William Worthington Jordan (1849–1886) was a hunter, trader, and writer in
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
.
Born at
Wynberg in 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 ...
, Jordan was of mixed race. He became a trader and hunter in what is now
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
and
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 ...
. In 1880 he established a trading post in southern
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
.
Having bought a large area of land from the
Ovambo people
The Ovambo people (), also called Aawambo, Ambo, Aawambo (Ndonga, Nghandjera, Kwambi, Kwaluudhi, Kolonghadhi, Mbalantu), or Ovawambo (Kwanyama) the biggest of the Aawambo sub-tribes are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily mo ...
, Jordan donated some of it to Boer settlers who in 1885 established the short-lived republic of
Upingtonia
Lijdensrust, officially the Republic of Lijdensrust, was a short-lived Boer republic in the area of present-day Namibia. Declared on 20 October 1885, it was originally named Upingtonia, but changed its name soon after as the reason for its orig ...
. This did not long survive his death in 1886.
Jordan's ''Journal of the Trek Boers to Mossamedes'' appeared in the ''
Cape Quarterly Review'' in 1881.
[Victor L. Tonchi, William A. Lindeke, John J. Grotpeter, ''Historical Dictionary of Namibia'' (2012), p. 186] In 1883 his ''From Damaraland to the Nhemba Country: Extract from the Diary of W. W. Jordan'' appeared in the same journal.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, William Worthington
1849 births
1886 deaths
Coloured Namibian people