Wlotzkasbaken or Wlotzka's Baken (german: Wlotzka's beacon, often shortened to Wlotzka or Wlotzkas) is a holiday settlement on
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 ...
Atlantic coast, situated approximately halfway between
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 ...
and
Hentiesbay
Henties Bay (English, literally: ''Henty's Bay''. Afrikaans: ''Hentiesbaai'', German: ''Hentiesbucht'') is a coastal town in the Erongo Region of western Namibia. It is located 70 km north of Swakopmund and is an important holiday settlemen ...
. The area around the village lies within the Dorob National Park and features extensive
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Titles
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...
in the village are held by the Regional Council and only leased to the residents. A legal battle ensued about how to expand the resort without disadvantaging lessees who built houses on land they do not own.
As the expansion of Wlotzkasbaken stopped in the 1970s when recreational developments were exclusively for Whites, it still has no residents of previously disadvantaged population groups.
History
The place is named after a trigonometrical
beacon
A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...
, the only one that remained from a land survey along the
Skeleton Coast
The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The indigenous San p ...
in the 1930s. Paul Wlotzka, a member of the surveying team, chose this place to erect a storage structure to support his frequent horse cart rides between Swakopmund and Hentiesbay. He soon discovered that the coastal waters boast an abundance of fish which he caught and sold. His bragging about the find soon lured more anglers who pitched temporary structures during holidays since approximately 1936.
In 1955, 87 erven were surveyed and leased to holiday makers. Later this number was increased to 110. Wlotzkasbaken was proclaimed a
peri-urban
Peri-urbanisation relates to the processes of scattered and dispersive urban growth that create hybrid landscapes of fragmented and mixed urban and rural characteristics.
Origin
The expression originates from the French word ' ("peri-urban" ...
area in 1972, and a village in 1992. A Government Notice from 1993 converted it back to a settlement area, denying the establishment of a Village Council for self-governance. The place is thus still under the direct jurisdiction of the Regional Council of 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 ...
, a situation that has been described as a "burden".
Geography
Wlotzkasbaken is situated on the coast of the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
approximately 30 km north of Swakopmund. The main road C34 runs past the village. Excluding the village itself, the entire area is part of Dorob, Namibia's eighth and newest National Park. In the vicinity of Wlotzkasbaken the extensive
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Teloschistes lichenised fungi is situated 4 km north of the village.
There are only six people more or less who permanently reside in Wlotzkasbaken. During the holiday months of December and January several hundred people stay here, and the annual "Marterpfahl" (literally german: torture stake) angling festival between Christmas and New Year's Eve lures several thousand visitors to the sleepy village.
Wlotzkasbaken is not electrified and not connected to the public water system. Water is delivered by road and stored in private
water tower
A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...
s that characterise the settlement's skyline. It consists of 106 houses which are all designed and built by their owners. Every house is self-sustaining with regards to water and electricity. Privacy of the holiday parcels is achieved by the large distance between the houses. There are no walls or fences anywhere; boundaries are demarcated with rocks. The village thus features a unique form of settlement in Namibia and has even received some international attention.
Close to the village Namibia's first
desalination
Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in Soil salinity control, soil desalination, which is an issue f ...
plant was opened in April 2010. The plant supplies water to the Trekkopje
uranium
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
mine 65 km north-east of Swakopmund which will be Southern Africa's largest uranium mine when it reaches full production capacity in 2013.
Land dispute
Originally, land parcels in Wlotzkasbaken were leased for 99 years. The contracts were later changed several times with the lease period reduced to at first ten years, and in 1972, along with the proclamation as peri-urban area, to only one. Plans to develop the area into a holiday town and prime tourist destination comprising 2,800 separate properties led to a multitude of lawsuits between the ''Wlotzkasbaken Home Owners Association'' and the Erongo Regional Council. An agreement was reached in 2000 to expand the amount of erven to 248, giving the existing lessees the option to buy the piece of land they had rented before and built houses on. An attempt to change the conditions of this agreement went to the Namibian Supreme Court and was decided in favour of the owners.
History and structure of the settlement—most prominently the situation that its last expansion occurred before Namibian independence and the abolishment of
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
—have led to accusations that the community of Wlotzkasbaken intentionally keeps Blacks out of their holiday village. On the other hand, Government has been accused to plan the distribution of 28 seafront properties to high-ranking Government officials, and to deliberately destroy the unique character of the settlement. The homogenous character of the village and its special community rules have also evoked some mockery; the place is called the "Free Republic of Wlotzkasbaken" in jest.