Omaruru is a city
in the
Erongo Region of central
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 e ...
. The town has 14,000 inhabitants
and owns of land.
It is situated near
Mount Erongo, on the
usually dry Omaruru River. It is located on the main paved road from
Swakopmund to
Otjiwarongo. The name in the
Otjiherero language means 'bitter milk', as Herero cattle herds used to graze on a local bush that turned their milk bitter.
Omaruru is known for its annual festival where the
Herero people commemorate their past local chiefs, its
winery, and for the
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
footprints at nearby
Otjihaenamparero
The Otjihaenamparero dinosaur tracks are a set of different fossil tracks located at the Otjihaenamparero farmstead, east of the small town of Kalkfeld in the Otjozondjupa Region in central Namibia. The tracks were first reported as dinosaur imp ...
.
History
Omaruru was established in 1863 by
Wilhelm Zeraua
Wilhelm may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm"
* Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
Other uses
* Mount ...
, the first
chief of the ''White Flag'' clan of the
OvaHerero 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 the Herero primarily reside in Namibia, th ...
. In 1871, Anders Ohlsson and
Axel Eriksson established a brewery at Omaruru. Eriksson had also established a trading post, which flourished and by 1878 he employed about forty whites. Eriksson's business was based upon long-distance trading between southern
Angola
, national_anthem = "Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
and
Cape Colony, which necessitated the establishment of regional trade routes.
The town grew around a
mission built in 1872 by
Gottlieb Viehe, now a
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...
, and was attacked in 1904 during the
Herero Wars.
Franke Tower
Erich Victor Carl August Franke (21 July 1865 – 7 August 1936) was a German military officer and last commander of the ''Schutztruppe'' in German South West Africa.
Franke was born in Zuckmantel, Austrian Silesia. He was ''Bezirksamtman ...
was later erected to commemorate the relief by Hauptmann
Victor Franke
Erich Victor Carl August Franke (21 July 1865 – 7 August 1936) was a German military officer and last commander of the '' Schutztruppe'' in German South West Africa.
Franke was born in Zuckmantel, Austrian Silesia. He was ''Bezirksamt ...
troops of the local
Schutztruppe garrison, which had been under siege by the Herero people, who had risen against rule by the
German colonial empire.
Legacy of von Trotha
The descendants of
Lothar von Trotha and the von Trotha family travelled to Omaruru in October 2007 by invitation of the royal Herero chiefs and publicly apologised for his role in the
Herero genocide
The Herero and Namaqua genocide or the Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa (now Namibia). ...
. Member of the family Wolf-Thilo von Trotha: "We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed of the terrible events that took place 100 years ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time".
Dutch Reformed Church
Omaruru Reformed Church
The Omaruru Reformed Church is a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) in the town of Omaruru, Namibia. It is the oldest daughter church of the Otjiwarongo Reformed Church (NGK) (earlier known as Moria), from whence all ...
, the local congregation of the
Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK)
The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NGK) is a Reformed Christian denomination in South Africa. It also has a presence in neighbouring countries, such as Namibia, Eswatini, and parts of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. was separated from that in Otjiwarongo on March 1, 1941, and included Omaruru,
Karibib,
Usakos,
Kalkfeld
Kalkfeld is a settlement in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is situated halfway between Omaruru, Namibia, Omaruru and Otjiwarongo on the national road C33 and belongs to the Omatako Constituency, Omatako electoral constituency. The place ...
,
Swakopmund, and
Walvis Bay as ward centers. Over the years, six congregations were in turn spun off from the Omaruru one, but the overall numbers were usually sparse given the predominantly
ethnic German demographics of the local white population. At its founding, the congregation covered an area of approximately , both north to south and east to west.
Politics
Omaruru is governed by a municipal council that has seven seats. It is the district capital of the
Omaruru Constituency.
Omaruru is one of few Namibian towns where the political opposition is relatively strong. Namibia's ruling party
SWAPO won the
2010 local authority election with 847 votes, followed by the
Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) with 369 votes, the
United Democratic Front (UDF) with 308 votes, and
National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) with 107 votes. SWAPO also was the strongest party in the
2015 local authority elections, winning four seats in the town council and gaining 1117 votes. The UDF gained two seats (590 votes), and the
Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) obtained one (291 votes).
In the
2020 local authority election SWAPO won again over each individual opposition party but lost the majority of seats in the city council. SWAPO obtained 642 votes and gained two seats. One seat each went to the
Popular Democratic Movement (PDM, the new name of the DTA since 2017) with 403 votes, the
Independent Patriots for Change (IPC, newly formed in August 2020) with 305 votes, the local
Omaruru Community Development Organisation with 297 votes, the UDF with 230 votes, and NUDO with 182 votes.
Transport and infrastructure
Omaruru is the only Namibian town not connected to the
NamWater pipeline network. It receives its water from boreholes along the Omaruru River which are managed by the municipality.
connects the town to the
Trans-Namib railway network.
Notable people
*
Dawid van Lill (born 1957), writer, journalist, translator and editor
References
{{Authority control
Populated places established in 1863
1863 establishments in South West Africa
Rhenish mission stations in Hereroland
Cities in Namibia
Populated places in the Erongo Region