Diamonds in the Desert - Luderitz, Namibia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 9 Dec 2012 08:01
| 26:38.406S 15:09.424E December 7, 2012 - December 9, 2012 Luderitz was, and still is to some extent, a diamond town. In April of 1883, Heinrich Vogelsang, employee of a German merchant company, entered into a treaty with a local Nama chief to secure lands in and around the small bay. The German chancellor then designated South West Africa a protectorate of the German empire. Lucky for the Germans, in 1908 diamonds were discovered nearby and Luderitz turned into a boom town. The diamond hysteria that followed was not unlike our own gold rush in the west - hordes of unruly prospectors and general chaos. The German government intervened, and established the 'Forbidden Zone' covering all the diamond fields. The new law forbade any independent prospectors from the Forbidden Zone, and those individuals who already had land claims in the zone were forced to set up mining companies. After WWI, the depressed world diamond market forced those in South West Africa to consolidate their diamond mines, and the whole lot became part of CDM (Consolidated Diamond Mines), administered by none other than De Beers. A new and more attractive diamond field was then found further south around the Orange River (which forms the natural border between what is now South Africa and Namibia), and mining headquarters were moved there from the Luderitz area in 1944. Today, ownership of Namibia's diamond mines is split fifty/fifty between the Namibian government and De Beers. The Forbidden Zone still exists, and runs along much of Namibia's southern coast. Boaters are warned not to go ashore in these areas as they are heavily guarded. Luderitz continues to chug along, but clearly its heyday is long gone. Diamonds are still a big part of its livelihood (hence the diamond dredgers, vacuuming up the sparkly bits that wash up from the Orange River courtesy of the Benguela Current), but the richer fields are further south. Oyster and shrimp farms now dot the bay, and seaweed and seagrass are harvested, but the town definitely has that 'was once a prom queen, but time has not been kind to her' sort of feeling. It doesn't help that everything is awash in sand, adding to the overall ghost town look. In Luderitz, and then later in Walvis Bay, we noticed a definite change in atmosphere versus South Africa. It's more laid back here, everything moving at a slower pace. It may just feel this way because there are significantly fewer people in Namibia. With a population of only 2.1 million and a slow growth rate of 0.95% (slow due mostly to the impact of AIDS, which became the leading cause of death in Namibia in 1996), Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in Africa. Namibia is also unique because of its German colonial heritage. Although the colony was handed over to the British and put under South African control after WWI, the German influence lives on. After a long struggle with South Africa, Namibia finally gained independence in 1990. The Lonely Planet claims Namibia is one of Africa's better performing democracies. Based on the little bit we've seen so far, we would tend to agree. Fishing for diamonds. View of Luderitz Harbor and surrounding sand dunes from 'Diamond Hill'. Typical Luderitz architecture. This was taken in the middle of town on a Saturday afternoon. Nicely maintained homes and shops, but we kept wondering where all the people were? It was a holiday weekend, but no one seemed to be out and about. A Luderitz mystery. We stayed only three nights in Luderitz, choosing to move on to Walvis Bay when the wind was right (and choosing to exit Luderitz harbor, which gets very windy nearly every afternoon proving its unofficial title 'the windiest place in Namibia' is based in truth). Luderitz is an interesting place, but Walvis Bay promised to be less windy and more lively. Anne |