About Valleys and Shipwrecks. Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast, by Hartmut O. Fahrbach

About Valleys and Shipwrecks. Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast, by Hartmut O. Fahrbach. Scientific Society Swakopmund. Swakopmund, Namibia 2020. ISBN 9789994550258 / ISBN 978-99945-50-25-8

About Valleys and Shipwrecks. Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast, by Hartmut O. Fahrbach. Scientific Society Swakopmund. Swakopmund, Namibia 2020. ISBN 9789994550258 / ISBN 978-99945-50-25-8

The following excerpt from About Valleys and Shipwrecks. Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast, by Hartmut O. Fahrbach, introduces to the former missionary and police station and vegetable farm Salem.

Hartmut O. Fahrbach  

The former 19 hectare smallholding Salem, which in Hebrew means "Peace", lies just north of the Langer Heinrich Mountain on the Swakop River. It was a watering place on the Bay Road, the ox-wagon route between Windhoek and Walvis Bay. Prior to colonial times the Nama and Herero decreed that except for Salem and Tsaobis (near Otjimbingwe) it was not allowed to keep cattle in the lower Swakop valley, so that there was always enough grazing and water for the increasing number of people passing through the desert to the coast. The Rhenish missionaries established a vegetable garden in 1864 and named it Salem. A simple chapel was built that also served as a school. Initially good crops were recorded, but after years of drought the parish left and moved on to Ameib at the Erongo Mountain. In 1894 Salem became a police outpost and a small hotel, more an abode, was built for travellers on the Bay Road. Early in the 20th century the farm was acquired by Hans-Erich Hansen. In the 1980s, the last farmer on Salem was his son, Hans Hansen, a prominent Swakopmund resident who was the workshop manager of Steckels Toyota Garage. In the 1980s the Government expropriated the Hansen family as the smallholding was regarded as not economically viable and also as it was lying in the Namib Naukluft Nature Park where farming activity was not allowed.

This is an excerpt from About Valleys and Shipwrecks. Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast, by Hartmut O. Fahrbach.

Title: About Valleys and Shipwrecks
Subtitle: Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast
Author: Hartmut O. Fahrbach
Publisher: Scientific Society Swakopmund
Swakopmund, Namibia 2020
ISBN 9789994550258 / ISBN 978-99945-50-25-8
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 64 pages, zahlreiche sw-Abbildungen

Fahrbach, Hartmut O. im Namibiana-Buchangebot

About Valleys and Shipwrecks: Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast

About Valleys and Shipwrecks: Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast

A Guide to Valleys and Shipwrecks in Namibia: Places and Spaces along the Swakop River and Skeleton Coast.

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