In the Shadow of Apartheid: The Windhoek Old Location

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