Taa

The research area can be roughly described as the area southeast of Gobabis between the Trans-Kalahari-Highway running from Gobabis to the Botswana border in the north, the national border in the east, and the Nossob river in the south and west. In administrative terms the area is part of the Gobabis district in Omaheke Region and of the Mariental district in Hardap Region. Part of the area is privately owned commercial farm land and part is communal land. Communal land areas are a) the former Aminuis Native Reserve established for Herero people in 1923, b) the so-called Korridor between the reserve and the border, which originally was meant to present a buffer-zone against the spreading of cattle diseases from Botswana into the reserve, and c) an area consisting of ten farms around Tjaka-Ben Hur which was given to the Tswana people in the 1970s. The communal land is on all sides surrounded by commercial farms except for the cross-border-area.

The map shows the regional setting of the research area.

Map by Monika Feinen.

The whole area is covered by Acacia shrublands and forms part of the Kalahari Sandveld with limestone ridges surfacing in parts. The landscape is only sparsely structured with low dunes running in a South-North or SSE-NNW direction and a number of pans, which are often lined by crescent shaped and geohistorically younger dunes on their southern rims. Some of the pans are salt pans without any vegetation, but most pans carry a typical sequence of grasses, herbs, bushes and trees from the lowest to the highest point.

Annual rainfall amounts to about 200-350 mm per annum and decreases from north to south. The Nossob river used to be the lifeline for settlement and immigration not only for San but also for Nama, Herero and for white farmers. Some permanent water sources or fountains are located in the southwestern corner of the communal area at Aminuis and at a number of pans in the vicinity.

N!ore-/i-!um – dune on the southern rim of Kongoa pan looking over the shrublands in the south.
S 23°39.062’, E 19°41.697’, 4.174 ft

Photo by Gertrud Boden. May 2004.

„N!uwi [pl. n!ori] is a kind of tree and !um is a dune. It is a big dune with many n!ori-trees. The people used to stay on the dune because they wanted to look down. It is one of our big places. People used to stay here for many years. The pan doesn’t keep the water very long. Before the borehole was drilled people went to N//uhi in order to fetch water. Or they used the ostrich eggs they had prepared and dug in the sand during the rain season.“

(BK, 30.5.2004)

„At first, only we were staying at Kongoa. We drank the water from the pan. Then the Herero people came in together with the Boers. The borehole was drilled by the Whites. It was drilled for the Herero. When the Herero came in we went out. We went to the Korridor when the borehole was drilled at Kongoa. We were still moving around in the veld. We were afraid of the Herero. Only one or two of us went to look what was going on, or in order to buy tobacco. The Herero told us that only their skin was black but that their blood was as red as ours and that they were not going to do any harm to us. When the Herero talked like that we went one by one to Kongoa. The Herero have lured us with tobacco. We are now in the Korridor but we will go back. We are only visiting here. Our real place is Kongoa.“

(JT, 23.6.2004)

Smoking rest at /aqri-si-toqma (‘Blue wildebeest’s skin’).
S 23°38.603’, E 19°45.747’, 4.145 ft.

Photo by Gertrud Boden. February 2005.

„The old people have found a dead blue wildebeest here and took the skin off. It was a hunting place. The pan keeps the water only for a short time. We came here in order to hunt in the first place. But we also got bushfood to the west. In winter we found a lot of truffles on the surrounding plains around here.“

(HM, 19.2.2005)

View of !’uri-=aan salt pan from the western rim in easterly direction.
S 23° 41.644, E 19°48.280, 4.027ft. (middle of pan)

Photo by Gertrud Boden. May 2004.

„!’uri means ‘white’ and =aan means ‘place’ or ‘pan’ in Nama language. We call the place in Nama language. The pan used to keep water only for about three months. It was a place where we went for hunting.“

(BK, 24.5.2004)

„People came here to eat springbucks. The ground is salty and the springbucks came to lick the salt. People used to stay here for a long time and ate a lot of springbucks. Because the old people lived in that way we also lived like that. Many people used to stay in the dunes around here. They used to stay in the direction they came from. The water is a little bit salty. You don’t drink it. The bottom of the pan is plain. It is like cement. There is no grass in it.“

(HM, 22.5.2005)

Limestone ridge at n//uhi.
S 23°34.699, E 19°31.875, 3.968ft.

Photo by Gertrud Boden. May 2004.

„N//uhi means ‘fat’. We called the place ‘fat’ because lots of ostriches were always to be found here. We used to say ‘Let us go and drink fat’ when we wanted to go to N//uhi. The Herero call the place ‘Otjewe’, that is ‘the place of the stones’.“
(BK, 30.5.2004)

„At N//uhi we always got water. When you dig a little bit, the water comes out easily.“
(JK, 5.2.2005)

„There was a big village at N//uhi. Herero were also staying there but they were few. We hunted with pitfalls and by foot. We didn’t have dogs that time. From there we went to other places in order to visit our relatives and hunt. Then we went back to N//uhi. It was our permanent place (blyplek). Later the Herero came in. They were planting tobacco and some of us went to N//uhi in order to fetch tobacco. We went with skins and meat and jackal skins in order to barter for tobacco.“
(JT, 23.4.2004)

Fountain at the southwestern edge of Aminuis pan.
S 23°42.200’, E 19°21.528’, 4.041ft.

Photo by Gertrud Boden. July 2004.

„Aminuis is the Nama name. The Nama call it /ami-=nuis, ‘the sitting of the ostriches’. We also use to call it by the Nama name. When I was young I heard the name //áa soe. //áa is a tree [Acacia erioloba] and ‘soe’ means beneath or inside. The Tswanas also call the place like that: Mokaleng“
(HM, 24.2.2005)

„At first we lived alone at Aminuis. The Tswana were the first to come in, after the Tswanas the Kalahari [Kgalagadi] came. The Herero were the last people to come in.“
(MJ, 30.3.2004)