Otjimbingwe
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Otjimbingwe Otjizingue |
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|---|---|
| Settlement | |
Rhenish Missionary Church in Otjimbingwe
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 Otjimbingwe
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| Coordinates: 22°21′27″S 16°7′43″E / 22.35750°S 16.12861°ECoordinates: 22°21′27″S 16°7′43″E / 22.35750°S 16.12861°E | |
| Country |
 Namibia
|
| Region | Erongo Region |
| Founded | 1864 |
| Time zone | South African Standard Time (UTC+1) |
Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants.
The area was already a temporary settlement of some Herero in the early 18th century. Their chief Tjiponda coined the name Otjizingue (Otjiherero: refreshing place, referring to the natural spring) from which the settlement's name developed.
The Rhenish Mission Society used Otjimbingwe as a central location for their Namibian mission in 1849. Johannes Rath and his family settled in the area on 11 July that year, and the settlement was declared official in 1864.
In 1854, copper was found in the nearby Khomas highlands and the Walwich Bay Mining Company established its offices in the city. Miners and merchants flocked to the settlement, and the researcher and businessman Karl Johan Andersson bought the entire settlement in 1860. He sold it five years later to the Rhenish Missionary Society. However the supply had been exhausted by that time, and the mining operations ceded.
The settlement was attacked and plundered several times in its early history. In 1863 the Battle of Otjimbinge took place, one of the largest battles of the Herero-Nama War. Andersson and the Herero fought the Oorlam people under Christian Afrikaner.
Rhenish missionary Carl Hugo Hahn founded the Augustineum, a seminary and teacher training college in 1866. It remained in Otjimbingwe until 1890 and was then moved to Okahandja. Hahn also founded the first school of South West Africa at Otjimbingwe in 1876.
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