Gibeon ( Nama: Khaxa-tsûs) is a village in Gibeon Constituency in the

Hardap Region Hardap is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Mariental. Hardap contains the municipality of Mariental, the towns Rehoboth and Aranos, and the self-governed villages Gibeon, Gochas, Kalkrand, Stampriet and Maltahöhe. It is ...

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 ...

History

Gibeon, originally known by the name Khaxa-tsûs, received its name from Kido Witbooi, first Kaptein of the

ǀKhowesin The ǀKhowesin (literally ''queen bees'', also: Witbooi Nama or Witbooi Orlam) are one of five clans of the Orlam people in Namibia. They originated from Pella in the Cape Colony in South Africa and migrated to South West Africa the 19th century, ...

, a subtribe of the

Orlam The Oorlam or Orlam people (also known as Orlaam, Oorlammers, Oerlams, or Orlamse Hottentots) are a subtribe of the Nama people, largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony (today, part of South Africa) to Namaqualand and Dam ...

. He arrived with his followers in about 1850, shortly after a Rhenish mission station was established here. Gibeon has been the home town of this group, subsequently also known as the ''Witbooi Nama'', ever since.

Buildings and structures

Gibeon Railway Station is located in the village. The station is a stop on the TransNamib Railway. It is also home to a public sports stadium. The stadium was built in 1986 and fell into disrepair by 1993. In 2003, the Ministry of Sport of Namibia budgeted N$ 450,000 for repairs and awarded part of the

public tender Government procurement or public procurement is the procurement of goods, services and works on behalf of a public authority, such as a government agency. Amounting to 12 percent of global GDP in 2018, government procurement accounts for a subst ...

to Namibia Renovations, but the company disappeared days after winning the tender and their whereabouts could not be confirmed. As of December 2007, none of the repairs have been completed. When the stadium was operational, it was known for its "excellent" gravel playing surface, which attracted teams from larger towns in southern Namibia.

Geography

Weather and climate

Gibeon normally receives an annual average rainfall of , although in the 2010/2011 rainy season were measured.

Gibeon meteorite

Gibeon is known for the Gibeon meteorite that crashed over a 275 km long and 100 km wide area in prehistoric times. It is an

iron meteorite Iron meteorites, also known as siderites, or ferrous meteorites, are a type of meteorite that consist overwhelmingly of an iron–nickel alloy known as meteoric iron that usually consists of two mineral phases: kamacite and taenite. Most iron ...

belonging to the chemical group IVAMeteoritical Bulletin Database: Gibeon
/ref> Gibeon meteorites are made of an

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

alloy, but also contain

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, p ...

and

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

. The crystalline structure of this meteorite is a classic example of fine

octahedrite Octahedrites are the most common structural class of iron meteorites. The structures occur because the meteoric iron has a certain nickel concentration that leads to the exsolution of kamacite out of taenite while cooling. Structure Octahedr ...

and the

Widmanstätten pattern Widmanstätten patterns, also known as Thomson structures, are figures of long nickel–iron crystals, found in the octahedrite iron meteorites and some pallasites. They consist of a fine interleaving of kamacite and taenite bands or ribbons ...

aesthetically appreciated both by collectors and jewel designers. However, collecting meteorites or damaging them is illegal, as all meteorites found in Namibia are automatically protected as National Monuments. About 100–150 different fragments have been collected over time, and additional pieces are found occasionally. The largest collection of Gibeon meteorites is displayed on a fountain in Windhoek's Central Business District.

Politics

Gibeon is governed by a village council that has five seats. Johannes Isaaks (1941–2010) was the first Mayor of Gibeon as well as prominent political activist. In the 2004 and 2009 national elections, Gibeon has given the ruling SWAPO party significantly less support than the national percentage, though SWAPO was still the highest vote getter in both elections. The 2015 local authority election was also won by the SWAPO party which gained four seats (680 votes). The remaining seat went to 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, 82 votes). The 2020 local authority election was won by the newly formed Landless People's Movement (LPM) which scored well all over Hardap. LPM gained 514 votes and three seats in the village council, SWAPO gained the remaining two seats with 433 votes.

2004 National Assembly election

In the 2004 National Assembly election, 4,956 residents of Gibeon constituency voted; SWAPO received 50.7% of Gibeon's votes, compared to 76.1% nationally. The

COD Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

received 29.3% of the vote and the DTA received 9.3%. Of the remaining 6 parties, the UDF received 3%, the NUDO received 2.1%, the RP received 1.8%. The

MAG Mag, MAG or mags may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''MAG'' (video game), 2010 * ''Mag'' (Slovenian magazine), 1995–2010 * '' The Mag'', a British music magazine Businesses and organisations * MacKenzie Art Gallery, in Regina, Sask ...

, NDMC and SWANU combined to receive the remaining 2.3%.

2009 Presidential election

In the 2009 presidential election, voter participation declined to 3,669, a 26% drop from the previous national election. Gibeon voters supported incumbent President Hifikepunye Pohamba's candidacy but significantly less than the national average; nationally, SWAPO's Pohamba received 76.4%, but in Gibeon he received only 46.1% of the 3,669 total votes. The closest candidate was

Hidipo Hamutenya Hidipo Livius Hamutenya (17 June 1939 – 6 October 2016) was a Namibian politician. A long time leading member of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), Hamutenya was a member of the Cabinet of Namibia from independence in 1990 to ...

of RDP, who received 20% of Gibeon's votes, above his national vote percentage of 11.1%. The next closest candidate was

Frans Migub ǀGoagoseb Chief Frans Migub ǀGoagoseb (born 16 June 1954) is a Namibian politician and Damara leader. He is the party leader of the Namibian Democratic Movement for Change and was the party's candidate for president in the 2009 general election. In that e ...

of the NDMC, who received 207 votes in the constituency (5.6%). Gibeon's support for /Goagoseb equaled nearly 12% of the candidate's total support nationally (207 of 1,760 total votes). David Isaacs of the DP received 205 votes (5.6% in the constituency) and around 9% of the national vote total (205 of 1,859 nationally). Henk Mudge of the RP (5.4%), Katuutire Kaura of DTA (5%) and Ben Ulenga of COD (3.7%) received a higher percentage of votes in Gibeon than their national averages.Presidential Election Results
Election Watch Namibia

Notable people from Gibeon

* Gerhard Tötemeyer, professor emeritus and retired politician * Hendrik Witbooi, politician * Lucia Witbooi, politician and schoolteacher

References

External links

{{Authority control Populated places in the Hardap Region Villages in Namibia Nama people