Category: History

Namaqua People

The anthropologist Peter Carstens who published this photograph described describe Steinkopf of those years as: “Here is the church and the missionary, the seat of local government where the law is administered and taxes paid; here are the main schools, including the only secondary school for Coloured people in Namaqualand, with its new library; here

Established in 1945 After this community co-operative was established it became the only local shop and replaced the systems of local shops previously owned only by White business people, mostly Jewish shop owners.  It exists until 1990 when it was declared bankrupt. Nowadays it is owned by private business. Today known as OK Foods

The church was the first church building in Steinkopf and was completed in 1849 in the time of rev. Ferdinand Brecher as missionary. The mission house was completed in 1855 but was destroyed by a fire in November 1868. A new and larger house was constructed, but all the church records was destroyed by the

In 1840 the London Missionary Society transferred its work in Namaqualand to the Rhenish Mission Society, a German organisation. For the first few years no missionary was stationed at Steinkopf and the mission station was served by visiting missionaries from Komaggas. In 1846 the Rev. Ferdinand Brecher, who was to stay at Steinkopf for about

TIMELINE OF THE HISTORY OF STEINKOPF 1817 – Establishment of the Steinkopf Mission Station at Besondermeid by the London Missionary Society 1838 – The headquarters of the mission station moved to Kookfontein 1840 – The London Missionary Society terminated their work at Steinkopf 1840 – The mission work is taken over by the Rhenish Missionary

The Indigenous Inhabitants of the Area The original indigenous inhabitants of the region were the San and Namas. They did not see themselves as different ethnic groups. The social structure and languages of the two groups shows great similarity. They both speak languages which is remarkable in the prevalence of click consonants. The Namas are