THE OVAMBO CAMPAIGN MEMORIAL NEAR THE WINDHOEK RAILWAY STATION
Compiled by Wolfgang Witschas
Abstract
In the capital of Namibia, Windhoek, there is a relatively unknown monument which had been erected by South African soldiers in 1919, to commemorate their fallen comrades that were killed during the Ovambo uprising and the subsequent campaign in February 1917 in Ovamboland. The king of the Kwanjama nation, Mandume Ndemufayo, was killed during the attack by the South African army at his kraal near Ehole (Oihole) in Ovamboland.
Keywords
• Windhoek
• Windhoek Railway Station
• Deutsch Südwestafrika (DSWA)
• South West Africa (SWA)
• South Africa
• Ovambo uprising
• Portugal
• Angola
• Ovamboland
• Ovambo King Mandume Ndemufayo
• Kwanjama Ovambo nation
• Ehole (Oihole)
• Omhedi
• Garden of Remembrance/Palm Tree Park
• World War 1
Introduction
In the capital of Namibia, Windhoek, there are numerous monuments, memorials and historical places, dating back from the era that Namibia was a German colony from 1895 to 1919 and was known as “Deutch Südwest Afrika (DSWA)”. From 1919 to 1990 the territory was administrated by South Africa as a mandate allocated by first the League of Nations and later the United Nations (UN) and was known as Southwest Africa (SWA). After independence on 21 March 1990, the territory became Namibia and the new government over time erected its own monuments and memorials.
Most monuments and memorials dating back to the time before independence are well known and are landmarks for centuries. However there is one that is relatively unknown and only played a small part in die early history of the country, the Ovambo Campaign Memorial in Windhoek.
The Ovambo Campaign Memorial
Palm Tree Park/Garden of Remembrance
Photo: Hennie Heymans
Background of the Monument
The Ovambo Campaign Memorial in Windhoek, Namibia, is a historic landmark erected in 1919 to commemorate the 1917 campaign against King Mandume Ndemufayo of the Kwanyama Ovambo. Interestingly, the memorial has taken on a different significance over time, particularly for the Owambo people. Many believe that King Mandume’s head was buried under the monument after he was decapitated, leading to its appropriation as a memorial to the king.
Location of the monument
This monument is situated in the Palm Tree Park/Garden of Remembrance near the railway station in Windhoek in Bahnhof Street. It was erected by members of the South African Army who at that stage were in control of the former German colony after invading DSWA in September 1914 and the German surrender in June 1915, to commemorate their comrades killed on 06 February 1917 near Ehole (Oihole) in Ovamboland in a battle against the uprising led by King Mandume Ndemufayo of Kwanjama.
King Mandume Ndemufayo was killed in action and his head was cut off.This historic landmark was erected in 1919 a year after World War 1 had ended on 11 November 1918.
Ovambo Uprising/Revolt: Background
The Ovambo Uprising, also known as the Cuamato Uprising or Ovamboland Uprising,
was an uprising against Portuguese colonial rule in World War I. It lasted from about 18 December 1914 to 06 February 1917 with the death of its leader, King Mandume yaNdemufayo, by South African forces in Ovamboland, then SWA .
Prelude to the Ovambo Revolt/Uprising
Before the Scramble for Africa, the area of Southern Angola and northern Namibia where the Cunene river flows south and then turns west to the Atlantic ocean and the Okavango river that also flows south and the turns to the east was owned by the Kwanyama Kingdom. The Berlin agreements of 1884 split the kingdom and the larger Ovambo ethnic group as a whole between two colonial powers, Germany and Portugal, along a line connecting the points where one river turns west (Cunene) and the other east (Okavango), without any say from any from the native people in Angola and Namibia. However, none of the two powers would attempt occupation or administration for at least two decades. King Mandume Ndemufayo of Kwanjama ruled from his kraal in southern Angola. From 1907 to 1912, King Mandume Ndemufayo and his warriors regularly clashed with the Portuguese in southern Angola until World War l started.
World War 1
When World War l started on 28 July 1914 and Portugal and Germany were at war, King Mandume Ndemufayo realised that he had a golden opportunity to attack the Portuguese whose attention was solely focused on the expected imminent German invasion of southern Angola from DSWA.
During August 1914 the Germans attempted to persuade the Ovambos to assist them in fighting the Portuguese in Angola. King Mandume Ndemufayo gave the Germans his word that the Kwanjama would do so when the Germans attack the Portuguese in October 1914, but did not show up and the Germans postponed the attack for November 1914.
During November 1914 the Germans attacked the Portuguese and the German army gained a major victory at the Battle of Naulila. It was a severe defeat for Portuguese forces and showed off “German military brilliance”.
The Kwanjama exploited the situation of the Portuguese defeat and started a revolt which lasted from December 1914 to August 1915.
Mandume Ndemufayos’ Owambo fighters were eventually defeated at Mongua by the Portuguese in southern Angola. Following his defeat Mandume fled to former “DSWA”, German Southwest Africa, by now under South African control. On 02 September 1915 the capital of the Kwanjama, N’giva, fell to Portuguese forces, ending Ovambo control of the majority of Southern Angola. He set up his new headquarters in a village called Oihole in the former DSWA. From there, he kept fighting Portuguese forces in Southern Angola, but after a while, he withdrew his forces south because he recognized the tactical advantage the border gave him.
Simultaneously, the South African forces peacefully conquered the portion of the Oukwanyama kingdom formerly located in German Southwest Africa; this was at a time when Germany lost the first world war, and thus all its African colonies. German Southwest Africa’s administration was taken over by the Union of South Africa (part of the British Empire) and the territory was administered as Southwest Africa under a League of Nations mandate. Due to losses and lack of water, ya Ndemufayo first relocated the Kwanyama capital to an area south called Oihole, and then later into Southwest Africa. He used the border line as refuge from where to conduct attacks against Portuguese who were encroaching on his old territory in Southern Angola.
The Portuguese demanded his extradition from Oihole, but he had “protection ” in South Africa. However, he kept breaking the terms of South African “protection” by increasingly launching incursions into Angola. On one of these incursions in October 1916, his men ambushed a Portuguese patrol in Angola, killing 16 privates and an officer. This caught the attention of South African Prime Minister, General Louis Botha, who was upset by Mandume’s actions and told him to explain himself at Windhoek. In response, Botha was told that Kwanyaman law prohibited the King from leaving his territory and that Mandume thought he had done nothing wrong.
In early 1917 open conflict erupted between Mandume and recently appointed South African Resident Commissioner, Manning. Mandume ya Ndemufayo refused to submit to South African control. Mandume said, “If the English want me, I am here in Oihole. I am a man, not a woman, and I will fight until my last bullet is expended.” The South Africans, refusing joint operations with the Portuguese (who “thirsted for his blood”) sent a force of 700 soldiers under Colonel de Jager to depose Mandume.
By this point, Manning, Lieutenant Carl Hugo L. Hahn, and allegedly Ndjukuma, whom King Mandume had displaced from Oihole to Omhedi, had collected enough information to make a feasible open attack on Mandume. Finally, on 06 February 1917, machine-gun fire from South African forces killed Mandume near his embala in Oihole, ending the Ovambo Uprising. The cause of his death is disputed; South African records show his death from machine-gun fire, while oral and popular history described his death as suicide after having been wounded, so that he could not be taken captive by enemy forces.
The body of the late king Mandume, surrounded by South African soldiers
Google:/https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovambo_Uprising
Unkunnown Author – Public Domain Photo
Background of King Mandume yaNdemufayo
Born in 1894, Mandume inherited a legacy of sovereignty and autonomy as the last king of the Oukwanyama people, a subgroup of the larger Ovambo ethnic group.
The Ovambo people, including the Kwanyama kingdom, had long maintained their independence in Southern Angola until the Berlin Conference of 1884 when everything changed. At this conference, European powers divided the region without considering the wishes of the native people. As a result, the Ovambo territory was split into Portuguese West Africa and German Southwest Africa, greatly impacting their sovereignty and unity.
Despite this division, Portuguese and German authorities refrained from immediate occupation or administration of the region. The Ovambo ethnic group, including the Kwanyama people, remained largely autonomous and fiercely defended their territory against colonial encroachments.
Before Mandume, previous Cuanhama (Kwanyama) kings had fought valiantly against Portuguese invasion of their land, King Weyulu from 1885 – 1904, his brother King Nande (1904 – 1911); unfortunately, they all in the end saw no choice but to bow to the inevitable Portuguese colonization. Mandume rejected the idea of Portuguese colonial rule and demanded to be on equal terms with the colonial rulers in their distant capitals.
Upon ascending to the throne in 1911 at the age of 17 following the death of his father, Nande ya Hedimbi, Mandume faced the hard task of safeguarding his kingdom’s autonomy in the face of Portuguese aggression. Determined to resist foreign influence, he expelled Portuguese traders and Christian missionaries from his kingdom and implemented measures to counter price inflation, aiming to protect his people’s economic interests.
King Mandume ya Ndemufayo (photo probably taken at Oihole sometime before 1916)
Google:/https://afrolegends.com/2023/02/27/mandume-and-the-ovambo-resistance-to-portugesangola/Unknown Author – Public Domain
Google:/https://afrolegends.com/2023/02/27/mandume-and-the-ovambo-resistance-to-portugesangola/
After his death the South African administration abolished the Kwanyama Kingship, which was only restored in 1996, after over 8 decades.
Efforts were undertaken to return the power stone, and that materialised in 1995. On 6 February 1996, exactly 79 years after Mandume’s death, a member of the royal family, Kornelius Mwetupunga Shelungu, was inaugurated as traditional leader (ohamba) of the Oukwanyama traditional authority. Shelungu died on 03 November 2005, aged 89.
In August 2002, the Heroes Acre outside Windhoek was inaugurated. Several anti-colonial resistance heroes of Namibia received symbolic graves at the Heroes Acre like Hendrik Witbooi and king Mandume.
Early resistant, bronze plaque for King Mandume
ya Ndemufayo at the Independence Museum in
Windhoek, Namibia
Google:/https://afrolegends.com/2023/02/27/mandume-and-the-ovambo-resistance-to-portugesangola/
Dr. Y., afroledgens.com
Monuments in honour of king Mandume Oihole Angola
On 06 February 2002, a monument was unveiled at Oihole, Angola, during an official ceremony with Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos and Namibia’s President Sam Nujoma in attendance. The grave of Mandume received a tomb and a huge ring next to it with three symbolic Mopane leaves. The road from Ondjiva to Oihole was named after Mandume.
The monument at Oihole, in Angola with King Mandume’s shrine, surrounded by symbolic Mopane leaves, joined by a ring. Photo by: Nova Gazeta: Novaya Gazeta is an independent Russian newspaper. It is known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs
Omhedi Ovamboland Namibia
The 100th anniversary of the death of Oukwanyama King Mandume ya Ndemufayo on 06 February 2017 was attended by thousands of Namibians at Omhedi in the Ohangwena region, Ovamboland, including former Namibian presidents, where President Hage Geingob unveiled a bust of King Mandume.
Google:/https://afrolegends.com/2023/02/27/mandume-and-the-ovambo-resistance-to-portugesangola/
Photo credit: The Namibian
Comments by Compiler
The compiler grew up in the early 1960s in the vicinity of the Windhoek Station. The family stayed in a flat in Bahnhof Street opposite the Garden of Remembrance (now also called the Palm Tree Park) and the former South African Railways and Harbour (SAR +H) recreation club, Talpark. His parents owned a Delicatessens shop on the ground floor on the street side of the flats. During weekends and during school holidays he and his older brother and sister often went to the park to play and sometimes went to the monument not really understanding what it stood for.
At that time there was a concrete water tank behind the monument and a small iron fence around the monument. The palm trees were all around the monument and in the remainder there were numerous large trees. At the northern end of the garden was a sandpit where children could play. We had named the park in German “Ovambo Garten”. It is now named the Palm Tree Park and also Garden of Remembrance. The park is now utilised as an events venue and is closed off by vibracrete/precast concrete walls and the gates are locked. There are no sign posts indicating that a memorial is located in the southern part of the park.
References:
Google:/https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovambo_Uprising#cite_note-FOOTNOTEBirmingham201591-22
Google:/https://www.namibibwen.com/monuments.htm
Google:/https://afrolegends.com/2023/02/27/mandume-and-the-ovambo-resistance-to-portugesangola/
