a constitution ( af, Vaderlike Wette, literally en, Paternal Laws). By 1876, their community consisted of 800 people; they owned 20,000 sheep and between 2,000 and 3,000 cattle. Due to the relative wealth that the community had accumulated, van Wyk attempted to buy the land around Rehoboth from Swartbooi. An option on the land was granted at a price of £2,750, but Swartbooi would not sell the land just yet. When the ''Herero-Nama War'' of 1880 began, the Basters joined sides with

Jan Jonker Afrikaner Jan Jonker Afrikaner (c. 1820 in Bethanie, South West Africa – 10 August 1889 near Tsoabis, South West Africa) was the second oldest son of Jonker Afrikaner and Beetje Boois. He became the sixth and last Captain of the Orlam Afrikaners in ...

and the Nama under Swartbooi against the Herero. A Baster merchant group was killed by the Herero. In 1882, however, the Basters were attacked by their Nama allies. They defeated the attack but lost substantial numbers of livestock stolen in the attack and other raids.

Protection treaty

The Nama sold the land around Rehoboth to an agent for the Dorsland Trekkers but, before the

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...

s could settle there, the German Empire claimed

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 ...

as a colony. On 15 September 1885, van Wyk and the Germans signed a "Treaty of Protection and Friendship"; this permitted the Basters to retain a degree of autonomy in exchange for accepting colonial rule. As this treaty contained no sale of land but rather a recognition that the territory occupied by the Basters was theirs, no money was changing hands in the deal.For a similar contract see Later in the Herero and Nama War of 1904–1908, the Basters would side with the Germans against the native peoples. Not many Basters fought in the conflict. Hermanus van Wyk died in Rehoboth in 1905. The German colonial authorities did not approve a successor and instead established the ''Basterrat'' ( en, Council of Basters). After the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in 1914 the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

took over the area as a British Protectorate, administered by

beginning in 1915. Cornelius van Wyk was elected in 1914 to succeed Hermanus van Wyk.

References

External links

History of the Baster community in Namibia
, Rehoboth Basters website {{DEFAULTSORT:van Wyk, Hermanus 1835 births 1905 deaths People from Karoo Hoogland Local Municipality Namibian chiefs Namibian people of South African descent