Omaruru is a city in the

Erongo Region Erongo is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. The capital is Swakopmund. It is named after Mount Erongo, a well-known landmark in Namibia and in this area. Erongo contains the municipalities of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Henties Bay and Omaruru, as ...

of central

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 ...

. The town has 14,000 inhabitants and owns of land. It is situated near

Mount Erongo Tourmaline-feldspar-quartz, Erongo Granite Namibia

usually dry

Omaruru River The Omaruru River is a major river crossing the Erongo Region of western central Namibia from East to West. It originates in the Etjo Mountains, crosses the town of Omaruru and the village of Okombahe, and reaches the sea a few kilometers north ...

. It is located on the main paved road from

Swakopmund Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers ...

Otjiwarongo Otjiwarongo ( hz, beautiful place) is a city of 28,000 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Otjiwarongo electoral constituency and also the capital of Otjozondjupa. Otjiwarongo is situated in c ...

. The name in the

Otjiherero language 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 lingui ...

means 'bitter milk', as Herero cattle herds used to graze on a local bush that turned their milk bitter. Omaruru is known for its annual festival where the Herero people commemorate their past local chiefs, its

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

, and for the

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

footprints at nearby Otjihaenamparero.

History

Omaruru was established in 1863 by

Wilhelm Zeraua Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Mount ...

, the first chief of the ''White Flag'' clan of the OvaHerero people. In 1871, Anders Ohlsson and Axel Eriksson established a brewery at Omaruru. Eriksson had also established a trading post, which flourished and by 1878 he employed about forty whites. Eriksson's business was based upon long-distance trading between southern

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

and

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, 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 i ...

, which necessitated the establishment of regional trade routes. The town grew around a

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

built in 1872 by

Gottlieb Viehe Friedrich Wilhelm Gottlieb Viehe (27 March 1839 – 1 January 1901) was a German missionary of the ''Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft'' (Rhenish Missionary Society) and an early settler in present-day Namibia. He was born in Mennighüffen, (now ...

, now a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

, and was attacked in 1904 during the

Herero Wars The Herero Wars were a series of colonial wars between the German Empire and the Herero people of German South West Africa (present-day Namibia). They took place between 1904 and 1908. Background Pre-colonial South-West Africa The Hereros we ...

. Franke Tower was later erected to commemorate the relief by Hauptmann

Victor Franke Erich Victor Carl August Franke (21 July 1865 – 7 August 1936) was a German military officer and last commander of the ''Schutztruppe'' in German South West Africa. Franke was born in Zuckmantel, Austrian Silesia. He was ''Bezirksamtman ...

troops of the local

Schutztruppe (, Protection Force) was the official name of the colonial troops in the African territories of the German colonial empire from the late 19th century to 1918. Similar to other colonial armies, the consisted of volunteer European commissioned ...

garrison, which had been under siege by the Herero people, who had risen against rule by the

German colonial empire The German colonial empire (german: Deutsches Kolonialreich) constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies and territories of the German Empire. Unified in the early 1870s, the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck. Short-li ...

Legacy of von Trotha

The descendants of

Lothar von Trotha General Adrian Dietrich Lothar von Trotha (3 July 1848 – 31 March 1920) was a German military commander during the European new colonial era. As a brigade commander of the East Asian Expedition Corps, he was involved in suppressing the Boxe ...

and the von Trotha family travelled to Omaruru in October 2007 by invitation of the royal Herero chiefs and publicly apologised for his role in the

Herero 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). ...

. Member of the family Wolf-Thilo von Trotha: "We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed of the terrible events that took place 100 years ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time".

Dutch Reformed Church

Omaruru Reformed Church, the local congregation of the

Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NGK) is a Reformed Christian denomination in South Africa. It also has a presence in neighbouring countries, such as Namibia, Eswatini, and parts of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

was separated from that in Otjiwarongo on March 1, 1941, and included Omaruru,

Karibib , nickname = , settlement_type = Town , motto = , image_skyline =Karibib aerial view.jpg , imagesize =300 , image_caption =Karibib aerial view 2017 , image_flag = , ...

Usakos , nickname = , settlement_type = Town , motto = Excelsior , image_skyline = Usakos Luftaufnahme (2018).jpg , imagesize = 300 , image_caption = Aerial photograph of Usakos (2018) ...

, Kalkfeld,

, and

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The ci ...

as ward centers. Over the years, six congregations were in turn spun off from the Omaruru one, but the overall numbers were usually sparse given the predominantly

ethnic German , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

demographics of the local white population. At its founding, the congregation covered an area of approximately , both north to south and east to west.

Politics

Omaruru is governed by a municipal council that has seven seats. It is the district capital of the

Omaruru Constituency Omaruru is a constituency in the Erongo Region of central-eastern Namibia. Its district capital is the city of Omaruru. It had a population of 8,577 in 2011, up from 7,156 in 2001. the constituency had 6,672 registered voters. Politics In the ...

. Omaruru is one of few Namibian towns where the political opposition is relatively strong. Namibia's ruling party

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 ...

won the 2010 local authority election with 847 votes, followed by the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) with 369 votes, the United Democratic Front (UDF) with 308 votes, and

National Unity Democratic Organisation The National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) is a political party in Namibia. It has been represented in the National Assembly of Namibia and in the National Council of Namibia since it split from the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (now PDM ...

(NUDO) with 107 votes. SWAPO also was the strongest party in the 2015 local authority elections, winning four seats in the town council and gaining 1117 votes. The UDF gained two seats (590 votes), and 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) obtained one (291 votes). In the 2020 local authority election SWAPO won again over each individual opposition party but lost the majority of seats in the city council. SWAPO obtained 642 votes and gained two seats. One seat each 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 403 votes, the

Independent Patriots for Change The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) is a political party in Namibia. It was founded by Panduleni Itula in August 2020. As an independent presidential candidate in the November 2019 election, Itula won the best result of a losing candidat ...

(IPC, newly formed in August 2020) with 305 votes, the local Omaruru Community Development Organisation with 297 votes, the UDF with 230 votes, and NUDO with 182 votes.

Transport and infrastructure

Omaruru is the only Namibian town not connected to the NamWater pipeline network. It receives its water from boreholes along the Omaruru River which are managed by the municipality. Omaruru Railway Station connects the town to the Trans-Namib railway network.

Notable people

* Dawid van Lill (born 1957), writer, journalist, translator and editor

References

{{Authority control Populated places established in 1863 1863 establishments in South West Africa Rhenish mission stations in Hereroland Cities in Namibia Populated places in the Erongo Region