Moordkoppie ( Murder Hill ) can be seen on the East side from the B1
road as it By-Passes the town of
Okahandja.
Moordkoppie ( Murder Hill ) is surrounded by a 2 meter high razor
wire fence. The site around the fence is used as a weekend drinking
venue for some of the locals. It is littered with filth, broken beer
bottles, plastic bags flutter from their hanging places on the wire
fence. A sad, but stark indication of some local attitudes
For one-hundred-and-fifty-years the rocky outcrop known
as Moordkoppie ( Murder Hill ) has been steeped in a somewhat sensational and
popular myth. Modern historians are of the opinion that the reports
of the Herero and Rhenish Missionaries on the events of that period
were grossly exaggerated for the purpose of justifying a 'Liberation
War' to overthrow Jonker Afrikaner and his Oerlom followers.
Sir Francis Galton (Fellow of the Royal Society)
was staying in the area at the time. His report is the
only factual
record of observations made following the event of the night of 23
August 1850, and reads as follows:
"The evening of the next day found us at
Barmen, which if
we were to avoid the Hottentots, would probably be the starting-point of
my exploring expedition. Mr. Hahn, a Russian by birth, and married to an
English lady, and a Missionary of considerable influence, was the
founder of this station.
Mr. Kolbe and his young
wife, who had been attacked by the Hottentots at Schmelen's Hope, had
come here for refuge. They had lost nearly everything. It seems they had
quite recently occupied the place, and that the poorer natives had
settled in great numbers by them. Kahikene, one of the four or five
principal chiefs in Damaraland, had also trecked there with many of his
men and large herds of cattle. He had always behaved in a very friendly
way to the Missionaries; but this was the first time that either he, or
any of the influential Damaras, had encamped within easy reach of a
Mission station. Kahikene showed no distrust, but lived in the
friendliest relations with Mr. and Mrs. Kolbe, and they had sincerely
hoped by his means to get a firmer footing that they then had in
Damaraland. Just at this time, one night a troop of mounted Hottentots
galloped up to the place, firing at and murdering all they could catch.
Kahikene narrowly escaped; the Hottentots scoured the country in every
direction, and a most fearful night was passed. In the early morning
Jonker came reeling drunk to the Mission house, ordered the door to be
unbarred, and behaved in the coolest way, - demanding some breakfast,
and so forth; and then departed with his men, and the oxen, and what
else they had robbed. It is very difficult to find out how many people
are killed or wounded in occasions like these, as hyenas soon devour the
dead bodies, and those who survive scatter in all directions, so that no
clue remains towards the numbers missing. I saw two poor women, one with
both legs cut off at her ankle joints, and the other with one. They had
crawled the whole way on that eventful night from Schmelen's Hope to
Barmen, some twenty miles. The Hottentots had cut them off after their
usual habit, in order to slip off the solid iron anklets that they wear.
These wretched creatures showed me how they had stopped the blood
by poking the wounded stumps into the sand. A European would certainly
have bled to death under such circumstances. One of Jonker's sons, a
hopeful youth, cam to a child that had been dropped to the ground, and
who lay screaming there, and he leisurely gouged out its eyes with a
small stick.
I had no reason to think that this outrage on Mr.
Kolbe's station was any worse than the usual attacks that the Hottentots
and Damaras make upon one another; but the Damaras are savages, and are
not supposed to know better, while Jonker is a British subject, born in
the colony, and his best men are British subjects too. Missionaries and
teachers in great numbers have been amongst them, or their fathers, for
years and years; and the home of these people, thought now they have
trecked on to the tropics, is properly on the border of the Orange
River."
Notes:
Galton refers to Jonker Afrikaner and his Namas
as being Hottentots, and the Herero and Damara as being Damaras. The
whole central area of Namibia being known at that time as
Damaraland. Galton calls the Herero Chief Kahitjene by the name
Kahikene.
Galton does not consider the skirmish to be 'any
worse than the usual attacks that the Hottentots and Damaras make
upon one another'. He makes no further comment about the matter, and
even visited Jonker at his kraal in
Windhoek'. It should be
considered that not as many were killed as have been previously
speculated on.
He observed and spoke with only 2 women who had suffered
amputation in order that their anklets, which were made of Iron (not
copper) could be looted. Galton had previously noted the practice of
'Damara' women wearing iron anklets, stating "they treasure iron as
do we gold".
He makes no further reference to any human
remains being seen as he treks his way to 'Okahandja' and then on to
Windhoek.
Acknowledgements and further reading:
H9, P1
