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The following are images from the my exploration of southeast Namibia last year.
After leaving Karasburg we headed South again and after about 20km came upon the Catholic Mission at Gabis - there is no 'town' here, only the Mission buildings and a few dozen homes scattered around the area.
This remote Mission is situated on the usually dry Hom River.
I couldn't find much info on Gabis on-line but according to The Oblate Sisters of St Francis de Sales it appears that it was once a farm and the Mission itself was established in 1907, a year after the Nama - German war ended.
In 1904 the Herero and Nama people went to war against German Colonial occupation - this war resulted in the first Genocide of the 20th century, when the Herero and Nama people were virtually exterminated.
Another source states that "On June, 21th 1906, Gabis, west of Warmbad, is attacked by !Gami-#nun Leader Johannes Christian"
Close to the Mission, besides a long-dead tree, are the graves of two German soldiers who fell during this attack.
Born in the same year, they died on the same day, far from home.
A 'shrine' to the Virgin Mary - a distinctly Roman Catholic symbol - outside the old Farmhouse which, it appears, has now been converted into a Guest-house.
A grave marker in the small cemetery close to the Mission.
Another grave in the cemetery, the marker cut out of sheet-metal shaped like a map of Namibia and painted in the colours of the Namibian Flag.
At the Mission a group of kids came running up to the car and started fooling around for the camera - unfortunately all these pics were under-exposed.
The kids said that they were part of the soccer team, hence the matching t-shirts.
We drove about 16 km along the gravel track running parallel to the Hom river.
There were a number of homesteads along the river and what struck me most was the absence of litter.
The occupants are obviously dirt-poor but take pride in their homes - a stark contrast to the rubbish which surrounds many settlements in Namibia.
Home Sweet Home.
A rickety shelter in the middle of nowhere - what I couldn't understand is why the owner built it out in the open, under the blazing sun, when there were ample large shady trees around, closer to the river.
It's scenes like this that cause me to question my perceptions of reality - two kids, also in the middle of nowhere, happily driving their home-made cars.
Would these kids be Happier lolling in front of a computer, surfing the Net? - my guess is that they aren't even aware of the existence of the WWW.
I understand that information is access to knowledge and personal liberation but, on the other hand, to take this lifestyle away from these kids and immerse them in technology seems somehow obscene.
Does Knowledge bring happiness?
It also makes me think that wealth does not equal happiness and poverty does not equal misery.
Gabis.
Related Posts:
Southeast Namibia: Warmbad Pt 1
Southeast Namibia: Warmbad Pt 2
Southeast Namibia: Karasburg & More Poverty.
Kolmannskuppe is a Ghost Town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz.
It was a small mining village and is now a popular tourist destination run by the diamond-mining company NAMDEB.
The town was named after a transport driver named Johnny Coleman who, during a sand storm, abandoned his ox wagon on a small incline opposite the settlement - Kolmannskuppe in German and, the generally used name, Kolmanskop, in Afrikaans.
The town developed after the discovery of diamonds in the area in 1908 - which led to a "Diamond Rush".
The rush lead to the establishment of a busy little German-style village, served by a general dealer, butchery, bakery, furniture factory, soda-water and lemonade plant, daily ice and milk deliveries, 4 skittle alleys, a public playground and swimming pool, a grand community centre complex complete with a theatre and an orchestra that played at tea dances, until well after the sun had set.
The discovery of diamonds saw the amazing sight of lines of men, crawling through the desert by the light of a full moon, sifting the sand beneath them for diamonds.
Subsequently, the German authorities declared the land 'forbidden territory' or Sperrgebiet, awarding the Deutsche Diamanten Gesellschaft (DDG) the sole prospecting rights.
The town declined after World War I when the diamond-field slowly exhausted and was ultimately abandoned in 1954.
The geological forces of the desert mean that tourists now walk through houses knee-deep in sand.
Kolmanskop is popular with photographers for images of the desert sands reclaiming this once-thriving town - it has also been used as a set for movies and TV series.
The Bookkeeper's house - a most important job when Kolmanskop was producing millions of Deutchmarks worth of diamonds.
The top officials lived in grand style and, it seems, life was pretty good for all, except probably the labourers.
An old Bathtub makes an escape on a sea of sand in front of The Teacher's house.
There's no stopping the sand, slowly but surely it prevails.
One of the crumbling houses with a view over the Desert.
A garage close to the Mine Manager's house - I wonder what grand old Auto it once housed - now it shelters only sand.
Exposed bricks where the abrasive wind has worn away the plaster.
The Mine Manager's house.
In 1980, a number of buildings were restored and more followed with the advent of Namibia as a premier tourist destination.
More pics in my Picasa Album
Related Post: Colonial Architecture Of Lüderitz
References:
Wikipedia
Namibian.org
.
