South-West Africa

A glance at the map of Africa shows that the territory now known as British South-West Africa—formerly German South-West Africa—is a triangular mass with the abrupt apex resting on the Orange River. It comprises Ovamboland, in the north; Damaraland, the central portion of the country; Great Namaqualand, in the south, and a tongue of land running out from the north-east corner called the Caprivizipfel, and has a total area of 322,450 square miles. This vast territory, into which half a dozen Englands could be dropped with ease, is bounded on the north by the Kunene River, Portuguese West Africa, and Rhodesia; on the east by British Bechuanaland, and the Gordonia portion of the Cape Province; on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; and on the south by the Orange River. Some idea of the length of the eastern boundary, for instance, may be obtained when it is stated that while the southern extremity touches the Orange, a distance of only 400 miles from Cape Town, the far corner of the Caprivi enclave is north-west of the Victoria Falls. No less than 900 miles of coast-line stretch from the mouth of the Orange to the Kunene estuary.

Physical Features

The physical structure of the country is extremely simple. The dominant physical facts are: a slowly rising sandy coast belt; a high interior plateau, broken by isolated mountain ranges; and a gently falling eastern strip of sandy country that merges in the level expanse of the Kalahari Desert.

The Coast Strip or the Namib

The coast strip is a desert, varying from 15 to 100 miles in width, stretching from the Kunene to the Orange, in which at only a few places is fresh water obtainable. To this desert the designation “Namib” has been applied—a name originally restricted to the middle portion of the strip. Dr. Stapff divides it into three parts: the stony desert north of Walvis Bay, the valley of the Kuisip converging on Walvis Bay, and the long sand dunes that run south from Walvis Bay to the Orange.

As a picture of dreariness and desolation this desert in places is not surpassed even by the Sahara. South of Walvis Bay there run from north to south mile upon mile of yellowish grey sand in long lines of immense dunes some of them 600 feet in height. Dark, rocky hills, with faces scarred and scoured into grotesque shapes, cut across the lines here and there, and heap up the sand at their base on the windward side in numerous hillocks. In some of the depressions formed by the dunes the white basins of vleís reflect the burning rays of the sun. Fierce sandstorms rage over the dunes at intervals, and the dense yellow clouds sweep along close to the earth at a terrific speed, blotting out the light of the sun, raining a perfect hurricane of gritty particles upon the traveller unfortunate enough to be found in the track of the tornado.

Seen from the coast the Namib has the general appearance of a vast plain with a boundless horizon, but the country ascends continually though almost imperceptibly towards the interior; at a distance of only 60 miles from Walvis Bay, for instance, the traveller finds himself some 2,000 feet above sea-level.

The prevailing formations along the coast are: gneiss, granite, quartzites, mica schists, recent chalks, crystalline limestones.

“The whole coast, several miles wide,” says Dr. Versfeld, “is a portion of a vast Titanic pudding, whose ingredients have been well stirred.”[1]

There is a concensus of opinion among geologists that at some remote period a tremendous upheaval of the marine bed took place, resulting in the present coast formation. The disintegration of the gneiss rocks and the action of the furious trade winds, have since led to the formation of the sand dunes.

The natural harbours are surprisingly few for such a lengthy coast-line. Walvis Bay, which lies almost exactly midway between the Orange and Kunene estuaries, is the principal inlet. A deep channel gives access to large steamers, which are able to lie at anchor in a fine, oval basin some 20 square miles in extent, completely sheltered from the strong prevailing winds. This Bay, with 450 square miles of adjoining territory, has been in the possession of Great Britain since 1878, but very little use has been made of it.

Luderitz Bay, some 250 miles south of Walvis Bay, is the next considerable inlet. It ramifies to the right and left for about five miles south of the entrance, and here, too, large steamers find safe anchorage. Swakop Bay, 25 miles north of Walvis Bay, is merely an open roadstead with a landing jetty.

The Central Plateau

We will begin in the north with Ovamboland and follow southward the line of the main ridge that forms the inner plateau.

Separated from the highlands of Angola by the gorges traversed by the Kunene, the rocky heights of Ovamboland rise but slowly at first above the general level, but south of the Otavi Hills in Damaraland they gradually ascend until a veritable highland system is developed with towering masses of table rocks and huge dome-shaped summits. Mount Omatako, which has an altitude of 8,500 feet, is the highest peak. Around it, but some distance from it, grouped like satellites, are numerous other imposing mountains from 5,000 to 6,000 feet in height. In the clear air of the uplands the granite pinnacles of these peaks are visible from a great distance. Huge valleys or gorges are a characteristic of this part of Damaraland. The mountain plateaux are widely extended. In the region of Windhoek several rivers have their rise. Further south the ridge falls again to a level of about 3,000 feet, and in many places is broken into by isolated ranges of manifold forms, while the lower levels are studded with stony kopjes.

The country along the eastern border consists of undulating plains and large areas of sandy land which closely resemble the Kalahari.

In all these uplands the prevailing formations are granite, or mica schist. Surface limestone occurs everywhere.

Great Namaqualand

Great Namaqualand, the country that stretches from the south of Damaraland to the Orange River, is a land of rugged hills, stony kopjes, and boundless plains. In the Karas Mountains, the main ridge rises again to a height of 6,600 feet above the sea, and the plateaux have a north to south direction. The boundless plains, really extended tablelands, are a principal feature of the country, and they are invariably sandy.

“Sir,” said a person who knew the country to Dr. Moffat in 1818, “you will find plenty of sand and stones, a thinly scattered population always suffering from want of water, on plains and hills roasted like a burnt loaf under the scorching rays of a cloudless sun.”

“Of the truth of this description,” says Moffat in his laconic fashion, “I soon had abundant evidence.”[2]

Although this portion of South-West Africa is regarded as semi-desert, at rare intervals after rain the plains are covered with long coarse grass and then they have to English eyes the appearance of a vast field of waving oats.

The Orange River Basin

Trekking south through Great Namaqualand, toiling over the blistering wastes, the traveller experiences a peculiar sensation of unexpectedness when on rounding a kopje he sees below him in the near distance a long, twisted line of vivid green. This is the line of the Orange River.

As very little is known about the course of this, the largest river in South Africa, a brief description may not be without interest.

The river enters South-West Africa along a deep channel and winds its sinuous way like a giant snake between towering precipices and overhanging mountains grey with age along cañons reminiscent of Colorado. In some of the deep, rocky gorges the stream is inaccessible on either side, since the overhanging escarpments of the surrounding plateau rise sheer from the water many hundreds of feet, and a thirsty traveller might actually perish of thirst as he looked down upon the tantalising waters from the precipitous banks that offered not a single practicable way of descent. At intervals the stream broadens to a considerable distance and takes on the appearance of a quiet lake reflecting the image of the willow and mimosa trees that fringe its banks; islands of vivid green dot the waters; flamingos, ibises, and other wading birds, move leisurely in the shallows, while ever and anon birds of brilliant plumage dart across the surface. It then presents a picture of considerable charm. Barred in its approach to the sea by rocky hills and granite cliffs, in its eager efforts to find the line of least resistance, the river twists and turns, flowing now north, now south, and in one place actually doubling back to the east. On emerging from the mountain ranges it sprawls itself over a wide area as if reluctant to lose its greatness in the ocean. Its mouth is generally blocked for a number of years by a continuous narrow sand barrier formed by the big breakers of the Atlantic, and while the waves pound the sand with great fierceness on the one side, the cool, fresh waters of the river gently lap it on the other side. When the river comes down in strong flood the dam bursts with a crash and a roar heard many miles distant. Mr. A. D. Lewis, a Government engineer, visited the mouth at the end of 1912, having made a survey journey along the river valley from Pella to the Atlantic. He is actually the first scientifically trained individual to make the journey. His report,[3] together with plans and reproductions of photographs, is of absorbing interest.

The Rivers

The rivers of South-West Africa, like many others in South Africa, are found, mostly, on the maps. Though the country is trenched by the beds of many rivers, not a single perennial stream reaches the sea between the Kunene and the Orange. On account of the great depth of its channel below the adjacent land, the Orange is of no economic value to the country. The Swakop, which has a total length of 250 miles, rises to the east of the Damara highlands in the Waterberg and traverses the plateau through deep, rocky gorges. Occasionally it flows into the sea north of Walvis Bay. The Kuisip rises in the mountains beyond Windhoek and intersects the Namib plain south of the Swakop to a depth of over 600 feet, but it rarely reaches the ocean. The last occasion on which it pushed its way through to the Atlantic previous to the present year, was in 1904. South of the Kuisip are other watercourses which are arrested without even forming channels to the sea. During the greater part of the year the Swakop and the Kuisip are non-existent as rivers; a line of stunted willows or acacias, or, perhaps, a few muddy pools, mark the river courses. After the storms, however, they are raging torrents for a brief period, and immense volumes of water rush along their beds.

The feeble, intermittent streams on the east of the divide fall for the most part into the saline marshes of the Kalahari. The Fish River flows south through Great Namaqualand, and sometimes reaches the Orange. Lake Etosha in the north is a lagoon about sixty miles wide and fifty miles in length. When full one or two rivers issue from it.

But water is not the scarce commodity that one might imagine it to be, except, perhaps, in the Namib, for the springs or fonteins are a peculiar feature of the inner plateau. The most remarkable of these are situated in a hill to the north of Windhoek. No less than five springs issue from the limestone. They are all warm, and lie approximately in a straight line at intervals of a few hundred yards apart. It is a somewhat curious phenomenon that the temperatures vary considerably; a difference of no less than 54°F. has been noted between one and two. If the streams are all from the same source, as seems likely, they are probably influenced in their passage to the surface by the geological formation. Cold springs also exist in the limestone below the hot springs. The waters of the warm spring at Warmbad, in South Great Namaqualand, have strong sanative qualities. Centres so far distant from each other as Bethanien, in the south-west, Omaruru, north-east of Walvis Bay, and Gobabis, east of Windhoek, on the Kalahari border, also have their springs.

Water may generally be obtained even in the dry season by digging beneath the alluvium of a river bed, especially where a ledge of rocks crosses the watercourse. In some places, notably on the borders of the Namib and in the eastern areas, the water found by boring is brackish, and often unfit for human consumption. After the rainstorms water often lies for long periods in the natural depressions or vleís; these afford a good supply for cattle and game.

In some of these depressions, when the water around the edges has dried up, an incrustation of salt is left, which, as Dr. Moffat found in Namaqualand nearly a hundred years ago, “crackles under the feet like hoar-frost.”

Scenery

The lover of natural scenery will find little to attract him in such parts of the country as the Namib, Great Namaqualand, or the eastern steppes, for over large areas the aspects of nature are so consistently uniform as to become painfully monotonous, and this uniformity, combined with the absence of foliage and verdure and lakes and running streams, is very depressing to the traveller. But the country is not the wilderness many have been led to believe. When once the desert belt is crossed and the mountain plateaux are reached, some bold and striking mountain scenery meets the eye. Stupendous masses of naked rock, on which the light strikes bright and hard, rise into the sky, while other frowning heights tower aloft, menacing and fearful. In the Waterberg the numerous rocky summits, with their clear-cut edges and rifted walls, resemble in places the famous Giant’s Causeway, and in their boldness and variety of outline they present a scene of extraordinary rugged grandeur. Here are Cleopatra’s Needles, embattled castles, lofty pinnacles, and sculptured turrets, all standing out bold and clear in the amazingly thin, translucent air, and visible from immense distances. Between Omaruru and Okahandja, where hilly country is found alternating with level plains, some fine landscape views may be obtained. The falls on some of the rivers after the rains make picnic spots and pleasure resorts of rare delight. The voice of running waters, a sound but rarely heard in South Africa, can then be enjoyed in some of the deep gorges.

In certain portions of Ovamboland there are woodlands, glades, and clearings that present the aspect of a boundless park. Windhoek, set in a circle of giant mountains on the slope of a hill, has quite a picturesque situation.

South-West Africa, too, has all the charm of colour for which southern Africa is famous the world over. On the uplands the morning and the evening are times when the eye is filled and completely delighted with the warmth and richness of tone about the landscape.

“At last morning broke,” says one new to the country, in a description of the sunrise, “and delicate rosy stripes of light shot up toward the zenith. The colours grew rapidly deeper, brighter, and stronger. The red was glorious in its fullness, and the blue beautiful in its purity. The light mounted and extended itself, ascending as over a new world a thousand times more beautiful than the old one. Then came the sun, big and clear, looking like a great, placid, wide-opened eye.”

At night the moon and stars shine with a fire and brilliancy that never fail to amaze the visitor from the northern lands.