Abstract:
The so-called Old Location was established during the
early years of the 20th century for most of the African
population groups living in Windhoek, the capital of then
South West Africa. It confined them to a space separate
from but in close vicinity to the city and was the biggest
urban settlement for Africans in the country. As from 1960
the residents were forced to relocate into a new township
at the margins of the city against their will. This brought
an end to inter-group relations, which the Apartheid
system and its definition of “separate development”
replaced by a stricter sub-division of the various
population groups according to classifications based on
ethnicity. Protest against the relocation escalated into
a violent confrontation in late 1959. This 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.
Presenting insights based mainly on archival studies, this
article is an effort towards a social history of the hitherto
little acknowledged aspect in the urbanisation processes
of the Territory under South African administration. It
maps the physical features of the location and assesses
its living conditions. Some of the dynamics unfolding
between the late 1940s and 1960 also document the
plural ethnic interactions, the local governance and the
social life of its inhabitants as well as their protest against
the forced resettlement. It thereby revisits and portraits
a community, which among former residents evokes
positive memories compared with the imposed new life
in Katutura.
