Missionar Johann Heinrich Schmelen ist Gründer der Missionsstation Bethanien. Er richtet sie im Mai 1814 ein und übt sein Amt bis 1834 aus.
Der Werdegang von Hinrich Schmelen
Siehe hierzu auch: Jeremy Silvester Jan-Bart Gewald, Words Cannot Be Found, German Colonial Rule in Namibia, 2003. Fundstellen in dieser Publikation zu Bethany(Bethanie) Einleitung: Schmelen stammt aus bürgerlichem Hause. Um dem Militärdienst zu entgehen, flüchtet er nach England und kommt mit der Londoner Missionsgesellschaft in Kontakt. Das Zusammentreffen mit drei zum christlichen Glauben bekehrten Nama macht auf Schmelen einen sehr starken Eindruck. Er entscheidet sich, Missionar im südlichen Afrika zu werden. Dort ist er zunächst unter Anleitung von Christian Albrecht (1773–1815) in der Missionsstation in Pella tätig.
Die Reise von Hinrich Schmelen 1814
Als eine größere Gruppe Orlam wegen besserer Weidegründe Pella verläßt, schließt sich Schmelen ihnen an. Seine Reise schildert er ausführlich jn einem Bericht, der hier aufgerufen werden kann:
Reise zur Erforschung der Oranje-Mtindung, des GroB-Nama- und
Damaralandes. Von Missionar J. H. Schmelen. 1814
Hinrich Schmelen nennt Klopften Behanien
Bei „der dauerhaften Quelle, die man nicht mit einem Stein verschließen kann“ – auf KhoekhoegowabǀUiǂgandes, auf Afrikaans Klopften genannt – finden sie einen neuen Siedlungsort. Schmelen nennt den Ort in Anlehnung an den biblischen Ort, wo Jesus getauft wurde, Bethanien und errichtet hier 1814 das zweite von Europäern erbaute Steinhaus im Gebiet von Südwest-Afrika, das sogenannte Schmelenhaus, das heute noch zu besichtigt werden kann. Die hier ansässigen Orlam wurden in der Literatur dementsprechend als die Bethanier bezeichnet. Trotz zunächst erfolgreicher Missionsarbeit kommt es wegen des zunehmend kriegerischen und räuberischen Verhaltens der Orlam zum Zerwürfnis mit Schmelen. Deswegen beendet er 1834 seine Missionsarbeit in Bethanien. Siehe hierzu im Einzelnen:
Walter Moritz: Auf dem Reitochsen quer durch’s südwestliche Afrika – Missionar Schmelen, ein Pionier der Sprache der Nama (1811–1848) am Oranje, in Bethanien, Steinkopf und Komaggas. John Meinert Printing, Windhoek 2004, ISBN 99916-63-30-4. (Mit umfangreichen Quellenangaben und Zitaten aus Missionsberichten.)
Der von den Namastämmen der Roten Nation Ui#gandes genannte Platz übersetzten die Orlam 1804 in Kappholländisch mit „Klipfontein“. Orte die Klipfontein hiessen gab es viele. Der Missionar Schmelen taufte den Ort am Konkiep 1814 Bethanien. Die Begriffe „Bethanierland“ oder „Bethanier“ für das umgebende Land und deren Einwohner wurden Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts noch nicht benutzt. Auf einer Landkarte der Rheinischen Mission wurden nur die Kapitäne vermerkt. Für Nordbethanien Jan Boois und für Südbethanien David Christian (Frederiks). Erst nach Beginn der Kolonialisierung 1884 verwendete man den Begriff Bethanien für das Land des Kapitäns Joseph Frederiks. Dessen Herrschaftsanspruch reichte vom Fischfluss bis zum Atlantik und vom Oranje bis zur Naukluft. In diesem Landstrich nannte sich die Bewohner, meist Orlam und Nama der roten Nation, in ihrer Gesammtheit „!Aman“. Aber auch hier gibt es keine exakt definierten Abgrenzungen. Die Orlamgruppe der Frederiks, auch Boois genannt, bezeichnete die koloniale Literatur auch rückwirkend als Bethanier. Der Familienname Boois wurde letzten Endes durch Frederiks ersetzt. Der Herrschaftsanspruch der Frederiks auf Nordbethanien war umstritten und schliesslich von Leutwein 1894 aberkannt worden.
HOW GERMAN INFLUENCE WAS INTRODUCED INTO S.W. AFRICA
In her colonies the missionary has always been Germany’s advance agent, and the pioneer of her trade. Later on, the missionary and the merchant have, hand in hand, paved the way for German influence, ascendancy, annexation, and government. It was a favourite saying of Prince Bismarck’s that „the missionary and the trader must precede the soldier.“ Of this system South-West Africa is a striking example. So long ago as the year 1814, the British Government ( of the Cape of Good Hope) sent one Von Schmelen, a German missionary, to carry on mission work among the Hottentots, living across the Orange River, in Great Namaqualand. Von Schemelcn settled at Bethany and, later on, having attached himself to the then rising clan of Afrikaner Hottentots, under Jager Afrikaner, he moved north with them. Jager Afrikaner made his headquarters in Southern Damaraland; his village was named Schcmclcn’s Hope, in honour of this most adaptable of missionaries, who, having taken a Hottentot girl to wife, became an influential member of the tribe. The present town of Okahandja, near Windhuk, is said to be on the site of Schmelcn’s Hope. Once he was firmly established, Von Schmclen appears to have forgotten all about the Cape Government. He placed himself in direct communication with Berlin. His reports on the country and its inhabitants, which, from time to time, reached Germany, had the result of attracting other German missionaries to South-West Africa. Eventually, about 1840, the Rhenish Mission Society of Berlin began to take official notice of this new field for missionary labour and enterprise.“ By the year 1867 thriving mission stations had been established at nearly every important centre in Great Namaqualand and Damaraland. These good missionaries had to support and maintain themselves and families. They could only do so by combining religion with business. Accordingly was found necessary to establish a general store, in conjunction with each mission station, from the profits of which the missionary could live. There the natives could obtain goods, clothing, arms and ammunition, and groceries in exchange for cattle and sheep and the products of the chase. Whether this combination of shop-keeper and evangelist was calculated to have the best of spiritual results, in so far as concerns the simple savages, it is difficult to say. That progress was slow there can be no doubt, as it took 30 years of preaching and trading before the first Herem convert, a pious old lady of Otjimbingwe, forsook the worship of her ancestors and allowed herself to be baptized.“ Report has it that her example was soon followed by many others. As the field of missionary labour was extended, by the founding of new mission stations, it followed, under the circumstances, as a natural result, that the field for mercantile achievement expanded in proportion. In fact, the volume of mundane business by far exceeded the harvest from religious work. In the early fifties of the last century, that is, about I O to 12 years after the Rhcnish Mission had commenced its labours, the monopoly was mdely broken by the intrusion of Cape Colonial cattle traders from the south. These new comers had no fixed stores. They „trekked“ or „smouscd““ about among the natives, selling or exchanging goods from their heavily laden ox-wagons and receiving cattle, sheep, and produce in exchange. Having disposed of their goods, they returned to the south and sold their cattle and sheep, at good profits, in the Cape markets. The missionaries felt this competition very keenly. Not only was it keenly felt, it was also deeply resented. The more so, because the majority of the rivals was composed of English traders (grossenteils englische lliindler). Moreover, these rivals were certainly not brother missionaries, as they arc reported to have sold dop brandy to the natives! In 1860, or thereabouts, competition grew so keen that the missionaries decided on a determined effort to oust their adversaries. The trader from the Cape had the advantage of wagon transport, but this advantage was, to a certain extent neutralized by his great distance from his markets and the impossibility of replacing broken-down vehicles in those desert wilds. If the missions could only build and maintain in good repair on the spot a sufficiency of wagons and supply the necessary number of tradesmen to carry this out, half the fight was won. In this way it was hoped that the „thieving and lawless dealings“;; of the English traders would be effectively checked. It was at this juncture that an inspired missionary suggested that, in addition to converting the natives, they should be taught “ useful trades and handicrafts.“ The sympathetic Society thereupon arranged for certain competent artisans to migrate from Germany with their famil ies and to settle at Otjimbing the headquarters of the Mission.
The wagon-maker Tamm from Thuringcn and the blacksmith Halbich from Schlesien are worthy of a niche in history. They were the first real colonists of South-West Africa. Not as missionaries to convert, not as profit-seeking traders to exploit the native, but as honest workmen did they come with hammer and saw in hand, prepared to earn their daily bread by the sweat of the brow, to teach the dusky savage the dignity of labour, the usefulness of honest work, that lahorare est orare.“ Tamm and Halbich were followed shortly afterwards by two other tradesmen, whose names arc not obtainable, and also by the
merchant Rcdecker. The latter took over the general management of the Mission’s stores. In due course wagons were built. Then it was found necessary to allow the colonists (Tamm, Hiilbich and the unnamed two) to travel with loaded wagons among the natives and open up an opposition trade, under the auspices and with the blessing of the Rhcnish Mission Society. They sold, so the records of the Mission inform us, „all things which the English traders sold except liquor.“ Yet, notwithstanding this, they could make little headway. The Cape traders more than held their own, and large droves of cattle found a yearly market in Cape Town and elsewhere. The irritated missionaries ascribed their failure to the reason that their motto was „genuine goods and no humbug and cheating.“ In 1864 war broke out between the Hcrcros and the Hottentot.~. The Hcreros, led in battle by the English traders Frederick Green and Haybittcl and the traveler Andersson, signally defeated the dominant Afrikaner Hottentots, under Jonker Afrikaner, and freed Hereroland (Damaraland) from Hottentot oppression. As a result of this war the Hereros regained their territory and the independence which they had partially lost to the Hottcntots over 25 years previously. The war dragged on, however, and peace was not restored before I870. In the meantime the m1ss10naries, like their secular opponents from the Cape, specialized in the sale of arms and ammuniiion, and there is reason to believe that a very brisk trade was carried on.
The active intervention of Green and other traders on the side of the Hereros was resented by the Hottentots. In 1868 a Hottentot raiding party plundered
Andersson ’s store at Otjimbingwe, and also that of the Rhenish Mission. This sent the Mission’s representatives post haste to Berlin, and in 1869 the Society
petitioned the King of Prussia for protection. They asked for the establishment of a Prussi,m Naval Station at Walfish Bay. The King assured the missionaries
of his warmest interst; but the outbreak of the Franco-Prussina war distracted further attention for the time being.
In 1870 peace between the Hottentots and Hereros was once more restored, and this stimulated the Mission to fresh interest in its trading ventures. It was then recommended by the missionary in charge that a special merchant should be appointed to trade „as a branch of the Rhenish Mission.“
This, however, did not look nice, and a Limited Liability Company (ostensibly a separate and entirely independent concern) was floated in Germany in 1873 for the purpose of trading „in the Mission fields of the Rhenish Mission Society.“ The Society undertook to give this company all the assistance and support possible, and in return therefore was to receive fifty per cent. (50%) of the net profits. A special proviso was also made to the effect that only devout persons (Christlich gesinnte) were to be sent out for work as managers and
traders. The Rev. Hugo Hahn, one of the prominent missionaries who had controlled the Otjimbingwe Station for some years, resigned on the establishment of this company. He also disbanded the labour colony and closed down the Industrial School. Mr. Hahn’s contention was that the Mission could more strongly influence the natives by keeping trade under direct control. The main object of the newly formed company was to develop the cattle business ,md open up an export trade to Europe. Owing, however, to the inevitable transport difficulties, the incapacity and, sad to relate, the dishonesty of the „Christianly minded“ folk, who had come out to manage the business, very heavy losses were sustained. Jn six years these totaled over 200,000 marks (I 0,000/.), and the outbreak in 1880 of another Herem-Hottentot war ruined all hopes of recovery. The company was hopelessly insolvent and went into liquidation.
In the interim an event of great importance had taken place. In the year 1876, a British commissioner, Mr. W.C. Palgrave, visited the country with a view to ascertaining the wishes of the native chiefs in regard to control by Great Britain, and also for the purpose of reporting to the Cape Government on the desirability or otherwise of „the extension of the limits of this Colony, on the West Coast of this continent, so as to include Walfish Bay and such tract of country inland as may be found expedient and approved of by Her Majesty“
(vide Commission by Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, to William Coates Palgrave, Esq., dated 16″‚ March 1876).26 Palgrave was well received by the Herem people, who, on 9″‚ September 1876, handed him a petition to Sir Henry Barkly, signed by 58 chiefs,“ under chiefs, and headmen, in the course of which they say:- We want to live at peace with each other, and with our neighbours, and we want to have our country kept for us. We wish to see our children grow up more civilized than we have had any chance or being, and so, arter many meetings amongst ourselves, we have agreed most humbly to ask Your Excellency to send someone to rule us, and be the head of our country … We also most humbly ask that Your Excellency will everywhere make it known that the sea boundary to our country is in your possession, and that we have given you the right to such ground
as may be required for its protection, as well as for the building of towns and villages in the vicinity of all landing places. The Bastards of Rehoboth and several Hottentot tribes also asked for British protection and control. In his report to the Cape Governor, Mr. Palgravc recommended the annexation , as British territory, of the whole coastline of Great Namaqualand and Damaraland, and the appointment of a British Resident in each of these areas. Instead of following this advice the British Government annexed, in 1878, only Walfish Bay, and a few square miles of desert sand in the immediate vicinity thereof. Of this fact, German enterprise was not slow to take advantage. The next important step towards the extension of German influence and the acquisition of what Great Britain had apparently definitely discarded as worthless, is represented by the activitcs of Adolf Ludcritz, a merchant, of Bremen, who arrived in the country in 1882. From 1882 to I 890 the merchant missionaries were gradually reinforced by the professional merchants, and the work of building up German trade and influence, to the exclusion of Britain and the British, was recommenced with renewed vigour. This period is aptly described by Governor Leutwein as the days of the „Merchants‘ Administration“ (Kaufmannischer Verwaltung), and deserves to be dealt with in some detail