Berseba (Khoekhoe: ǃAutsawises) is a village in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It is situated near the Brukkaros Mountain, a famous tourist destination. Berseba had 992 inhabitants in 2023.
The first people to permanently settle at this place, then known under its Khoikhoi name ǃAutsawises, were a group of Oorlam herder clans from the Cape Province, driven across the Orange River by encroaching European settlers and the law enforcement of the Dutch East India Company. They arrived in the area of Berseba in 1812.[3] In 1850 their patriarch Paul Goliath established himself as independent leader of this community that subsequently became known as the "Berseba Oorlam" (Khoekhoe: ǀHai-ǀkhaua).
The foundation of Berseba is recorded on 17 October 1850 when Rhenish Missionary Samuel Hahn founded the missionary station and gave it a biblically inspired name. In 1857 a church was built.[1]
People
Since the establishment of the chieftainship of the Berseba Oorlam it has been held by the Goliath and Isaak clans who often were in dispute about the succession.[4] In the 1960s the two clans split over the leadership issue and only reunited in April 2010. Today[update], KapteinJohannes Isaak is the traditional leader of the ǀHai-ǀkhaua.[5]
Development and Infrastructure
The first diamond in Namibia was found in this area in 1898,[6] and oil explorations were conducted in 1900[7] and 1929,[8] though neither led to substantial industrial development. The settlement is riddled with poverty, substance abuse, and crime. It features a secondary school, the Ecumenical Community School, which was declared "unfit to serve as an educational institution" in 2010 and has since been abandoned.[9]
Berseba is connected by road to Tses (MR98), Bethanie (D3901 and D3905), Asab (D3903), Helmeringhausen (D554) and Keetmanshoop (D531), as well as to the Brukkaros tourist site (D3904).
Politics
Berseba is governed by a village council that has five seats.[10]
In the 2004 local authority electionsSWAPO gained three council seats and obtained 260 votes. One seat each was obtained by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) and the Congress of Democrats (CoD) with 99 and 91 votes, respectively.[11] In the 2010 local authority election Berseba was one of a few local authorities in Namibia where an opposition party obtained more votes for the village council than SWAPO when the DTA defeated SWAPO 221 votes to 200. No other party participated in the election for the Berseba Village Council.[12] The 2015 local authority election was narrowly won by SWAPO party which gained three seats (266 votes). The DTA finished second and gained the remaining two seats (200 votes).[13]
