Background
The town was founded around some hot springs, which for centuries were known by the Swartobooi Namas as the place Anhes, meaning ‘smoke’, which referred to the steam rising from the hot water. A more permanent settlement was established in 1844 by Rhenish Missionary, Heinrich Kleinschmidt. This original mission station lasted for 20 years before being abandoned in 1864 following an attack by the Oorlam Afrikaners under Jonker Afrikaner. Kleinschmidt’s congregation dispersed following their defeat and Kleinschmidt and his family walked through the bush for four days before reaching the safety of the mission station at Otjimbinwge, where Kleinschmidt laid down and died.
The Basters migrated to the area from the Cape in 1870 and under the leadership of Hemanus van Wyk established a settlement at the site of the now abandoned Rhenish mission station. The name of the town comes from the Bible: “He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarrelled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, ‘Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.’” (Genesis Chapter 26, verse 22).
In the years following the arrival of van Wyk and his people, the mission station was rebuilt. One of the earliest buildings to be completed was the Lutheran church in Church Street; with its distinctive brickwork it is reminiscent of the Putz architectural style of the Ombudsman’s Office in Windhoek.
The Baster community has traditionally been a farming community, living a more or less self-sufficient farming existence, similar to that of the white Afrikaner settlers. Fiercely independent, Christian and western-oriented in their culture, the Basters have managed to hold on to their land despite attempts by the German and South African colonial governments to take it away from them.
From the 1920s until independence, the Rehoboth community was governed by a kaptein (traditional leader) and his raad (council) who had jurisdiction over all aspects of community life except for the law. A white magistrate appointed by the colonial government held these powers. Matters concerning agriculture, education, local government and health were all managed by the raad assisted by seven volksraad or ‘people’s councils’ from around the region. In effect the Rehoboth district existed as a semi-autonomous region within Namibia.
After independence, a section of the Baster community, under the leadership of the former kaptein, Hans Diergaardt, fought a court battle with the central government to keep control over the traditional communal land of the town itself and the land in a radius of 10 km around it. The most recent Supreme Court ruling in 1996 handed control of the land to the government, to be administered by the town council, thus depriving the traditional leadership of the right to administer the land. Just before his death in 1998, Diergaardt made peace with PM Hage Geingob, and Rehoboth finally put aside its dispute with the new Namibian state.
Rehoboth videos
