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The Basters (also known as Baasters, Rehobothers, or Rehoboth Basters) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from Nama people of Khoekhoe origin and Europeans. Since the second half of the 19th century, the Rehoboth Baster community has been concentrated in central Namibia, in and around the town of Rehoboth. Basters are closely related to Afrikaners, Cape Coloureds, and Griquas of South Africa and Namibia, with whom they share a largely Afrikaner-influenced culture and Afrikaans language. Other groups of similar mixed ethnic origin, living chiefly in the Northern Cape, also refer to themselves as Basters.

The name Baster is derived from "bastaard", the Dutch word for "bastard" or "mongrel". While some people consider this term demeaning, the Basters reappropriated it as an ethnonym, in spite of the negative connotation. Their 7th Kaptein is Jacky Britz, elected in 2021; he has no official status under the Namibian constitution. The Chief's Council of Rehoboth was replaced with a local town council under the new government.

In the 2023 Census, 45,629 Namibians identified as Basters. Survival of the Baster culture and identity have been called into question in modern Namibia. Modern Namibia's politics and public life are largely dominated by the ethnic Ovambo and their culture. Baster politicians and activists have called Ovambo policies oppressive towards their community.

History

Origins

thumb|right|Illustration of mixed-race "Afrikaner" [[Trekboer nomads in the Cape Colony, ancestral to the Baster people]]

Basters were mainly persons of mixed-race descent. This term came to refer to an economic and cultural group, and it included the most economically advanced non-white population at the Cape, who had higher status than other natives. Some of the Basters acted as supervisors of other servants and were the confidential employees of their white masters. Sometimes, these were treated almost as members of the white family. Many were descended from white men, if not directly from men in the families for whom they worked.

The group included Khoe people and persons of mixed-race descent who had succeeded in acquiring property and establishing themselves as farmers in their own right. The term Orlam (Oorlam) was sometimes applied to persons who could also be known as Baster. Orlams were the Khoe and mixed-race people who spoke Dutch and practised a largely European way of life. Basters distinguished themselves from the Coloured, whom they described as descendants of Europeans and Malay or Indonesian slaves brought to South Africa.

In the early 18th century, Basters often owned farms in the colony. However, with growing competition for land and the pressure of race discrimination, they were oppressed by their white neighbours and the government. Some became absorbed into the Coloured servant class, but those seeking to maintain independence moved to the fringes of settlement. From about 1750, the Kamiesberge in the extreme north-west of the colony became the main area of settlement of independent Baster farmers, some of whom had substantial followings of servants and clients.

After about 1780, increasing competition and oppression from whites in this area resulted in the majority of the Baster families moving to the frontier of the interior. They settled in the middle valley of the Orange River, where they settled near De Tuin. Basters of the middle Orange were subsequently persuaded by London Missionary Society missionaries to adopt the name Griqua. Some sources say they chose the name themselves in honour of an early leader.

Move to central Namibia

thumb|The first council of the Rehoboth Basters, 1872. First Kaptein [[Hermanus van Wyk is the third from left; the book on the table is the Vaderlike Wette, the constitution of the Basters. On the right is his brother Christoffel van Wyk. Their father was Cornelius van Wyk.]]

Basters announced their intention to leave the Cape Colony in 1868 to search for land in the interior north. About 90 families of 100 left the region, the first 30 in 1869, with others following. They settled in Rehoboth in what is now central Namibia, on a high plateau between the Namib and Kalahari deserts. There they continued an economy based on managing herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. They were followed by Johann Christian Friedrich Heidmann, a missionary of the Rhenish Mission, who served them from 1871 until his retirement in 1907.

Basters established a community based on birth. Under these laws, a citizen is a child of a Rehoboth citizen, or a person otherwise accepted as a citizen by its rules. Other sources date this treaty 15 September 1885, Under this, "the independent executive powers of the Kaptein and Baster Council, especially for "foreign policy", were significantly curtailed."

In 1893, the Germans established the territory of the Basters, known as the Rehoboth Gebiet, which the settlers tried to expand through negotiation. In this area, the Paternal Laws were recognised. In addition, the German colony had an administrative district known as Rehoboth, which was larger than the Baster-governed area, with the outside areas under German (white) colonial law. Most of the land was developed as farms owned by European, especially German whites. This day is celebrated annually by Basters as integral to their history and fortitude. Both units of the Germans were ordered to retreat in order to mobilise against advancing South African troops which reached Rehoboth. The Owambo and other indigenous peoples also agitated for an end to South African colonialism, especially as that state had established apartheid with severe legal racial discrimination against the African peoples.

South Africa passed the 'Rehoboth Self-government Act' of 1976, providing a kind of autonomy for the Basters. They settled for a semi-autonomous Baster Homeland (known as Baster Gebiet) based around Rehoboth, similar in status to the South African bantustans.

This was established in 1976, and an election was held for Kaptein. In 1979, Johannes "Hans" Diergaardt won a court challenge to the disputed election, in which incumbent Ben Africa had placed first. Diergaardt was installed as the 5th Kaptein of the Basters in accordance with the regulations of the 1976 Rehoboth Self-Determination Act and the Basters' Paternal Laws.

In 1981, South West Africa had a population of one million, divided into more than a dozen ethnic and tribal groups, and 39 political parties. With not more than 35,000 people at the time, Basters had become one of the smaller minority groups in the country of over one million.

The Kaptein's Council sought compensation for Rehoboth lands that it claimed had been confiscated by the government, with much sold to non-Basters. The council was given locus standi (the right of a party to appear and be heard before a court), but "in 1995, a High Court verdict declared that Rehoboth lands were voluntarily handed over by the Rehoboth Baster community to the then new Namibian government."

In 1999, following the death of Diergaardt, Basters elected John McNab as the 6th Kaptein of their community. He has no official status under the Namibian government. He has protested against the government's management of former Baster land and says his farmers were forced to buy it back at high prices. Much of it has been sold to others since independence.

In February 2007, the Kapteins Council has represented the Basters at the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO),

1905–1914: Germans suspended the Kapteinship position and instead established a Basterrat ()
1925–1975: The South African administration transferred all power from the Raad and the Kaptein to the Rehoboth Magistrate
1977–1979: Ben Africa
1999–2020: John McNab
since 2021: Jacky Britz The newly independent Namibian government passed legislation about land use and title that took precedence over Baster traditions. Basters can no longer allocate land to their young men. The land is controlled by the local town council, which replaced the Chief's Council.

Religion and genetics

Basters from Mainline churches are mostly Calvinist. They sing traditional hymns almost identical to those of the 17th-century Netherlands; these songs were preserved in the colony and their group during a period when the Netherlands churches were absorbing new music.

The average gene pool of Basters is about 48.4% European, 28,5% Khoe-San, 17.1% Asian and 5.7% Bantu; according to a 2013 autosomal genealogical DNA testing.

Traditional leadership

Largely through missionary work during the 19th century, they coalesced into fiercely independent, autonomous communities that maintained their identities even after being incorporated into the Cape Colony. Others moved farther north into what is now Namibia in the late 1860s because of pressure from Boer settlers and eventually established a settlement that became known as Rehoboth.

The first Kaptein was Hermanus van Wyk, the 'Moses' of the Baster nation, who led the community to Rehoboth from South Africa. He served as Kaptein until his death in 1905. After his death, the German colonial government established a separate council. The Rehoboth Basters did not elect another Kaptein until the United Kingdom took over the territory as a British Protectorate in 1914 during World War I. Basters elected Cornelius van Wyk as Kaptein. He was not officially recognised by the South African authorities, which administered the territory from 1915 to Namibian independence in 1990.

Other Baster communities

Similar terms are used for unrelated mixed-race Dutch and native communities in South Africa and elsewhere. For instance, a mixed-race community in the Richtersveld in South Africa are known as the 'Boslys Basters.'

In Indonesia, the people of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent are called Blaster(an).

References

Orizio, R. (2001) Lost White Tribes, Free Press, New York.
Omer-Cooper, J.D. (2006) History of Southern Africa, James Currey Ltd., Oxford.

External links

Rehoboth Basters Information on the history of the Baster community in Namibia