KEETMANSHOOP

1
KEETMANSHOOP
14 APRIL
1866
BANKS of blue-black cloud were ballooning above the plains
when the ox-wagon came to a halt near a pool of water –
Figure 1
.
the only open water for thousands of square miles of sun-parched
scrubland
2
A shortish. serious-faced man with a Paul Kruger beard helped down his wife, and
gazed round him - at the camel-thorn trees surrounding the water, at the low
mountain ridges to the south.
That night the heavens opened and man, wife and child were soaked to the skin.
Figure 2
J. G. Schröder and his family after a two-day journey from Berseba
Such was the official founding of Keetmanshoop on April 14, 1866.
But the history of the place goes back a lot further than the arrival of the Rhenish
missionary J. G. Schröder and his family after a two-day journey from Berseba.
There is even a theory that Simon van der Stel's exploration party pushed as far northward
as the present Keetmanshoop district in search of copper deposits.
But the first description of the area dates from the year 1790.
Willem van Reenen was sent by the British Government to gain information about
Namaland and Damaraland, and he writes about a place Modderfontein "where a
farmer named Visagie lived, who helped us with oxen"
.
Guilliam Visagie had committed a murder in the Cape Colony and had sought refuge, with
his wife. in the lonely wastes north of the Orange River.
When he left "Modderfontein" (because he was being harassed by a gang under
Captain Afrikaner), he filled up the fountain and the area became a black morass.
But it still served as the drinking place of lion, leopard. Giraffe and buck.
The old Nama chief Tseib later told the Reverend Tobias Fenchel , (who converted him
to Christianity), that during a hunting trip he had become parched with thirst.
His dogs came back to him spattered with mud. and led him to the water.
Shortly afterwards - about 1810 he decided to live at this spot and called it
Swartmodder.
3
CAPTAIN HENDRIK TSEIB
REVEREND TOBIAS FENCHEL
When the missionary, S. Hahn, stationed at Bethanie, visited Swartmodder he found
a strong fountain surrounded by large camel thorn trees.
He decided to build a church there .
FIRST RHENISH MISSION CHURCH BUILT BY SCHRöDER - 1869
The first church, accommodating 200 people, was built near the fountain in the
riverbed in 1869.
A commission, appointed by the Rhenish Missionary Society, declared that "Swartmodder
can be developed into the most beautiful mission station in Namaland"
There were little funds to carry out such a project but the chairman of the missionary
society, Kommerzienrat Keetmann of Elberfeld in Germany, made a private donation.
4
JOHANN KEETMANN
When Keetmann, a textile manufacturer, died a little later, Swartmodder was
renamed Keetmanshoop in his honour.
The Rev. J. G. Schröder was succeeded by the missionaries Dubiel and Hegner, but the
man who did the most successful missionary work at Keetmanshoop was undoubtedly
Tobias Fenchel.
REV. GEORG KRÖNLEIN
At first he had difficulties with the Nama tongue. The old Nama interpreter did not know the
Dutch language too well, and again and again throughout the sermon he would tell the
congregation: "You heard what he said".
Fenchel solved the problem by becoming proficient in the Nama language himself, which
quickly gained him the confidence of the congregation.
In 1890 the rains descended on Keetmanshoop as seldom before, and in October the
Aub River came down in raging flood, sweeping through the church and rectory. The
wooden carved pulpit was washed away and later found in the riverbed near
Seeheim, more than 30 miles to the west.
The undermined church collapsed in ruins.
5
All that remained are the pulpit and the big, bound Bible.
A new church was built on higher ground and in the presence of hundreds of
converts was consecrated on May 8, 1895.
Capable of accommodating 1,000 people, it is still
standing today and is the oldest building in
Keetmanshoop..
Replacement of the Church
washed away 1890. It was
consecrated 08 May 1895
A resident of Keetmanshoop who remembered the Rev. Tobias Fenchel well was Zacheus
Thomas, a Nama who was a spiritual head of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in
South West Africa.
(Thomas died on 06 April 1966 )
Zacheus Thomas
6
Intelligent, and with a shrewd grasp of politics, Thomas bears the distinction of having
been Keetmanshoop's first telephonist -from 1910 to 1915.
GENERAL POST OFFICE 1910
At his house in Tseiblaagte, an extention of Keetmanshoop named after Captain Tseib, he
told: "Willie Klaase and I were friends at school.
When the postmaster asked at the mission for two young boys to work at the post office,
Mr. Fenchel sent the two of us.
"I was then 18 years old. For the first two years we were sent out with telegrams. Then I
worked the telephones. There were about 35 lines-local and some outposts.
I also sent out messages in Morse.
"In 1915 when the soldiers came from the Union, we fled by train to Windhoek.
I was with the mail in Windhoek when I saw General Botha arrive."
FIRST RAILWAY STATION BUILDING
- 1908
FIRST TRAIN ARRIVED AT KEETMANSHOOP - 1908
7
Modern Keetmanshoop is a thriving, bustling little town with a population approaching
22 000.
NAUTE DAM – OFFICIAL OPENING ON – 09-09-1972 – BY J P KRIEL
It is the chief town of the South..
KARAKUL SHEEP
Keetmanshoop has one of the biggest townlands in Southern Africa.
The township of Keetmanshoop is situated in the middle of the farm Keetmanshoop
number 150, surrounded by the town lands.
The Keetmanshoop coat of arms contains, among other things, a kokerboom.
This amazing plant-half aloe, half tree-cane be regarded as the real symbol of
the whole arid South; a symbol of invincible toughness and staying power.
And in a district where drought is the normal condition and the years
carrying good rains are abnormal; where a farmer tells you with a
philosophical shrug that he hasn't had rain for 10 years, the
people themselves share the kokerboom's qualities.