Katutura (

Otjiherero Herero (, ''Otjiherero'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in Namibia and Botswana, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern Angola. There were 211,700 speakers in 2014. Distribution Its linguisti ...

for ''The place where people do not want to live'') is a

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

Khomas Region Khomas is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its name refers to the Khomas Highland, a high plateau landscape that dominates this administrative unit. Khomas is centered on the capital city Windhoek and provides for this reason superior trans ...

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 ...

. Katutura was created in 1961 following the forced removal of Windhoek's black population from the

Old Location The Old Location (or as it was known then the Main Location) was an area segregated for Black residents of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It was situated in the area between today's suburbs of Hochland Park and Pioneers Park. History Upon the ...

, which afterwards was developed into the suburb of

Hochland Park Hochland Park (also ''Hochlandpark'', seldom ''Highland Park'') is a residential suburb in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It is named after the German ''Khomas Hochland'', the central-Namibian plateau area in which Windhoek is situated. Hochlan ...

Sam Nujoma Stadium Sam Nujoma Stadium (also called the Sam Nujoma Soccer Stadium or SNSS) is a football (soccer) stadium in Katutura, Windhoek, Namibia. The stadium holds 10,300 and was finished in 2005. It is named after the former Namibian president Sam Nujoma.htt ...

, built in 2005, is located within Katutura. Katutura Community Radio, a community-based radio station, also operates from the township. Katutura State Hospital, one of two State Hospitals in the Windhoek area, is located in the township.

History

During the 1950s, the Windhoek municipality and the

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

n colonial administration decided to forcefully move the residents of the

to the north of the city, prompting the evicted people to give the new location the name ''Katutura,'' which means "The place where people do not want to live" in

Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Namaqua Genocide * Herero chat, a species of b ...

.Azaria Mbughuni, ''Tanzania and the liberation struggle in Southern Africa, 1958-1975'', 2008
page 97
/ref> For a number of reasons most residents did not want to move: They had owned the erven in Old Location whereas in Katutura all land belonged to the municipality. The newly allocated erven were also a lot smaller than those in Old Location, effectively forbidding the creation of gardens. Also economically black residents were worse off after the move because they now had to pay rent to the municipality, and they needed a bus to reach their work places in town—Old Location had been in walking distance. Following protests and an effective boycott of municipal services by Main Location residents, the police opened fire on the protesters on 10 December 1959, killing 11 and wounding 44 others. This event is known as the ''Old Location uprising'', it is the reason for the declaration of December 10,

Human Rights Day Human Rights Day is celebrated annually around the world on 10 December every year. The date was chosen to honor the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Right ...

, as a Namibian national holiday. The transfer to the new suburb took several years. In 1962, approximately 7,000 people had been moved, joining the 2,000 people of

Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people * Ovamboland *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilgert's sparrowhawk, (''Accipiter ovampensis'') is a species of sub-Saharan African bird of prey in the famil ...

descent that already lived there. All in all, half of the indigenous population of Windhoek lived in Katutura at that time. The breakdown of residents of different tribes in 1962 was: * Ovambo people: almost 3,000 *

Damara people The Damara, plural Damaran (Khoekhoegowab: ǂNūkhoen, ''Black people'', german: Bergdamara, referring to their extended stay in hilly and mountainous sites, also called at various times the Daman or the Damaqua) are an ethnic group who make ...

: 2,366 *

Coloured people Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...

: 1,257 *

Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans. The Nama Peo ...

: 614 *

Herero people The Herero ( hz, Ovaherero) are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting parts of Southern Africa. There were an estimated 250,000 Herero people in Namibia in 2013. They speak Otjiherero, a Bantu language. Though the Herero primarily reside in Namibia, t ...

: 468 * Ovambanderu people: 71 * Others / undetermined: 1,094 During 2019 a campaign by Hendrich Amutenya and fellow activists to rename Katutura was launched. Amutenya argued that the name of the Katutura township has a bad connotation and reflects poorly towards a now free and independent Namibia. The name "Ubuntura", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...

'' and ''Katutura'', was suggested.

Constituencies

The political constituencies located within Katutura are: *

Katutura East Katutura East is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia. It consists of the extensions 1, 6, and 19 of the suburb Katutura, a township within Windhoek that was founded by the then Apartheid government of Namibia for black people in the 19 ...

Katutura Central Katutura Central is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia, comprising the extensions 2–5 and 7–11 of Windhoek suburb Katutura. Katutura is a township that was founded by the then apartheid government of Namibia for black people in t ...

Notable residents

Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari (born 8 December 1974 in Windhoek) is a Namibian who serves as the presidential press secretary to President Hage Geingob. Hengari schooled at A. Shipena High School in Katutura and enrolled for B.A. in political scien ...

attended school in Katutura. * George Kambala - was born in Katutura *

Dimbulukeni Nauyoma Dimbulukeni 'Dee' Nauyoma (born 1992) is a Namibian youth activist who along with Job Amupanda and George Kambala co-founded a radical youth movement known as the Affirmative Repositioning in November 2014. Prior to the formation of the Affirmati ...

- was raised in Katutura.

References

{{Authority control Suburbs of Windhoek Shanty towns in Namibia Otjiherero words and phrases

History

Constituencies

Notable residents

See also

References