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Basters
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===Move to central Namibia=== [[Image:BasterCouncil1872.jpg|thumb|The first council of the Rehoboth Basters, 1872. First ''Kaptein'' [[Hermanus van Wyk]] is the third from left; the book on the table is the ''Vaderlike Wette,'' the constitution of the Basters. On the right is his brother Christoffel van Wyk. Their father was Cornelius van Wyk.]] Basters announced their intention to leave the [[Cape Colony]] in 1868 to search for land in the interior north. About 90 families of 100 left the region, the first 30 in 1869, with others following. They settled in [[Rehoboth, Namibia|Rehoboth]] in what is now central [[Namibia]], on a high plateau between the [[Namib Desert|Namib]] and [[Kalahari Desert|Kalahari]] deserts. There they continued an economy based on managing herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. They were followed by [[Johann Christian Friedrich Heidmann]], a missionary of the Rhenish Mission, who served them from 1871 until his retirement in 1907.<ref name="lang"/> By 1872, Basters numbered 333 in Rehoboth.<ref name="lang"/> They founded the Free Republic of Rehoboth (Rehoboth Gebiet) and designed a German-influenced national flag. They adopted a constitution known as the ''Paternal Laws'' (original title in {{langx|af|Vaderlike Wette}}). It continues to govern the internal affairs of the Baster community into the 21st century.<ref name="NE11"/> The original document survived and is stored at the [[National Archives of Namibia]] in [[Windhoek]].<ref name=nln1>{{Cite journal | title=The National Archives of Namibia | last=Hillebrecht | first=Werner | journal=Namibia Library and Archives Service Information Bulletin | issue=1 | year=2012 | publisher=[[Government of Namibia]] | issn=2026-707X | pages=4β6 | url=http://www.nln.gov.na:8081/custom/web/content/2012%20newsletter.pdf}}</ref> Basters established a community based on birth. Under these laws, a citizen is a child of a Rehoboth citizen, or a person otherwise accepted as a citizen by its rules.<ref name="lang"/> Families continued to join them from the Cape Colony, and the community reached about 800 by 1876, when 80 to 90 families had settled there. The area was also occupied by native [[Damara people]], but Basters did not include them in population reports.<ref name="lang"/> While Basters remained predominantly based around Rehoboth, some Basters continued to trek northward, settling in the southern [[Angola]]n city of [[Lubango]]. There they became known as the ''Ouivamo.'' They had a similar culture based on maintaining herds of livestock. Through the 1870s, Basters of Rehoboth suffered frequent losses from their herds, with livestock raided and stolen by the much larger groups of surrounding [[Nama people|Nama]] and [[Herero people]]s, who were themselves in competition. In 1880, Jan Afrikaner gathered 600 men against the Herero, and different Nama groups mustered about 1,000 warriors, with the Herero fielding about the same number. Basters tried to make alliances to survive, as they were outnumbered by both sides.<ref name="lang"/> The wars continued until about 1884, and, while suffering losses, Basters continued. Through the 1880s, the community at Rehoboth were joined by other Baster families from Grootfontein (South) (whom missionary Heidmann had earlier tried to recruit), Okahandja, and Otjimbingwe.<ref name="lang"/> While based on descent within the families, they also accepted both blacks and whites who applied to join the community.
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