Tsumeb travel guide

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Tsumeb

Tsumeb is the largest of the three triangle towns in northern Namibia and was developed as a major mining centre in about 1905. The name Tsumeb derives from the Hain/ Ohmbushman word Tsomsoub meaning ‘to dig a hole in loose ground’, and the Herero word Otjitsume meaning ‘place of frogs’. The reference to frogs derives from the green, red-brown and grey streaks of copper and lead ores found in the local rock. These are supposed to resemble frogspawn scooped out of a waterhole and sprinkled around on the surrounding rocks. The town’s coat of arms acknowledges both Tsumeb’s mining and frog connections by depicting a pair of frogs squatting alongside mining tools.

Thanks to the wealth generated by the mines, Tsumeb is an attractive town with some fine old colonial buildings and a palm-tree-lined central park with wide lawns. It is also the last stop before passing north of the so-called ‘Red Line’, separating the enclosed commercial cattle farms to the south from the communally owned lands to the north. Once over the Red Line one moves away from ‘European’ Namibia and into the heart of Owamboland where almost half of all Namibians live.