Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Reaping the Whirlwind
Meanwhile, in the south, diamonds had been discovered at Grasplatz, east of Lüderitz, by
South African labourer Zacharias Lewala. Despite the assessment of diamond-mining gi-
ant De Beers that the find probably wouldn't amount to much, prospectors flooded in to
stake their claims. By 1910, the German authorities had branded the entire area between
Lüderitz and the Orange River a
Sperrgebiet
(closed area), chucked out the prospectors
and granted exclusive rights to Deutsche Diamanten Gesellschaft (German Diamond
Company).
But for all the devastation visited upon the local populace, Germany was never to bene-
fit from the diamond riches they found. The outbreak of WWI in 1914 was to mark the
end of German colonial rule in South West Africa. By this time, however, the Germans
had all but succeeded in devastating the Herero tribal structures, and taken over all Khoik-
hoi and Herero lands. The more fortunate Owambo, in the north, managed to avoid Ger-
man conquest, and they were only subsequently overrun during WWI by Portuguese
forces fighting on the side of the Allies.
In 1914, at the beginning of WWI, Britain pressured South Africa into invading Nami-
bia. The South Africans, under the command of Prime Minister Louis Botha and General
Jan Smuts, pushed northwards, forcing the outnumbered Schutztruppe to retreat. In May
1915 the Germans faced their final defeat at Khorab near Tsumeb, and a week later, a
South African administration was set up in Windhoek.
By 1920, many German farms had been sold to Afrikaans-speaking settlers, and the
German diamond-mining interests in the south were handed over to the South
Africa-based Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM), which later gave way to the Namdeb
Diamond Corporation Limited (Namdeb).
South African Occupation
Under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was required to renounce all of its colo-
nial claims, and in 1920 the League of Nations granted South Africa a formal mandate to
administer Namibia as part of the Union of South Africa.
While the mandate was renewed by the UN following WWII, South Africa was more
interested in annexing South West Africa as a full province in the Union, and decided to
scrap the terms of the mandate and rewrite the constitution. In response, the International
Court of Justice determined that South Africa had overstepped its boundaries, and the UN
established the Committee on South West Africa to enforce the original terms of the man-
date. In 1956 the UN further decided that South African control should be terminated.
