Origins nomads in the Cape Colony, ancestral to the Baster people Basters were mainly persons of mixed-race descent who at one time would have been absorbed in the white community. 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 the 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 also included
Khoi,
Free Negro, 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
Khoi and
Coloured (mixed-race) people who spoke Dutch and practised a largely European way of life. Some 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 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. 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), an international pro-democracy organisation founded in 1991. Operating in
The Hague, it works to "facilitate the voices of unrepresented and marginalised
nations and peoples worldwide, helping minorities to gain self-determination." Since November 2012, the UNPO has called on the Namibian government to recognise Basters as a 'traditional authority' in their historic territory, as it has for some other ethnic groups in the country. ==Culture==