Palgrave Commission

The Palgrave Commission (1876–1885) was a series of diplomatic missions undertaken by Special Commissioner William Coates Palgrave (1833–1897) to the territory of South West Africa (modern Namibia). Palgrave was commissioned by the Cape Government to meet with the leaders of the nations of Hereroland and Namaland, hear their wishes regarding political sovereignty, and relay the assembled information to the Cape Colony Government.

In the early 1870s, South West Africa was torn by internecine warfare and threatened with impending invasion and colonisation by Portugal, Germany and the Boers. In desperation, several local leaders requested incorporation into the relatively peaceful Cape Colony, with the promise of equal representation in the Cape Parliament. The Cape Government commissioned Palgrave to investigate, and Palgrave recommended that South West Africa be incorporated into the Cape and its inhabitants granted equal political rights.

This would have resulted in a new state, comprising the Cape and modern Namibia. However the breakdown in relations between the local Cape government and the British Imperial government prevented it from being implemented. The region remained vulnerable without a unified state structure, and was taken over and colonised by Germany soon afterwards.

In the 19th century, the frontiers of the Cape Colony and the neighbouring Boer republics were inhabited by expanding waves of semi-nomadic farmers. These Afrikaans-speaking nomads included the mixed-race Oorlam, Griqua and Baster nations as well as the white Trekboers. Leaving the colonies, they spilled over into neighbouring territories and entered into clashes with the pre-existing African peoples.

In South West Africa, which was as yet uncolonised by Europeans, incursions from the south by mounted gunmen of the Oorlam people began in the late 18th century. After decades of war with the Damara, Nama and Herero people, they established a powerful semi-nomadic state in the area of modern Windhoek, under their dynamic leader Jan Jonker Afrikaner.

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