Imported cattle from Argentina, offloaded at Swakopmund Jetty.
Photo: around 1906 or 1907
The Rinderpest epidemic of 1895/6 had decimated cattle stocks in SWA/Namibia. An estimated 90% of cattle in all of southern Africa were wiped out. The German settlers inoculated their surviving animals with the bile of infected animals against this raging epidemic. Especially the Herero pastoralists refused to believe in such witchcraft.
Eventually the German farmers did have cattle stocks again, the Herero did not.
The German settlers imported many different exotic cattle breeds ie Simmenthaler Fleckvieh. Much later, Brahman were imported through Texas.
There had been several shipments of cattle from Argentina during 1907/8. During the time of the German - Herero war an estimated 12 000 horses were shipped in from Mexico, Texas, Brazil and Argentina. During the shipment, the horses were mainly fed the nutritious seed pods of the Mexican Honey mesquite tree (botanical Latin name "Prosopis glandulosa").
That is how the Prosopis tree found its way into Namibia.
YouTube Swakopmund Jetty:
The name Argentina is derived from Greek: the Land of Silver.
The Rio de la Plata gets its name from Spanish "River of Silver".
The early explorers along the Brazilian - Argentinian coast once had to spend an entire month moored in a bay / estuary off the coast of Brazil. The month was January 1502.
The place is nowadays referred to as "The River of January": "Rio de Janeiro".
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