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78-603: In 1917, the South African mandatory administration had created a tax on dogs, and they increased it in 1921. The tax was rejected by the Bondelswarts , a group of Khoikhoi , who were opposed to various policies of the new administration. They were also protecting five men for whom arrest warrants had been issued. There is disagreement over the details of the dispute, but according to historian Neta Crawford , "most agree that in May 1922

156-422: A dog tax to achieve the same ends, with the rate of tax escalating rapidly for additional dogs owned. In 1920, the new Administrator toured the country and found that blacks and a "certain class of European squatters" were still making extensive use of dogs to hunt game, instead of earning a living by what Hofmeyr called "honest labour". Farmers, particularly those in the south, put pressure on Hofmeyr to increase

234-577: A Herero witness had said to Michael Scott , a promoter of Namibian independence, that "What we don't understand is that when two nations have been at war, such as Britain or Germany or Italy, and when or other of those nations is defeated the lands belonging to the nation are not taken away from them…. The African people, although they have always been on the side of the British people and their allies, yet have their lands taken away from them and are treated as though they had been conquered". It would be hard to find

312-450: A Land Board had been set up and in the same year some 80 farms in the Warmbad and Keetmanshoop districts in the former Bondelswarts area were advertised. The new Administration could not do enough for the new farmers; it gave them generous loan terms, granted them remissions on rent arrears, built dams, bored for water and advanced capital for stock. Land hungry South Africans, spilling across

390-505: A better summary of the disillusionment felt. The 1922 Report of the Administrator continues: "Almost without exception each section asked for the allotment of the old tribal areas, in which vested rights had accrued and the utmost difficulty was experienced in making them realize the utter impossibility of complying with such a request". In Wellington's view, the Administrator's statement that he experienced "the utmost difficulty" in making

468-632: A decolonisation regime – self-determination, nationalism, human rights and an international interest in the affairs of colonial administration were codified in the League of Nations treaty and used to structure international relations. The greatest power of the Mandate system to change colonial practice lay in the Permanent Mandates Commission, whose official role was oversight, but it became a venue for ethical argument, and perhaps inadvertently promoted

546-472: A further Bondelswarts rebellion broke out. Foreshadowing the 1922 Rebellion, the 1903 revolt was tied up with the encroachment of white settlers on Bondelswarts territory and the heavy-handed intervention of the local police. Crawford's view is that one of the main contributing factors was the publication by the Germans shortly before the outbreak of regulations compelling that "(1) every coloured person must regard

624-661: A missionary to be sent to him. However, it was not until 1834 that the Wesleyan missionary Reverend Edward Cook arrived with his wife to found the mission at Warmbad within the Bondelswarts territory. Within nine years Reverend Cook reported a Christian congregation of over a thousand Bondelswarts converts. However, Goldblatt comments that whilst Reverend Cook endeavoured to interest the Bondelswarts in Christianity, and could report baptisms and attendances at services, in fact little impact

702-611: A protection treaty with the Bondelswarts and the German flag had been hoisted in Warmbad. In June 1890, Britain and Germany signed a treaty on their respective "spheres of influence" in Africa which included a detailed demarcation of the boundaries of the German Protectorate of South West Africa, and from this time the German annexation of the whole territory of South West Africa was recognised by

780-448: A truce with the Bondelswarts, requiring them to give up their arms and ammunition. As compensation for the costs of the expedition the Bondelswarts were required to give up to the German administration a further portion of the tribal lands, fostering further discontent among the Bondelswarts. The Herero uprising resulted in the end of Leutwein's colonial leadership and he was replaced by the notorious General Lothar von Trotha , who even at

858-428: A white person as a superior being, and (2) in court the evidence of one white man can only be outweighed by the statements of seven coloured persons". The trigger event was a dispute between the Bondelswarts chief and the local German lieutenant over the sale of a goat. The lieutenant went with two or three others to arrest the chief, and in the ensuing fracas both the chief and the lieutenant were shot dead. At that time

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936-450: Is the first year of the mandate and already we are told that "vested interests" (being German farms and the 169 farms allocated to white South African settlers in 1920) make it difficult to find good land for the "native" reserves. Wellington's view is that "in applying the Mandate the white man's first acts reveal him using the screen of "vested interests" to conceal his decision to put the whites’ interests first and foremost and to fob off on

1014-514: The League of Nations . The Permanent Mandates Commission sat in Geneva and met twice a year. The majority of members consisted of non-Mandatory Powers. For the first time, the performance of the administration of the territory would be subject to independent international scrutiny and not just review by the colonial power itself. Also for the first time, the principles and beliefs that were essential elements of

1092-540: The Permanent Mandates Commission under the new League of Nations mandate system introduced after the First World War . The application of the principles set out in the League of Nations mandatory covenants by the independent Permanent Mandates Commission led to a deepened international examination of the ethics of colonialism and of the actions of taken against subject peoples. The Bondelswarts (now

1170-521: The ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia , the driest part of the country. Mt. Schroffenstein, at 2206 meters is the highest peak in the range. The peak lies about ten kilometers east of the national road B1 between Keetmanshoop and Grünau . ǁKhauxaǃnas , an uninhabited village with a ruined fortress dating to the 18th century, is located to the east of the mountains. 27°11′S 18°44′E  /  27.183°S 18.733°E  / -27.183; 18.733 This Namibia location article

1248-432: The "Mandatory shall have full power of administration and legislation over the territory … [and shall] promote to the utmost the material and moral well-being and the social progress of the inhabitants". These were the underlying principles upon which South Africa was obliged to govern South West Africa. To allow monitoring and to ensure compliance, annual reports were to be submitted to the Permanent Mandates Commission of

1326-405: The "native question" is "synonymous with the labour question", in that white settlers complained that a good deal of the potential labour in the country was not made available to them, and at the same time "natives" were complaining of ill treatment and insufficient wages. Wellington comments that "one cannot help wondering what has happened to the "sacred trust of civilisation" upon which the mandate

1404-619: The 1918 Imperial Blue Book had served its primary purpose of removing German control, the South West African Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution to the effect that copies of the Imperial Blue Book should be removed from official files and libraries and destroyed.) At the end of the war, over six thousand German citizens, representing around half of the colony's German population, were repatriated from Namibia. The South African administrators found themselves in

1482-617: The 1922 Bondelswarts rebellion. Once the Union of South Africa had decided to support the Allies in the First World War , the South African army invaded South West Africa and defeated the German forces in July 1915. The peace treaty allowed the German population to carry on farming and trading but the territory was subject to martial law. Following their victory, the South Africans promoted themselves as

1560-459: The Administrator stated that he had sought the advice of the council on a number of issues including native reserves, the pass laws, the Master and Servants Proclamation, the branding of stock and the dog tax . After analysing the land set aside for reserves and the land granted to white settlers, Emmett comments that the fact that about 28 times more land per person was allocated to white settlers during

1638-407: The Administrator's report of 1922 it is observed that the areas for native reserves have "been selected with every care and consideration so as to obviate, as far as human agency can prevent, the occupants from being disturbed even in times of the most severe drought." Ruth First comments that the land was "selected with every care and consideration", perhaps, but only so as to obviate any conflict with

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1716-498: The Bondelswart leader, travelled to Keetmanshoop where Leutwein had gathered his forces. There was an enquiry, ending in a court martial finding Willem Christian and others guilty of a breach of the protection treaty. The Bondelswarts were condemned to pay the expenses of Leutwein's expedition and as they had no money had to cede to the German government the whole of Keetmanshoop and the grazing ground attached to it. In October 1903

1794-589: The Bondelswarts chief Johannes Christian held out against the German forces until October 1906 when he made overtures for peace. Under the peace treaty signed in December 1906 the Bondelswarts were confined to a reserve of 175,000 hectares (1,750 square kilometres), or 4.375% of their original holdings. Nonetheless, the peace treaty was on more generous terms than many other tribal groups received. The Bondelswarts leadership continued to be recognised, and they were given stock to enable them to live. Other groups involved in

1872-475: The Bondelswarts could avoid working for the white settlers was to hunt game with small packs of dogs. Dogs were also essential for the protection of stock from jackals. Under the German regime, the Germans had shot the hunting dogs when the Bondelswarts’ success in hunting had led to a reduction in the number of labourers offering services to settlers. In 1917, the South African military Administration had imposed

1950-490: The Bondelswarts prepared to fight, or at least to defend themselves, and the mandatory administration moved to crush what they called a rebellion of 500 to 600 people, of which 200 were said to be armed (although only about 40 weapons were captured after the Bondelswarts were crushed)". Gysbert Reitz Hofmeyr , the Mandatory Administrator of South West Africa, organised in 400 armed men, and sent in aircraft to bomb

2028-400: The Bondelswarts were a small but very effective fighting force. They had around 400-500 fighting men armed with up-to-date breech-loading rifles, knew their territory very well, and were able to conduct very effective guerrilla warfare. Leutwein decided to concentrate almost all his available forces against the Bondelswarts and personally went south to deal with the situation. With Leutwein away,

2106-452: The Bondelswarts who were over 35 years old could remember the days of their complete independence. A special commission of inquiry was appointed to examine conditions under German rule. South Africans took evidence from the non-whites of the treatment they had received at the hands of the Germans and created the impression that things would be different under South African rule. Herero chiefs, Nama spokesmen, prisoners of war and others detailed

2184-456: The Bondelswarts. Casualties included 100 Bondelswart deaths, including a few women and children. A further 468 men were either wounded or taken prisoner. South Africa's international reputation was tarnished. Ruth First , a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar, describes the Bondelswarts shooting as "the Sharpeville of the 1920s". It was one of the first uprisings to be examined by

2262-450: The British and internationally. For the Bondelswarts, one of their largest land losses came shortly thereafter, when the Bondelswarts and other indigenous groups "sold" 60,000 square kilometres of land to the English company Karas Khoma Exploration and Prospecting Syndicate . This sale led to strong feeling among the Bondelswarts against their leader, Willem Christian, once the consequences of

2340-506: The Cape government generally in preserving peace and order along the Orange River. This arrangement was renewed in 1870 by Abraham Christian's grandson, Willem Christian , the new leader of the Bondelswarts, although the allowance was much reduced, being a mere £50 annually. By the mid-nineteenth century the number of traders had increased and their network extended as far north as Etosha . In

2418-595: The French, the rule of King Leopold's rubber regime in the Congo, the exploitation by the Portuguese, English and Dutch of the slave trade on the west coast of Africa were no less ugly. But Germany had entered the scramble for Africa in the last stages of colonisation, at a time when international morality had at last opened its eyes, and what others had done before in secret or in silence could not be done without discovery. (In 1926, once

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2496-455: The German administration, which in 1892 granted the Syndicate a concession of 50,000 square km on the condition that the company should build a railway from Luderitz to the interior. This obligation was not fulfilled and the concession was reduced by the German administration to 12,800 sq km of land to be selected by the company. The Syndicate’s selection of the best farmland, and the acquisition of

2574-427: The German and South African settlers. The Bondelswarts complained that the white employers often failed to pay their wages and flogged them, and they showed the Administrator the scars of these beatings. When asked later by the Permanent Mandates Commission what steps had been taken the Administrator replied that he had given instructions to the local magistrate to see that they were protected in future. One way in which

2652-520: The Governor-General, left them with the impression that they would have their former tribal areas returned to them. The Allies denounced the German colonial system. This rang true with the indigenous peoples of South West Africa who had experienced the horrors themselves. In Ruth First 's view: "They saw victory, in their innocence, as a release. The German occupiers had stolen their lands, and then had themselves been displaced by armies fighting under

2730-464: The League of Nations (which came into force in January 1920), which stated that in respect of Mandates for colonies inhabited "by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilisation". Article 2 of the Mandate for South West Africa states that

2808-496: The Native the poor land that the whites scorn to occupy." Emmett points out that in 1924 the Administrator stated in his annual report that there were "hundreds of good farms" still awaiting settlers, and Emmett comments that there were clearly different standards governing the availability of land for blacks and whites in the territory. Although "native reserves" were set aside, those were often too small and too arid to support flocks. In

2886-452: The Natives at all important centres and on each occasion promised the Natives the old freedom along with great possessions of land an unlimited herds of cattle." Non-whites without land were given temporary reserves on vacant farmland of good quality within their former tribal areas, and were protected from ill treatment at the hands of their former masters. This treatment, and the promises made by

2964-584: The Natives realise the "utter impossibility of complying with such a request" seems surely to point not to the Natives inferior comprehension but to the Whites’ calculated duplicity, pointing out that under the Mandate South Africa had been given, and accepted, the political conditions enabling it to give high priority to Native interests in South West Africa. These incursions on Bondelswarts land fed into

3042-557: The Vagrancy Law (Proclamation 25 of 1920) made it a punishable offence for a person to "wander abroad" without "visibile lawful means or insufficient lawful means of support". Magistrates were empowered to compel those convicted to work for farmers at a predetermined wage; this discretionary power developed into a fruitful source of farm labour. A Masters and Servants Proclamation of 1920 imposed criminal punishment on servants guilty of negligence, breach of duty, desertion and disobedience;

3120-563: The appointment later aroused criticism, when General Jan Smuts , the Prime Minister of South Africa , and a key figure in the founding of the League of Nations , made the choice he had good motives and good reasons. Hofmeyr was a Cape man of liberal education and outlook and of wide administrative experience in the Cape , the Transvaal , and the Union of South Africa . For many years Hofmeyr had been

3198-553: The banners of justice. It seemed to the non-whites only just that their release from German rule should mean the restoration of the independence that they had enjoyed in the pre-German times. The South African forces had invaded the country as liberators; who were to be liberated if not the Herero, the Nama, all those in bondage?" Of course at the end of the First World War all those members of

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3276-510: The best watering places, was considered later to be one of the deepest causes of the Bondelswarts rebellion. Further land losses followed the first rising against German rule in 1898 when the Bondelswarts were discontent at being required to stamp their guns and possess gun licences in line with a newly promulgated law. Leutwein hurried down south from Windhoek in September 1898 with an armed force to compel them to comply. Willem Christian , still

3354-412: The border, were allocated huge farms, virtually for the asking, that were then petted and pampered into eventual solvency. In his 1921 Report, the Administrator states that "at this late stage … there are difficulties in the way of procuring sufficient or suitable ground for Natives on account of the vested rights having to be considered". Wellington asks what "at this late stage" can mean, given that this

3432-565: The chiefs and headmen of the Herero people met and decided to stake all on open war. They were a significantly larger force than the Bondelswarts – the Hereros had 7,000-8,000 fighting men, although not all had rifles. In January 1904, around 150 German settlers and traders had been killed by the Herero forces, many in Okahandja . Realising the seriousness of the Herero situation, Leutwein hastily concluded

3510-561: The costs of proper housing, sanitation, health care and social provision. The Bondelswarts felt that the Germans, who had previously taken their land, had been defeated, and so this should result in the reinstatement of the lands already lost. In the 1922 Report of the Administrator for the South African Parliament and the Permanent Mandates Commission Hofmeyr states that "the Natives who of course had been

3588-486: The country… every Herero, with or without a rifle, will be shot. I will not take over any more women and children, but I will either drive them back to their people or have them fired on". Many Germans objected to the policy of exterminating the Herero, including the chancellor, Prince Bernhard von Bülow , who argued to Kaiser Wilhem II that the order was "contradictory to all Christian and humane principles". However, von Bülow did argue rather pragmatically that extermination

3666-433: The deconstruction of colonialism and the construction of a new paradigm. With the creation of the Permanent Mandates Commission, the regime created was not what its founders had imagined; it was not a structure for imperial collaboration but rather "a polyvalent force-field of talk, one that amplified the voices of non-imperial states and even of colonised peoples". Lawyer turned historian Israel Goldblatt points out "there

3744-408: The deep-seated dissatisfaction among the Bondelswarts at the time of the rebellion, and the introduction of settlers from South Africa and questions of sovereignty remained a bone of contention with the Permanent Mandates Commission for the next seven or eight years. Nonetheless, the fact that the Bondelswarts retained a territorial base (unlike many other tribes) not only contributed to the anxiety of

3822-469: The desert. The Imperial Blue Book set out to convince the world how unsuitable the Germans were to govern natives, and manifestly achieved its purpose. Ruth First comments that when Britain and South Africa put on display the results of Germany's colonial policy, it was not because they wanted to champion the African cause, but because they wanted to discredit the German one. However, the pacification of Algeria by

3900-542: The dog tax so that blacks would be forced to seek work. This tax was increased substantially in February 1921, turning it into an enormously punitive tax, which according to Emmett, was "absurdly high". Susan Pedersen points out that the Administrator reported in 1922 that the average wages were 10-20 shillings per month, plus food, but that farmers were often unable to pay the wages. The new dog tax, in other words, amounted to between one and two months wages for one dog, rising to

3978-614: The early 1820s, at the time of the first contact with missionaries, the Bondelswarts inhabited the territory stretching 200 miles to the north of the Orange River in current day Namibia. The Bondelswarts were curious about Christianity – in 1827 Abraham Christian , the leader of the Bondelswarts, visited Leliefontein , the headquarters of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in Little Namaqualand in South Africa, and asked for

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4056-596: The end of 1905. Notwithstanding the 1904 treaty, the Bondelswarts, including Jacob Morenga , continued the rebellion later that year and attacked the German garrison at Warmbad in November 1904 inflicting severe losses. Thereafter Morenga established himself with 500 – 800 riflemen in the Great Karas Mountains from where he was able to plunder the lowlands and harry the German posts and garrison for many months, until his defeat at Van Rooi's Vlei in May 1906. Thereafter,

4134-568: The expansion of white settlement. In 1922, the Native Reserves Commission recommended a mere 10% of the land in the centre and south of the country for indigenous peoples to live on – 5 million hectares out of 57 million in all. But the actual proclamation made by the Administration was even worse: it gave Africans only 2 million hectares. Blacks (including so-called Coloureds) formed 90% of the population, but were confined to 3.5% of

4212-459: The first five years of the League of Nations Mandate. The tentative liberalism of the military administration disappeared and white settler interests once more reigned supreme. After the First World War the League of Nations was established with its principle mission being to maintain world peace. South Africa was granted the Mandate to administer South West Africa under Article 22 of the Covenant of

4290-476: The first five years of the Mandate than was allowed for all blacks in the police zone in the same period provides a rough but clear indication of the administration's priorities. Hofmeyr felt that the "sacred trust" of the Mandate referred to the prevention of blacks from obtaining arms and ammunition or liquor, but did not exclude the extension of the Union native policy of segregation to South West Africa, which he felt

4368-472: The horrors of those years. The report, the infamous "Imperial Blue Book" produced in Windhoek in 1918, comprised a 220-page heavily illustrated indictment of Germany's harsh, even genocidal regime. The report detailed the German military operations against the tribes, with pictures of the crude executions, neck chains, leg and arm fetters, the flayed backs of women prisoners and Herero refugees returning starved from

4446-444: The land. The reserves allocated to blacks were never able to sustain their populations by design as they were always intended to be pools of labour from which black workers would come to the so-called white areas – the mines, railways, developing industries and farms. By confining blacks to these areas the South African regime and white settlers avoided having to pay wages that would support a black worker and his/her family, and avoided

4524-402: The laughable amount of ten pounds, or as much as one or two years’ wages, for five dogs. What is more, as the missionary Monsignor Kolikowski pointed out, the Bondelswarts were aware that in the Union the dog tax was two shillings and sixpence. Bondelswarts The Bondelswarts are a Nama ethnic group of Southern Africa living in the extreme south of Namibia , in an area centred on

4602-514: The liberators of the indigenous peoples. South Africa appointed Sir EHL Gorges as the territory's military administrator. Gorges repealed the most draconian German laws including laws allowing flogging of non-whites and restricting non-white movement and stock-holding. He also had over 300 German settlers put on trial for abusing African laborers. Lord Buxton , the Governor-General of South Africa , visited South West Africa in 1915 and "addressed

4680-460: The need to pander to international opinion by presenting a liberal image to the world. The German settlers could be welcomed back into the fold as fellow whites and colonial masters. There was no longer a perceived need, as there had been in the military period, to depict the German settlers as brutal and vicious in their treatment of blacks. In 1921, an advisory council was appointed to represent settler interests and in his annual report for that year

4758-425: The neighbouring settlers, thus increasing the tension that led to the 1922 Rebellion, but provided the essential social cohesion for the Bondelswarts to be able to conduct their resistance. The white settlers were soon desperate for labour, and Hofmeyr set to work constructing a mesh of legal, financial and bodily controls to force Africans into their service. In his official Report for 1920 the Administrator said that

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4836-406: The opportunity to rebel against the occupying forces and reintroduce German rule. Appeasement of the white settler interests undoubtedly resulted in harsher treatment of the indigenous peoples in the early 1920s. Many of the demands made by the white settlers during the military period for more land, tighter control of the labour force, branding laws, a heavier dog tax and others were introduced during

4914-474: The original owners of the land which had as a result of war been confiscated by the German Government, cut up into farms and sold or allotted to Europeans, had formed the expectation that this Administration, as the natural result of the war, would similarly confiscate German owned farms and thus the Natives would recover the lost land and homes previously occupied by them. Emmett reflects that as late as 1946

4992-488: The rebellion forfeited all of their lands and their leadership ceased to be recognised. Following the rebellion the German authorities allowed the British Karaskoma Syndicate to select 12,800 square kilometres of farmland in the area. Wellington states that the selection by the syndicate of the best farmland, and the acquisition of the best watering places, was considered later to be one of the deepest causes of

5070-429: The rebellious tribes by shedding rivers of blood and money". This contrasted strongly with the measured approach of the Herero chiefs, who at their meeting before the outbreak had specifically resolved to limit their attack to German men of military age, and that no women or children were to be harmed. Von Trotha followed this with his infamous proclamation of 2 October 1904 which stated: "The Herero people must now leave

5148-463: The respected Clerk of the Union House of Assembly, and had come to Smuts originally on the strong recommendation of John X. Merriman , a former Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope , and had always proved himself trustworthy and intelligent. The security of tenure that came with the Mandate meant that notwithstanding the language of the Mandate the new civilian administration initially did not feel

5226-431: The sale became apparent. When Theodor Leutwein , the German colonial administrator, visited the Bondelswarts in 1895, he was surprised at the contents of the agreement, and could only attribute Willem's action to the fact that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of signing. Leutwein resolved to remedy the inequitable results of the agreement at a later date, and the purchase was not allowed in its full extent by

5304-536: The third quarter of the nineteenth century the area occupied by the Bondelswarts extended from the Orange River northwards to beyond the Great Karas Mountains and westwards to the Fish River , an area of 40,000 square kilometres (4 million hectares). By the time of the 1922 Bondelswarts rebellion, over 95% of this land had been lost, some by way of confiscation but also by way of sale. In April 1890, Germany had signed

5382-458: The time of his appointment had a reputation for utterly ruthless methods with native rebels, and was largely responsible for the Herero and Namaqua genocide between 1904 and 1906. Von Trotha's approach was unforgiving. He told Leutwein in 1904: "I know enough tribes in Africa. They all have the same mentality insofar as they yield only to force. It was and remains my policy to apply this force by unmitigated terrorism and even cruelty. I shall destroy

5460-709: The town of Warmbad . They rose up against German colonial rule in the Nama War 1903-1906. They were brutally repressed. They inhabit an arid region around Fish River Canyon and the Richtersveld . In 1922 they were involved in the Bondelswarts Rebellion , a revolt against a tax on dogs, which was violently repressed. This Namibia -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Great Karas Mountains The Great Karas Mountains ( Afrikaans : Groot Karasberge ) are located in

5538-399: The unusual situation of being faced with not only a hostile, or potentially hostile, black population, but in the remaining German population, a hostile, or potentially hostile, white population. The possibility of a black rebellion therefore posed a double threat to the military administration as in addition to the threat posed by the black rebellion the German community might take advantage of

5616-401: The withholding of wages and unlawful dismissal were also penalised. A 1922 proclamation established the South African "pass" system whereby Blacks, on pain of imprisonment, were compelled to carry a form of identity document and travel within South West Africa was forbidden without special permits. In February 1921, the Administrator visited the Bondelswarts and encouraged them to take jobs with

5694-629: The ǃGamiǂnun, a clan of the Nama people ) initially inhabited a territory to the north and south of the Orange River , but as the Dutch administration at the Cape extended its sovereignty the Bondelswarts moved to the lands north of the Orange River to avoid interaction with the government of the Cape. European traders came to Namibia in the early nineteenth century but they were few in number and their activities were relatively low key, although they did facilitate access to European guns and some European made goods. In

5772-421: Was based. The interests of white settler farmers played a central role in shaping the contract labour system. The white settlers had clearly envisaged the creation of a stable class-structured society with the indigenous population as a dispossessed proletariat. In addition to the levying of taxes, a number of other measures were introduced to increase the labour force for the benefit of the white settlers. In 1920

5850-571: Was in harmony with the terms of the Mandate. This approach would lead directly to the Bondelswarts rebellion. In 1918 and 1919, increasing numbers of white South Africans moved to South West Africa to take advantage of the new opportunities. A large number of temporary grazing licences in relation to the southern districts (including the Bondelswarts territory) were issued to trek-boers from South Africa. Following his appointment Hofmeyr's administration swiftly began demarcating landholdings, arranging loans and advertising for South African settlers. In 1920

5928-400: Was made upon the people and none at all on their leader Abraham Christian. At first, contact with the Cape government was relatively remote. In 1830, Abraham Christian , as leader of the Bondelswarts, received a subsidy from the Cape government in return for not becoming involved in the disputes among the tribes further north, and for undertaking to suppress disturbances and to co-operate with

6006-413: Was the obvious dilemma of entrusting a Mandate, which emphasizes the primary interest of the Natives, to a Mandatory whose Government was dependent on the votes of its own white electorate, which was concerned primarily with white man's interests. In October 1920, the Union of South Africa's government appointed Gysbert Reitz Hofmeyr as the first non-military Administrator of South West Africa . Although

6084-401: Was unwise since the native population was an essential source of labour for farming and mining. In December 1904 von Trotha's extermination order was countermanded, though much of the damage had already been done. Von Trotha was withdrawn from South West Africa in November 1905. According to Crawford, about 50% of the Nama and 75% to 80% of the Herero population had been killed by German forces by

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