Utuseb is a small settlement in the

Erongo Region Erongo is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. The capital is Swakopmund. It is named after Mount Erongo, a well-known landmark in Namibia and in this area. Erongo contains the municipalities of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Henties Bay and Omaruru, as ...

in western central

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. It is situated in the

Namib Desert The Namib ( ; ) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba Ri ...

, approximately from

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...

on the banks of

Kuiseb River The Kuiseb River is an ephemeral river in western-central Namibia. Its source is in the Khomas Highland west of Windhoek. From there it flows westwards through the Namib-Naukluft National Park and the Namib desert to Walvis Bay. Several settlement ...

. Utuseb has approximately 700 inhabitants and belongs to the Walvis Bay Rural electoral constituency. The people living here belong to the ǂAonin (Southern Topnaar) community, a subtribe of the

Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Khoekhoe language, Nama language of the Khoe languages, Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama ...

History

Topnaars began settling in the area of Walvis Bay and along the Kuiseb River during the start of the 19th century. They first occupied the area at the mouth of the Swakop River, today the city of

Swakopmund Swakopmund ("Mouth of the Swakop River, Swakop") is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 road (Namibia), B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo Region, Erongo administrative district. It ...

, and moved south beyond Walvis Bay to the Kuiseb mouth between 1820 and 1830. A small faction moved upriver to Sandfontein but was attacked and driven away by warriors of the

Red Nation "Red Nation" is a song by American rapper and West Coast hip-hop, West Coast hip hop artist The Game (rapper), Game featuring vocals from rapper Lil Wayne, from his anticipated fourth studio album ''The R.E.D. Album''. Released as the album's lead ...

. They receded to Rooibank (''Scheppmannsdorf'' during Imperial Germany's colonial rule of South-West Africa). Missionary Heinrich Schmelen and

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Amraal Lambert of the Kaiǀkhauan ( Khauas Nama) visited the Topnaar around 1824 or 1825 while searching for a hospitable place at the coast to improve logistics for the support of the missionaries in the hinterland. The place was originally called ''Iduseb'' (

Khoekhoe Khoikhoi ( /ˈkɔɪkɔɪ/ ''KOY-koy'') (or Khoekhoe in Namibian orthography) are the traditionally nomadic pastoralist indigenous population of South Africa. They are often grouped with the hunter-gatherer San (literally "foragers") peop ...

: ''people want to live there but there is no water'') but as its spelling and pronunciation changed, so did the meaning of the name: ''Utuseb'' in Khoekhoe means ''something half-round that is situated in a round area''. A memorial stone of the Topnaar, the ''Ebenesser ǁHaibeb Gedenksteen'' (

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

and Khoekhoe: ''Captain ǁHaibeb Memorial Stone'') is situated in the settlement. It was erected in 1982 and bears the inscription "So far the Lord has helped", as well as the symbols for the ǂAonin (a palm tree) and the Hurinin (a fish).

Economy and infrastructure

The settlement is home to JB Brandt Primary School, a boarding school established in 1978. Utuseb has no improved water and sanitation and is not electrified. Cell phone reception is very poor. The school owns the settlement's only land line telephone. Residents rely on harvesting ǃNara melons, their primary staple food, on livestock farming, and old-age grants. ǃNara products are also sold to tourists in Walvis Bay.

References

Notes

Literature

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Videos

*{{YouTube, ymyhjQ50M2A, 'HURININ People of the Sea' - The Topnaar people’s search for human rights and recognition Populated places in the Erongo Region Nama people