Youtor
Recalling The History Of Namibia
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The Old Location Uprising played an important role in helping Namibia to the road to Independence. • This is a story on a light note. A story of a more peaceful time. • More on the Old Location: • One small spark was all that was needed to trigger the eruption. The atmosphere was thick with anger, people crowded around the buildings, hundreds of men and women. Some held stones, others carried iron rods. The police commander’s calls for a peaceful dispersal were answered by boos and whistling. Suddenly a stone banged onto the roof of a police vehicle. The spark. Shots rang out, people screamed and fled in panic, a shower of stones clattered onto the police and vehicles, one of which burst into flame. • It is probably impossible to reconstruct the exact course of events of 10 December 1959 at the Old Location on the western outskirts of Windhoek. An official report issued by a commission of inquiry chaired by a judge based on evidence given by both sides ultimately justified police action. However, various collections of statements made by witnesses who attested to police repression and intent also exist. Thirteen people died that day and at least 44 were injured. What was the cause of the bloody riot? • The onset of the incident was simple. Windhoek was growing steadily, the “white” parts of town as well as the Old Location where the “non-whites” lived. The Old Location on the western outskirts, between what today is Hochland Park and Pionierspark, had developed in 1912 and had continued to grow. People built their shacks from mud, wood and corrugated iron and in rare cases from brick or rock. Several huts shared a tap and a privy, there was a communal shower room, but no sewerage system. Food was cooked in three-legged iron pots over open fires and light was provided by paraffin or self-made lamps. Some of the plots were municipal property and some were owned by their inhabitants. • The municipality had planned to improve living conditions in the Old Location since the early 1950s. The intention was to build modest houses connected to electricity, water and a sewerage system. The houses were to have kitchens with chimneys and a shower and flush toilet in the yard. The size of the plots was about 12 x 22 m. The budget for the project amounted to 1.25 million pounds. • At the same time the South African administration was working on the implementation of its Apartheid policies. This included the physical segregation of the various population groups. Mixed neighbourhoods in towns were broken up and inhabitants resettled elsewhere. The best known example was District Six in Cape Town where forced relocation began in 1968. Generally several kilometres of no-man’s land were left between the “black” and the “white” parts of town. • The Old Location in Windhoek, on the other hand, was separated from the “white” residential area only by a dry riverbed. The authorities were annoyed that whites enjoyed going to the Old Location in the evening or during weekends to visit friends or shebeens. Furthermore the municipality saw the hilly terrain of the Old Location as an attractive area for upmarket “white” housing. • Construction work on a completely new neighbourhood therefore began in 1956, northwest of the capital, on the other side of a 5-km strip of no-man’s land. Electricity, water and a sewerage system were supposed to be the attraction to make moving more palatable to the inhabitants of the Old Location. • --------------------------------------------------------------- • Website Newsletter • • Newsletter Signup: https://www.gondwana-collection.com/n... • • More Gondwana Info: https://www.gondwana-collection.com • --------------------------------------------------------------- • Let's Connect: • • Facebook: / gondwana.collection.namibia • • Instagram: / gondwanalodges • --------------------------------------------------------------- • Video Produced By: • Prostudio.cc (Camera Cut) • • Web: https://www.prostudio.cc • • Email: [email protected]
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