Camels in South-West Africa (Namibia)
Part 1
"A twist of fate"
The first camel to be brought to Namibia was a lone bull which Capt. Curt von Francois had bought at Tenerife and shipped to Walvis Bay with the very first contingent of "Schutztruppe" soldiers in 1889.
It is not quite clear for what purpose he had brought it, but it has been reported that the camel was difficult to handle since it felt lonesome and frustrated. It was soon left to its own devices, and was seen moving down towards the coast on several occasions. It was eventually found dead, drowned in the lagoon of Sandwich Harbour, south of Walvis Bay.
Not the end of that story. Much more transpires.
Von Francois had taken his camel along to meetings between himself and the old paramount chief of the Herero, Maharero, the son of Tjamuaha. The Herero found it a remarkable feature that the camel did not have any horns. Now it needs to be told that Maharero was member of the patriclan of the Kudu.
These people of the "ohorongo oruzo" were, for instance, not allowed to eat meat of animals without horns. Anyone of their clan who had eaten such meat knowingly or unknowingly, was considered doomed - although a shaman might still have worked his magic. To the heathen Herero the camel appeared to be a dangerous animal, especially to those of the Ohorongo clan (Kudu people).
Early one fine morning in 1890, as the sun was rising over Okahandja, the lone camel was seen grazing near the chief's royal palace, which was also the place of the sacred ancestral fire. The meat cooked at this fire was only ever to be eaten by people of the Ohorongo clan.
The Herero noticed the camel trundling along between Maharero's main house and the fire. Even worse, the camel's shadow for a brief moment fell onto the ashes of the "okuruwo" fire, in such a way that the shadow of its head was cast on that spot where the 'Lady of the Fire' was busy rekindling the embers.
(Only once the fire was successfully rekindled in the morning would the other women be allowed to start milking the cows for preparing 'omaere').
This cast of shadows was considered a very bad omen, interpreted as a desecration of the ancestral fire, and it was understood that Maharero would not have much longer to live.
The camel had bewitched, poisoned Maharero.
A few weeks later Maharero's head wife, Kataree, the mother of Samuel, did cook the meat of an unhorned sheep for the chief. He was aware of what he was eating.
Omuhona Maharero died at Okahandja in the early hours of 7th of October 1890. Until this day the Herero in the entire country refer to that fateful year as 'Otyongamero'.
The year of the camel.
The animal was later found drowned and dead at Sandwich Harbor. Not far from where it had originally been brought to theses shores.
By late 1895 two grandsons of Maharero, Friedrich and Traugott, sons of Samuel, boarded a steam ship at Swakopmund, bound for Hamburg, via Teneriffa. They spent almost two years on an 'educational' in and around Berlin. Together with one son of the Witbooi nobility they also had an audition at the Emperor, Wilhelm II von Hohenzollern.
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