| 2018 Articles and essays posted on: The Nama-Herero genocide and the failure of Germany to pay reparations. |
The Swartboois lived in Rehoboth, Namibia long before the current Rehobothers lived here. All the Swartboois, with their missionary F-H Kleinschmidt and his family fled Rehoboth in 1864 when under attack by Jonker Afrikaner and his people, then resident in Klein Windhoek. They trekked via Otjimbingue north, eventually crossing the Kunene river into what is today's Angola. The terrain was not good for them and their animal herds. They returned across the Kunene and eventually settled in Fransfontein, a place with a spring, not occupied by other people. The Drift on the Kunene was later used by many who sought new beginnings in a land they knew little about. Also the Boer Dorslandtrekkers used this Drift. To this day is is known as Swartbooisdrift.
The memorial to the Chiefs of the Swartboois at the Fransfontein graveyard. This history reaches back to around 1700, actively retold by oral historians in each generation. Below: Charles Otto Uirab, the oral historian of the current generation.
