Namaqualand (
khoekhoe
Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
: "Nama-kwa" meaning
Nama Khoe people's land) is an arid region of
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
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 coun ...
, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of 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 ...
into two portions – Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the north.
Little Namaqualand is within the
Namakwa District Municipality
Namakwa is one of the 5 districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of Namakwa is Springbok and the region is also known as Little Namaqualand. The majority of its 108,118 people speak Afrikaans (2001 Census). The district ...
, forming part of
Northern Cape Province
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi ...
, South Africa. It is geographically the largest district in the country, spanning over 26,836 km
2.
A typical municipality is
Kamiesberg Local Municipality
Kamiesberg Local Municipality is in South Africa.
Population
In 2007 an estimated 12,117 persons lived in Kamiesberg; however, this estimate is very rough. The majority of Kamiesberg's people are coloured (mixed race).
Kharkams village represent ...
. The semidesert
Succulent Karoo
The Succulent Karoo is a ecoregion defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature to include regions of desert in South Africa and Namibia, and a biodiversity hotspot. The geographic area chosen by the WWF for what they call 'Succulent Karoo' does no ...
region experiences hot summers, sparse rainfall, and cold winters.
[Discover South Africa: Your Online Travel Directory. Discover Namakwa.]
Great Namaqualand in the
Karas Region
Karas may refer to:
Places
* Karas Region, Namibia
* Karaš River, a river in Serbia and Romania (Romanian ''Caraş'')
* Karas Island, an island in Sebakor Bay, West Papua, Indonesia
* Karaś, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, a village in north-c ...
of
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 ...
, is sparsely populated by the
Namaqua, a
Khoikhoi
Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
people who have traditionally inhabited the Namaqualand region.
Tourism
The area’s landscape ranges from an unexploited coastal strip in the west to semidesert areas in the north-east. Famed for its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, its wild flowers during spring, its wealth of minerals, and cultural history, Namaqualand is a popular region for international and local tourists. The Namakwa coastline and the banks of the Orange River are popular for their hiking trails and off-roading routes.
The beginning of the flower season varies from year to year, but it usually occurs between August and October. The natural landscape is continually monitored with the first sign of spring and flower season being the arrival of Namakwa daisies. When purple vygies bloom, spring is coming to an end.
The Namaqua National Park is situated west of the
N7, one of South Africa's national roads. This conservation area is a great
biodiversity hotspot, with the highest concentration of succulent plants of any of the world's arid regions. More than a thousand of its estimated 3500 floral species cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
[Van Deventer, M. and J.A.J. Nel. 2006. Habitat, food, and small mammal community structure in Namaqualand. ''Koedoe'' 49(1): 99–109. Pretoria. ISSN 0075-6458.]
The
Ai-Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park, on the border of Namibia and South Africa, was known as the Richtersveld National Park in South Africa and the Ai-Ais Hot Springs Game Park in Namibia before the two parks were formally combined in August 2003.
What was once the Richtersveld National Park nurtures about 30% of South Africa’s succulent species.
Drainage
Some of the more prominent towns in this area are
Springbok
The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm ...
, being the largest in the region, and
Kleinzee
Kleinzee is a small village on the west coast of the Northern Cape province in South Africa at the mouth of the Buffels River. It is just south of Grootmis, 72 km south-east of Port Nolloth and 105 km west of Springbok. Previously a clo ...
and
Koiingnaas
Koingnaas is a village in Namakwa District Municipality in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located 65 km south of Kleinzee.
Established in 1970, Koingnaas was once a flourishing diamond-mining town and satellite town to K ...
, both private mining towns owned by
De Beers Diamond Mines. This area is quite rich in
alluvial diamonds deposited along the coast by the Orange River.
Oranjemund
Oranjemund (German for ''"Mouth of Orange"'') is a diamond mining town of 4,000 inhabitants situated in the ǁKaras Region of the extreme southwest of Namibia, on the northern bank of the Orange River mouth at the border to South Africa.
Histor ...
is another mining town along this coast, situated in Namibia, but very much on the border. As the name suggests, it is at the mouth of the Orange River, which forms the border between South Africa and Namibia. The town of
Alexander Bay is located away opposite the river on the South African side and is linked to Oranjemund by the
Ernest Oppenheimer Bridge. Other links crossing the river further upstream are a reintroduced pontoon at Sendelingsdrift in the Richtersveld National Park, and road bridges at
Vioolsdrif
Vioolsdrif is a village on the Orange River in the north-western Namaqualand area of South Africa.
Origin of name
The name in Afrikaans means 'the ford (shallow river crossing) of the violin'. It is reportedly named after Jan Viool ("John Violi ...
(the main border crossing between the two countries) and at the remote border crossing of
Onseepkans
Onseepkans is a small settlement on the banks of the Orange River in Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is a border post with Namibia for traffic between Pofadder in South Africa and Keetmanshoop in Namibia. The name either originated fro ...
.
A vibrant fishing industry is found along this stretch of the South African west coast, especially in
Port Nolloth
Port Nolloth is a town and small domestic seaport in the Namaqualand region on the northwestern coast of South Africa, northwest of Springbok. It is the seat of the Richtersveld Local Municipality.
The port was previously a transshipment point ...
, the major resort town of Namaqualand, and
Hondeklipbaai
Hondeklip Bay ( af, Hondeklipbaai, which translates as ''dog stone bay'') is a coastal village in the Namakwa district of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It lies about 95 km south west of the district capital Springbok.
This v ...
, or Dogstonebay, called such because of a large boulder outside the town, which when viewed correctly, looks vaguely like a dog sitting down. Since the 19th century, copper has been mined at Springbok and its surrounding towns, while a large mine extracting copper, lead, zinc, and silver is located at
Aggeneys
Aggeneys is a mining town established in 1976 on a farm of that name, situated between Pofadder and Springbok in the Northern Cape, South Africa.
Origin of the name
It has been stated that "no-one is quite certain of the origin of the name Ag ...
, further inland.
People
The region is known for its cultural history, which was preserved by the
Nama and
Khoisan
Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in ...
tribes. The Nama people are the largest group of
Khoikhoi
Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
people. About 80% of the population was brutally killed by the German Empire between 1904 and 1907 in a racial extermination during the
Herero and Namaqua genocide
The Herero and Namaqua genocide or the Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa (now Namibia). I ...
. Nama people traditionally speak the
Khoekhoe language
The Khoekhoe language (), also known by the ethnic terms Nama (''Namagowab'') , Damara (''ǂNūkhoegowab''), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use o ...
.
[Brenzinger, Matthias. 2011. The twelve modern Khoisan languages. In Witzlack-Makarevich & Ernszt (eds.), Khoisan Languages and Linguistics. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.]
See also
*
Letterklip
*''
Mafuta''
*
Namaqualand Railway
References
External links
Namakwa Region – Northern Cape TourismNamakwa District Municipality*
{{Coord missing, South Africa
Geography of Namibia
Geography of ǁKaras Region
Karoo
Nama people
Geography of the Northern Cape