Abstract:
The Windhoek Old Location refers to what had been the South West African capital’s Main Location
for the majority of black and so-called Colored people from the early 20th century until
1960. Their forced removal to the newly established township Katutura, initiated during the late
1950s, provoked resistance, popular demonstrations and escalated into violent clashes between
the residents and the police. These resulted in the killing and wounding of many people on 10
December 1959. The Old Location since became a synonym for African unity in the face of the
divisions imposed by apartheid.
Based on hitherto unpublished archival documents, this article contributes to a not yet existing
social history of the Old Location during the 1950s. It reconstructs aspects of the daily life
among the residents in at that time the biggest urban settlement among the colonized majority in
South West Africa. It revisits and portraits a community, which among former residents evokes
positive memories compared with the imposed new life in Katutura and thereby also contributed
to a post-colonial heroic narrative, which integrates the resistance in the Old Location into the
patriotic history of the anti-colonial liberation movement in government since Independence.
