Otjimbingwe

History

Otjimbingwe is the Ovaherero name of the Khoekhoegowab word 'Atsas', which means to try to drink. The Damara people were already present in the area before the Herero people migrated to Otjimbingwe (Atsas). The present-day make up of Otjimbingwe shows more Damaras or Khoekhoe speakers than Hereros. The area had already been a settlement of the Damaras before the Herero migration in the early 18th century. The Old Bay Road, built by Jonker Afrikaner in the 1840s, led through Otjimbingwe, making the settlement an economic and cultural hub. The Rhenish Mission Society subsequently used Otjimbingwe as a central location for their Namibian mission in 1849. Johannes Rath and his family settled in the area on 11 July that year. In 1854, copper was found in the nearby Khomas highlands and the Walwich Bay Mining Company established its offices in the city. Miners and merchants flocked to the settlement, and the researcher and businessman Karl Johan Andersson bought the entire settlement in 1860. He sold it five years later to the Rhenish Missionary Society. However the copper supply had been exhausted by that time, and the mining operations ceded. The settlement was attacked and plundered several times in its early history. In 1863 the Battle of Otjimbinge took place, one of the largest battles of the Herero-Nama War. Andersson and the Herero fought the Oorlam people under Christian Afrikaner. Hahn also founded the first school of South West Africa at Otjimbingwe in 1876. However, control gradually shifted to Windhoek, and the civil administration moved there in 1892. The railway line from Windhoek and Swakopmund was completed in the early 1900s, bypassing Otjimbingwe, and the city greatly declined in size thereafter.

Geography

Otjimbingwe is situated south of Karibib on the junction of Omusema and the Swakop River. It had approximately 8,000 inhabitants .

Most-observed species

• Mariqua Flycatcher

  Bradornis mariquensis A.Smith, 1847 · Aves
  5
• Lesser Gray Shrike

  Lanius minor Gmelin, 1788 · Aves
  4
• Capped Wheatear

  Oenanthe pileata (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  4
• Cape Starling

  Lamprotornis nitens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  3
• White-browed Sparrow-Weaver

  Plocepasser mahali A.Smith, 1836 · Aves
  3
• Red-crested Korhaan

  Lophotis ruficrista (A.Smith, 1836) · Aves
  2
• Southern Fiscal

  Lanius collaris Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  2
• Scaly Weaver

  Sporopipes squamifrons (A.Smith, 1836) · Aves
  2

Most recent

• M 3.5 — 2019-03-02
  24 km ENE of Karibib, Namibia