Lijdensrust, officially the Republic of Lijdensrust, was a short-lived Boer republic in the area of present-day

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 ...

. Declared on 20 October 1885, it was originally named Upingtonia, but changed its name soon after as the reason for its original name proved worthless. In 1887, it was merged into

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 ...

History

Between the years 1874 and 1880, farmers migrated from the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

to what was then southern

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

. There, they came into conflict with the Portuguese colonial authorities, and some of their number decided to return to the Transvaal, while others migrated further south.Chris Marais, Julienne Du Toit, ''A Drink of Dry Land '' (2006), p. 174 In 1885,

William Worthington Jordan William Worthington Jordan (1849–1886) was a hunter, trader, and writer in Southern Africa. Born at Wynberg in the Cape Colony, Jordan was of mixed race. He became a trader and hunter in what is now Botswana and Namibia. In 1880 he established ...

bought a tract (fifty thousand square kilometers) of land from the

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 ...

chief Kambonde for three hundred pounds, paid as twenty-five firearms, one salted horse, and a cask of brandy. This land stretched almost from

Okaukuejo Okaukuejo is the administrative center for the Etosha National Park in Namibia. It is approximately 650 km from the capital Windhoek. The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of around , although in the 2010/2011 rainy season wer ...

in the west to

Fischer's Pan Fischer's (Japanese: フィッシャーズ, ''Fisshāzu'') are a Japanese YouTuber group belonging to the multi-channel network UUUM consisting of 6 members: Silk Road, Masai, Ndaho, Motoki, Zakao and Dāma. As of February 2022, Fischer's was the ...

in the east. Chief Kambonde relied on the help of Jordan to defeat his rival for power, Nehale. Between 1876 and 1879, at the time of the Dorsland Trek, Boers had crossed the area, heading for Angola. In 1885 some of these trekkers returned and settled at

Grootfontein , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = Fons Vitæ , image_skyline = Grootfontein grass.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_si ...

on land given to them free of charge by Jordan. The Republic of Upingtonia was declared on 20 October 1885. At that time, the population of Upingtonia was around five hundred settlers. The state was named after

Thomas Upington Sir Thomas Upington KCMG (1844–1898), born in Cork, Ireland, was an administrator and politician of the Cape Colony. He was briefly Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, between 1884 and 1886, during a period of extreme turbulence in the Cape's h ...

, prime minister of the

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 ...

, from whom the new state was hoping for support. However, little was forthcoming. In 1886, under the influence of the Boers returning to the

from southern

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

, the name was changed from Upingtonia to Lijdensrust or Lydensrust. The short-lived republic's capital was Grootfontein, and its

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

was President George Diederik P. Prinsloo. The new state fought the

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 ...

and became dependent on German protection. In 1886 Jordan was killed by

Nehale Mpingana Nehale lya Mpingana (died 28 April 1908) was '' Omukwaniilwa'' of Ondonga, a subtribe of the Owambo, in German South West Africa. Their tribal area is situated around Namutoni Namutoni is a restcamp on the edge of Etosha pan in the Oshikoto Reg ...

, and the republic collapsed. The next year the area it had covered was incorporated into German South-West Africa.Victor L. Tonchi, William A. Lindeke, John J. Grotpeter, ''Historical Dictionary of Namibia'' (2012), p. 445

Notes

{{coord, 19, 34, S, 18, 7, E, type:country, display=title Otjozondjupa Region Boer Republics Former republics Former countries in Africa States and territories established in 1885 1885 establishments in Africa States and territories disestablished in 1887 1887 disestablishments in Africa