Unearthing History: The Amandelboom Basters' Tragic 19th-Century Tale Revealed
The complex history of Amandelboom (now Williston) and the 'Basters' community is explored, revealing their displacement from the Northern Cape to Rehoboth, Namibia. A startling discovery links this community to Eugen Fischer, later Hitler's racial scientist, highlighting the dark origins of eugenics.The history of Amandelboom, now known as Williston, in the Northern Cape region presents a complex and challenging narrative that defies simple categorizations of victims and villains. This intricate past raises significant ethical questions and prompts troubling reflections. A forgotten chapter of the Northern Cape frontier history, brought to light by local historian Elsa van Schalkwyk, centers around the "Basters" – a community of mixed Khoi and European ancestry. For much of the 19th century, these Basters resided at the German Rhenish mission in Amandelboom, a settlement renamed Williston in 1883.
This community of Amandelboom Basters was notable for its prosperity and independence, characterized by their significant livestock ownership. However, their peaceful existence was disrupted in the late 1860s when they were forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands. In response to this displacement, the Basters undertook an arduous journey, trekking over 1,000 kilometers northwards to establish a new home in Rehoboth, located in present-day Namibia.
During research for his book Letters of Stone, the author made a disturbing discovery concerning the Rehoboth Baster community. In 1908, the same year that the horrific Nama and Herero genocide concluded, members of this Baster community were subjected to measurements and photographs by Eugen Fischer. Fischer, a German physical anthropologist, would later rise to become Adolf Hitler's most senior racial scientist, playing a pivotal role in the Nazi regime's eugenics programs. His career as a leading international eugenics scientist soared following the publication of his ethnography on the Rehoboth Basters in 1913. From 1928 to 1942, Fischer served as the director of the infamous Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics in Berlin. This institution, under Fischer's leadership, was implicated in horrific practices, including the reception of eye specimens and blood samples from victims at Auschwitz during World War 2. This historical connection underscores the chilling trajectory from early anthropological studies to the atrocities of racial science under Nazism.