Lijdensrust, officially the Republic of Lijdensrust, was a short-lived Boer republic in the area of present-day

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. Declared on 20 October 1885, it was originally named Upingtonia, but changed its name soon after as the reason for its original name proved worthless. In 1887, it was merged into German South-West Africa.

History

Between the years 1874 and 1880, farmers migrated from the Transvaal to what was then southern

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

. There, they came into conflict with the Portuguese colonial authorities, and some of their number decided to return to the Transvaal, while others migrated further south.Chris Marais, Julienne Du Toit, ''A Drink of Dry Land '' (2006), p. 174 In 1885, William Worthington Jordan bought a tract (fifty thousand square kilometers) of land from the

Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people *Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland ...

chief Kambonde for three hundred pounds, paid as twenty-five firearms, one salted horse, and a cask of brandy. This land stretched almost from Okaukuejo in the west to Fischer's Pan in the east. Chief Kambonde relied on the help of Jordan to defeat his rival for power, Nehale. Between 1876 and 1879, at the time of the Dorsland Trek, Boers had crossed the area, heading for Angola. In 1885 some of these trekkers returned and settled at Grootfontein on land given to them free of charge by Jordan. The Republic of Upingtonia was declared on 20 October 1885. At that time, the population of Upingtonia was around five hundred settlers. The state was named after

Thomas Upington Sir Thomas Upington KCMG (1844–1898), born in Cork, Ireland, was an administrator and politician of the Cape Colony. He was briefly Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, between 1884 and 1886, during a period of extreme turbulence in the Cape's h ...

, prime minister of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with ...

, from whom the new state was hoping for support. However, little was forthcoming. In 1886, under the influence of the Boers returning to the Transvaal from southern

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...

, the name was changed from Upingtonia to Lijdensrust or Lydensrust. The short-lived republic's capital was Grootfontein, and its

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...

was President George Diederik P. Prinsloo. The new state fought the

Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people The Herero ( hz, Ovaherero) are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting parts of Southern Africa. There were an estimated 250,000 Herero people in Namibia in 2013. They speak Otjiherero, a Bantu language. Though t ...

and became dependent on German protection. In 1886 Jordan was killed by

Nehale Mpingana Nehale lya Mpingana (died 28 April 1908) was '' Omukwaniilwa'' of Ondonga, a subtribe of the Owambo, in German South West Africa. Their tribal area is situated around Namutoni on the eastern edge of Etosha pan in today's northern Namibia. He re ...

, and the republic collapsed. The next year the area it had covered was incorporated into German South-West Africa.Victor L. Tonchi, William A. Lindeke, John J. Grotpeter, ''Historical Dictionary of Namibia'' (2012), p. 445

Notes

{{coord, 19, 34, S, 18, 7, E, type:country, display=title Otjozondjupa Region Boer Republics Former republics Former countries in Africa States and territories established in 1885 1885 establishments in Africa States and territories disestablished in 1887 1887 disestablishments in Africa