Bethanie, Namibia

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title: "Bethanie, Namibia" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["populated-places-in-the-ǁkaras-region", "berseba-constituency", "villages-in-namibia"] topic_path: "general/populated-places-in-the-karas-region" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethanie,_Namibia" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

FieldValue
nameBethanie
other_nameKlipfontein
native_nameǀUiǂgandes
settlement_typeVillage
image_skylineLentia Lutheran Church, Bethanie.jpg
imagesize300px
image_captionThe Lentia Lutheran Church, built 1899. The village's mission church is in the background on the left.
pushpin_mapNamibia
pushpin_label_positionbottom
pushpin_mapsize300
pushpin_map_captionLocation in Namibia
subdivision_typeCountry
subdivision_nameNamibia
subdivision_type1Region
subdivision_name1ǁKaras Region
subdivision_type2Constituency
subdivision_name2Berseba Constituency
leader_title1
established_title
unit_prefImperial
area_total_km2
area_land_km2
population_footnotes
population_total2,372
population_as_of2023
population_blank1_titleEthnicities
timezoneSAST
utc_offset+2
coordinates
elevation_footnotes
postal_code_type
blank_nameClimate
blank_infoBWh
::

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|postal_code = |area_code = |blank_name = Climate |blank_info = BWh |blank1_name = |blank1_info = |website = |footnotes = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Bethanie,_main_road.jpg" caption="Main road of the village in 2016"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Schmelen_House_April_2016.jpg" caption="The Schmelenhaus"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1988-057-34,_Deutsch-Südwestafrika,_Bethanier.jpg" caption="Young man from Bethanie (1897)"] ::

Bethanie (often in German: Bethanien, and in English: Bethany, previously Klipfontein, Khoekhoegowab: ǀUiǂgandes) is a village in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It is one of the oldest settlements in the country. Bethanie had 2,372 inhabitants in 2023.

Geography

Bethanie is situated on the C14 road between Goageb and Walvis Bay, 100 km west of Keetmanshoop.

History

The area around Bethanie originally belonged to the Red Nation, the main subtribe of the Nama people. At the beginning of the 18th century, the ǃAman (Bethanie Orlam), a subtribe of the Orlam people, obtained settlement rights and settled here. As missionaries started travelling north from the Cape Colony in the early 19th century, they established mission stations on their way. The London Missionary Society founded the town, but, because of a shortage of missionaries and presumably because of the cooperation between the London and Rhenish Missionary Society at the time, they instead sent a German missionary.

Reverend Heinrich Schmelen arrived in 1814 as missionary of the Kaiǀkhauan (Khauas Nama) and their leader Amraal Lambert.{{cite web |title=Biographies of Namibian Personalities, L |last=Dierks |first=Klaus |authorlink=Klaus Dierks |url=http://www.klausdierks.com/Biographies/Biographies_L.htm |access-date=14 January 2011}} The Schmelenhaus was built the same year, long considered the oldest structure in Namibia. It has been a National Monument since 1952 and currently serves as a small museum. It was later discovered that the church and the pastor's house in Warmbad, both destroyed in 1811, were older than the Schmelenhaus,{{cite web |last=Dierks |first=Klaus |authorlink=Klaus Dierks |title=Warmbad becomes [sic] two hundred years |url=http://www.klausdierks.com/Warm_Bath/index.htm |access-date=22 June 2010}} and that the fortification of ǁKhauxaǃnas predates all other European constructions.{{cite book |url=http://www.namibiana.de/afrikanischer-heimatkalender-2007.html |last=Vogt |first=Andreas |chapter=Die ältesten Kirchen in Namibia (Teil 1) |trans-chapter=The oldest churches in Namibia, part 1 |language=German |title=Afrikanischer Heimatkalender 2007 |publisher=Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Namibia (DELK) |year=2007 |archive-date=2012-12-09 |access-date=2011-02-07 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121209031118/http://www.namibiana.de/afrikanischer-heimatkalender-2007.html |url-status=dead

In 1822, Schmelen left Bethanie after becoming frustrated with his missionary work among the local tribes, who refused his repeated and impassioned pleas to attend church{{cite web |url=http://www.namibian.org/travel/namibia/bethanie.html |title=Bethanie, a village in Namibia |publisher=The cardboard box travel shop |access-date=27 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130119163301/http://namibian.org/travel/namibia/bethanie.html |archive-date=19 January 2013 |url-status=dead

The original church was built in 1859, and also still stands today.

In 1883, Bethanie was the scene of the historical land sale at the house of Nama chief Josef Frederiks II that would eventually establish Imperial Germany colony of German South West Africa. Adolf Lüderitz in May 1883 obtained the area of Angra Pequena (today the town of Lüderitz) from Frederiks for 100£ in gold and 200 rifles. Three months later on 21 August, Frederiks sold Lüderitz with a stretch of land 140 km wide, between the Orange River and Angra Pequena, for 500£ and 60 rifles.{{cite web |url=http://www.orusovo.com/guidebook/content12.htm |title=The man who bought a country |work=Namibia Guidebook |publisher=orusovo.com |access-date=14 April 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213143359/http://www.orusovo.com/guidebook/content12.htm |archive-date=13 December 2013 |last=Oermann |first=Nils Ole |title=Mission, Church and State Relations in South West Africa Under German Rule (1884-1915) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UdeXKuIFMQkC&q=%22Josef+Frederiks%22&pg=PA58 |series=Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv |volume=5 |year=1999 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |isbn=9783515075787 |pages=58–60}}

Politics

Bethanie is governed by a village council that has five seats.

In the 2004 local authority elections the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) narrowly won over South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) with 307 votes (three seats) to 299 (two seats). In the 2010 local authority election Bethanie again was one of only a few local councils in Namibia that the SWAPO did not win. This time the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP, an opposition party founded in 2007) narrowly beat SWAPO with 253 to 245 votes. The DTA finished in 3rd with 52 votes. The 2015 local authority election was won by SWAPO which gained three seats (278 votes) while the DTA gained the remaining two seats (188 votes).

In the 2020 local authority election the Landless People's Movement (LPM, a new party registered in 2018) won with 378 votes and gained three seats. One seat each went to the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM, the new name of the DTA since 2017) with 179 votes, and to SWAPO with 166 votes.

Bethanie is the seat of the !Aman Traditional Authority, and its current chief (Kaptein) is Johannes Frederick. His predecessor David Frederick (Chief 1977-2018), alongside Herero Paramount Chief Advocate Vekuii Rukoro in January 2017 filed a class-action lawsuit against Germany on behalf of the Herero and Nama peoples in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. David Frederick was the grandson of Cornelius Fredericks, a leading resistance fighter against German colonial invasion.

Media and popular culture

A fictionalized version of Bethanie – named "Bethany" in English and depicted as a drought-plagued former mining town – is the primary setting for Richard Stanley's 1993 feature horror film, Dust Devil.

References

Footnotes

Literature

  • {{cite book |last=Vedder |first=Heinrich |authorlink=Heinrich Vedder |title=Das alte Südwestafrika. Südwestafrikas Geschichte bis zum Tode Mahareros 1890 |trans-title=The old South West Africa. South West Africa's history until Maharero's death 1890 |language=German |year=1997 |edition=7th |publisher=Namibia Scientific Society |location=Windhoek |isbn=0-949995-33-9
  • {{cite book |last=Alexander |first=James Edward |title=Expedition of discovery into the interior of Africa : Through the Hitherto Undescribed Countries of the Great Namaquas, Boschmans, and Hill Damaras, Performed under the Auspices of Her Majesty's Government and the Royal Geographic Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mgsMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA183 |access-date=8 August 2014 |volume=1 |year=1967 |orig-year=1838 |series=Africana Collectanea |publisher=C. Struik, Cape Town
  • {{cite book |last=Dedering |first=Tilman |title=Hate the old and follow the new: Khoekhoe and missionaries in early nineteenth-century Namibia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=anD2mOjDdMIC&pg=PA59 |access-date=9 March 2012 |edition=Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv |volume=2 |year=1997 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |isbn=978-3-515-06872-7
  • {{cite book |last1=Tonchi |first1=Victor L |last2=Lindeke |first2=William A |last3=Grotpeter |first3=John J |title=Historical Dictionary of Namibia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mls4H1mnN_0C |edition=2 |series=Historical Dictionaries of Africa, African historical dictionaries |year=2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810879904

References

  2. "4.5 Population by town and census years (2011 and 2023)". [[Namibia Statistics Agency]].
  3. (2015). "Know Your Local Authority". Institute for Public Policy Research.
  4. (31 December 2005). "14 May 2004 Local Authority Elections in Namibia". African Elections Database.
  5. [http://www.ecn.na/results/2010/Press_Release_Local_Authority_-_Karas-Bethanie.pdf Local Authority results] {{webarchive. link. (July 17, 2011 Electoral Commission of Namibia)
  6. (28 November 2015). "Local elections results". [[Electoral Commission of Namibia]].
  7. (29 November 2020). "2020 Local Authority Elections Results and Allocation of Seats". [[Electoral Commission of Namibia]].
  8. "Johannes Frederick elected as Chief of the !Aman Traditional Authority {{!}} nbc".
  9. "Tribute to Chief David Frederick".
  10. "Three vie for !Aman Traditional Authority chieftainship".
  11. (2018-01-25). "Tribute – chief David Frederick (1932-2018)".

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