Charles John Anderson - Trade and Politics in Central Namibia 1860-1864, Vol 2

Remark: (Vol. 1 - see Art. Nr. 473)
Subtitle: Diaries and correspondence of Charles John Andersson, Vol. 2
Editor: Brigitte Lau
Series: Archeia, Nr. 10
Publisher: Archives Services Division of the Department of National Education
Windhoek 1989
Soft-cover, 15x21 cm, 338 pages, 56 bw-photos and illustrations, 1 map

Table of contents:

List of i'nustrations
List of abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Andersson's Diary, 1860-1864
Andersson's Correspondence, 1864

Appendix l: Account of the battle on 22 June 1864 by F. Green
Appendix 2: 31 letters captured from Nama leaders during the battte on 22 June 1864
Appendix 3: Oath of Allegiance sworn to Andersson as comander of the battte of 22 June 1864
Appendix 4: Song of the Otjimbi'ngwe Volunteer Artniery
Appendix 5: Extract from Green's Journal of 1858/1859

Register
Index
Bibliography

List of maps
- General Reference Map, 1800-1870
- Locality Map 1: Andersson's route from Otjimb1ngwe to the Orange Ri'ver, 1862
- Merensky's Map of Southern Africa, 1884 (extract)
- Locality Map 2: Central Namibia
- Locality Map 3: Projected route taken by Andersson's and Kamaharero's army in June 1864

Introduction:

The present book makes available a key record in the documentation of a period of four crucial years in the history of central Namibia, 1860-1864. This period saw a peak in the Cape cattle trade, the outbreak of lungsickness and smallpox epidemics (one destroying cattle, the other people), decisive challenges to Jonker Afrikaner's empire and, concomitantly, profound changes in the balance of power in southern and central Namibia. It also saw a considerable expansion of the European presence and the scope of their action: Andersson himself became an organiser and leader of war against the Oorlam Afrikaners and their allies, supported by the Rhenish missionaries and an army of almost 3.000 Herero warriors under Maharero and Zeraua. His record traces this merging of interests in the most fascinating and, as far as standard historiography Is concerned, largely unrecognised way.

In an appendix,2 this edition also for the first time makes. available a set of documents written by the leaders of Namaland: copies of diplomatic correspondence captured as booty and today part of the Andersson Papers. These records, coming as they do from those Andersson and the Herero under Maharero had set about to challenge, complement and question the views expressed by him and his fellow Europeans;3 they also, importantly, indicate some of the political divisions preventing united action by Nama leaders.

From "Charles John Andersson":

The author of the present record, Charles John Andersson, is not unknown among students of Namibian history, or Africana book collectors.4 He was born in Vanersborg (Sweden) to a Swedish mother (Kajsa Andersdotter) and an English father (Llewellyn Lloyd) in 1827. His papers record at least six siblings: Marie, Sophie, Henrietta, Joseph, Wilhelm and Philip. After a short spell at the University of Lund in 1847, he left to hunt and trade with his father.

In 1849 he sailed to England from where he planned to take up a life of hunting and exploration In Iceland. However, meeting Galton and being Invited to accompany him to South Africa. Andersson changed his plans, and in early 1850 the two sailed for Cape Town. For a decade, interrupted only by two years In England and one year as manager of the Matchless copper mine, he travelled and hunted for Ivory in south-western Africa, visiting King Nangolo in Ondonga, exploring Lake Ngami and even reaching the Okavango River.

By 1860 he had set himself up as the principal trader in central Namibia, purchasing the WBMC's assets in Otjimbingwe and fitting out a number of hunter/traders to bring in oxen and ivory. His financial situation - probably in many aspects similar to that of other European traders - remains obscure. No doubt he returned from his explorations of Lake Ngami with a fortune in ivory, stock and other saleable goods.

Furthermore, the publication of his book, 'Lake Ngami', was an immense success; there were intimations of Cape civil service posts offered him until at least I860, and he was courted by British officials and scientists for his then highly interesting and precious map of the interior of southern Africa. Between 1856 and 1860 Wallis records a series of major cash outlays for fitting out hunters and traders and especially his partner Green; however, no details concerning the exact nature of these 'partnerships', nor the returns of these outlays, could be traced.

Wallis claims that the establishment in Otjimbingwe, set up only five years after his return from Lake Ngami, was based partly on credit and in spite of the fact that Andersson recorded the huge sum of £20.000 as due to him in April and May 1864, by September of that year he was in financial difficulties and a few months later seems to have been a pauper. For reasons which this editor could not exact it seems that the Cape-Namaland cattle and ivory trade held the constant promise of immense profits to be made; yet it was precarious enough to ruin a trader's fortunes within months.

The next four years are traced in detail by the present record; Andersson's trading activities in the early 1860s, marred by the spreading lungsickness epidemic, soon brought him into direct conflict with the Namaland chiefs and especially the sovereign, Jonker Afrikaner (succeeded by his sons, Christian and then Jan Jonker, following Jonker's death in 1861). By 1864, immobilised by a nasty leg wound received in battle against the Oorlam Afrikaners, Andersson's career as a trader came to a near standstill.

After almost a year of sickness in Otjimbingwe, becoming less and less concerned with his trading ventures, he and his family (Sarah had in the meantime born him two children) went to Cape Town. There, Andersson worked intensively on his bird studies, and the book edited after his death by the bird expert, Gurney, is one of the fruits of this labour.

He did not regain his health; a close look at his diaries and correpondence suggests that this must probably be attributed in no small measure to the very regular taking of medicines based on opium and morphium ever since 1858. Later in 1865, he decided to take up his life of travelling [...]