Memories of several years in south-western Africa 1866-1871, by Thure Johan Gustaf Een

Memories of several years in south-western Africa 1866-1871, by Thure Johan Gustaf Een. Namibia Scientific Society. Windhoek, 2004. ISBN 9991640517 / ISBN 99916-40-51-7

A number of Rhenish missions had already been established in Damaraland and Namaland by the time Thure Johan Gustaf Een arrived in the territory. Men such as Francis Galton, Frederick Green, and the Swedes Charles John Andersson and Johann August Wahlberg had explored the interior. Memories of several years in south-western Africa 1866-1871 is a modern translation of his original memories dating from 1872.

Thure Johan Gustaf Een  

Een in South West Africa

Thure Johan Gustaf Een undertook several trading-expeditions in Damaraland and Ovamboland for Andersson, during which he made notes on the region and its people. He and young Axel Wilhelm Eriksson were trading in Ondonga, Ovamboland, when Andersson arrived early in 1867. Soon afterwards Een left Ondonga with Andersson's ivory and ostrich feathers, bound for Walvis Bay and Cape Town where he was to sell the goods, while Andersson and Eriksson, who were both ill, left for the Kunene River on 10 May with some followers. Andersson died near the Kunene River early in July. Een returned to Otjimbingwe where tidings of Andersson's death reached him in October, just as he was ready to fetch Andersson and Eriksson with a wagon as had been previously arranged. He was devastated by the news, for he and Andersson had become close friends, in fact, as he was dying, Andersson had requested, through Eriksson, that Een wind up his estate. When the Nama launched an attack on Otjimbingwe in December 1867, Thure Johan Gustaf Een was one of the European men who helped the Herero defenders by making bullets for them. Soon afterwards, he spent some time with W.C. Palgrave at the farm Aukas (near Grootfontein), and in March 1868 intercepted Eriksson on his way back from Ovamboland with a wagon-load of Andersson's ivory and ostrich feathers, which he then took via Walvis Bay to Cape Town to sell on behalf of Andersson's widow. On winding up Andersson's business, Een found that there was so little left due to Andersson's losses that he did not take the commission due to him. Deciding that conditions for trading in south-west Africa were now too hazardous because of the prevailing hostilities between the Herero and the Nama, and the latter's plundering, Een went back to sea for a time; he was given command of a coastal vessel. On his return from a voyage in July 1868, he was invited to join the trading-firm Borgstrom and Ohisson and to manage the business in south-west Africa together with Eriksson: Een was to head the firm in Damaraland, Omaruru, one of the three springs given to Andersson by the Herero leader Maharero, was to become the headquarters of the firm. There were already a few houses and several more were built over the next few years. Several Swedes as well as others were employed and the settlement grew rapidly, becoming an important trading-centre. Thure Johan Gustaf Een again went to sea during the months when trading was slack; his voyages in command of the Telegraph took him to Tristan da Cunha and adjacent islands, and to Gough Island. While lying off Tristan, he rescued the drifting American whaler Norman, as well as the crew of the sinking British ship Sir Ralph Abercrombie. Een was present at the peace conference between the Nama and Herero at Okahandja in September 1870, and compiled a summary of the formal and informal proceedings, a far cry from the dry historical records. After Eriksson's wedding in September 1871, Een departed for Cape Town where he arrived in November 1871, ready to sail back to Sweden. Een's book on his adventures was edited by his brother Karl, Deputy-Mayor of Westervik [now Vastervik], and published in Sweden in 1872. […]

This is an excerpt from Memories of several years in south-western Africa 1866-1871, by Thure Johan Gustaf Een.

Title: Memories of several years in south-western Africa 1866-1871
Author: T. G. Een (Thure Johan Gustaf Een)
Translation: lone and Jalmar Rudner
Publisher: Namibia Scientific Society
Windhoek, Namibia 2004
ISBN 9991640517 / ISBN 99916-40-51-7
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 240 pages, 34 b/w-photos