Hermanus van Wyk (1835–1905) was the first Kaptein of the Baster community at Rehoboth in South-West Africa, today Namibia. Under his leadership, the Basters moved from the Northern Cape to what is now central Namibia and obtained Rehoboth and the land around it through a protection treaty with the German Empire.
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Van Wyk was born in 1835 in the Fraserburg district in the Cape Colony, today South Africa.[1] His clan was living at De Tuin in the Northern Cape until 1868 when they decided to leave the Cape Colony; van Wyk was already the clan's leader at that time. They trekked via Pella, then crossed the Orange River, and arrived at Berseba in 1870. Scouts of the Baster clan discovered the fertile area around Rehoboth[2] which at that time had largely been abandoned by the Nama people after they had been attacked by the Orlam Afrikaners in 1864.[3]
In 1870, Abraham Swartbooi of the Nama allowed the Basters to settle at Rehoboth for an initial payment of eight horses and an annual rent of one horse. They arrived at Rehoboth in October that year and set out to repair and develop the existing infrastructure. Under van Wyk's leadership the Basters gave themselves a constitution (Afrikaans: Vaderlike Wette, literally English: Paternal Laws) that continues to govern the actions of the Basters to the current day[update]. By 1876, their community consisted of 800 people; they owned 20,000 sheep and between 2,000 and 3,000 cattle.[2]
Due to the relative wealth the community had accumulated, van Wyk attempted to buy the land around Rehoboth from Swartbooi. An option on the land was granted at a price of £2,750, but Swartbooi would not sell the land just yet. When the Herero-Nama War of 1880 began, the Basters joined sides with Jan Jonker Afrikaner and the Namas under Swartbooi against the Herero after a Baster merchant group was killed by the Herero. In 1882 however the Basters were attacked by their allies. They defeated the attack but substantial numbers of livestock were stolen.[2]
The Nama then sold the land around Rehoboth to an agent for the Dorsland Trekkers but before the Boers could settle there Imperial Germany claimed their new colony of German South-West Africa. On 15 September 1885 van Wyk and the Germans signed a "Treaty of Protection and Friendship" which permitted him to retain a degree of autonomy in exchange for accepting colonial rule.[1] As this treaty contained no sale of land but rather a recognition that it was rightfully theirs, no money was changing hands in this deal.[4] Later in the Herero and Nama War of 1904–08 the Basters would side with the Germans as a result of this protection treaty.[2]
Hermanus van Wyk died in Rehoboth in 1905. The German colonial authorities did not approve a successor and instead established the Basterrat (English: Council of Basters). Only after the outbreak of World War I when the area became British Protectorate was again a Baster Kaptein put in place and Cornelius van Wyk succeeded Hermanus in 1914.[1]
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