Joseph Frederiks II, Nama name: ǃKhorebeb-ǁNaixab (died 20 October 1893 in Bethanie) was a

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the ǃAman ( Bethanie Orlam), a subtribe of the

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 ...

. He became Captain when his uncle and stepfather David Christian Frederiks was killed in 1880 in the Battle of Otjikango. Frederiks was party to a land sale deal between the Bethanie Orlam and German merchant

Adolf Lüderitz Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz (16 July 1834 – end of October 1886) was a German merchant and the founder of German South West Africa, Imperial Germany's first colony. The coastal town of Lüderitz, located in the ǁKaras Region of southern N ...

that would eventually establish

Imperial Germany The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

colony of

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 ...

. Lüderitz in May 1883 obtained the area of

Angra Pequena Angra may refer to: Places * Bay of Angra (Baía de Angra), within Angra do Heroísmo on the Portuguese island of Terceira in the archipelago of the Azores * Angra do Heroísmo, a municipality in the Azores, Portugal * Angra dos Reis, a municipali ...

(today the town of

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, includi ...

) from Frederiks for 100 £ in gold and 200 rifles. Three months later on 25 August, Frederiks sold Lüderitz a stretch of land wide, between 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 Angra Pequena, for £500 and 60 rifles. File:Contract Frederiks-Vogelsang 1883 p1.jpg, Contract page 1 File:Contract Frederiks-Vogelsang 1883 p2.jpg, Contract page 2 File:Deutsche kolonien 1885 ausschnitt lüderitzland.jpg, Lüderitzland This area, for a short period called ''Lüderitzland'' and today part of the '' Sperrgebiet'', was far bigger than Frederiks had thought, as the contract specified its width as "20 geographical miles", a term that the tribal chief was not familiar with: 1 German

geographical mile The geographical mile is a unit of length determined by 1 minute of arc along the Earth's equator. For the international ellipsoid 1924 this equalled 1855.4 metres. ''The American Practical Navigator'' 2017 defines the geographical mile as . Gre ...

equals , whereas the common mile in the territory was the

English mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a imperial unit, British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of Unit of length, ...

, 1.6 kilometres. Both Lüderitz and the signing witness, Rhenish missionary

Johannes Bam Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Ye ...

, knew that Chief Frederiks had no idea about geographical miles. He was only concerned about fertile land, and the shore of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

was of no value to his tribe. When Frederiks finally became aware of the size of the land he sold, he complained to the German Imperial Government, but Consul-General

Gustav Nachtigal Gustav Nachtigal (; born 23 February 1834 – 20 April 1885) was a German military surgeon and explorer of Central and West Africa. He is further known as the German Empire's consul-general for Tunisia and Commissioner for West Africa. His missio ...

died on his return voyage, and the complaint was never delivered. In 1887 "even the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office doubted the validity of the treaty". In the wake of the land deal, Frederiks on 28 October 1884 also signed a protection treaty with the German Empire, the second of its kind in German South-West Africa, after the treaty with the

Rehoboth Baster The Basters (also known as Baasters, Rehobothers or Rehoboth Basters) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from European Africans, white European men and Bantu people, black African women, usually of Khoisan origin, but occasionally als ...

s two weeks prior. He died on 20 October 1893 in his home village Bethanie, and Paul Frederiks succeeded him as Chief of the ǃAman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frederiks, Josef, II Nama people People from Hardap Region 1893 deaths Year of birth missing