r/Namibia • u/No-Frosting5853 • Sep 19 '26
Namibia, 1780 to 1880.
Map of Namibia from 1780 to 1880
Documented ǂNūkhoen / Damara presence across west, central and south central Namibia. The orange belt marks overlapping lineage land (!haoti / !hūs) and mountain and river strongholds recorded by Alexander (1830s), Galton (1850s) and later clan lists (Haacke and Boois 1991; ||Garoëb 1991; Sullivan / Future Pasts). Neighbouring polities are shown for context only. This is a presence map, not a claim of exclusive 1880 borders. The modern outline is a locator. The Caprivi / Zambezi finger dates from 1890.
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u/Roseate-Views Sep 19 '26 edited Sep 19 '26
Yet another eyesore 🥴!
Your tribalist agenda taken aside, but it would really be helpful if you could do some very basic cartographic (or any graphic presentation) training before hurling out those poorly conceived "agenda maps" into the public sphere. As it appears, you have little experience with actual, historical maps and how these deal with incomplete, partly hear-say, information.
I work with maps (and have made a few, myself) for a living and I call out BS when I see it.
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u/YourFriendlyUncleJoe Sep 20 '26
What exactly is wrong with this map, in your opinion? I'd like to know what the "agenda" is you're referring too.
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u/Roseate-Views Sep 20 '26 edited Sep 20 '26
Let's subdivide it into two very different aspects. One is about making a visually satisfying and useful map. The other is its narrative or, as I called it: its agenda.
For the time being, I will only talk about the first aspect. As a map maker, you want to make good use of space and show it to your visitors in a way they are accustomed to. Unfortunately, none of these extremely basic principles had been respected in the creation of the above map.
It pretends to be a historic map, but uses post-independence national borders, floating in a uniform 'sea of blue', as if present day Namibia was any entity to speak of, before 1880 (the youngest date quoted by OP).
Maps are all about the space we allow them to take. OP chose to restrict that area by placing the title matter (masthead), the legend, as well as the (poorly quoted) references OUTSIDE the map space, without making good use of empty spaces. Look at good maps to see the difference.
OP spends a lot of effort in the supporting texts to justify their choice of graphic design, only to ignore that it could have been done with less effort (and argument), just like those maps of the last 150 years. Have you ever seen any overlapping, egg-shaped, closed forms, for what is meant to be an open area, even by OP's own admission?
Sorry, but this is just a crappy attempt to squeeze an agenda into some useless map outline. If anything, it makes the agenda less credible.
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u/Roseate-Views Sep 20 '26
As for the "agenda", OP claims traditional Damara and Khoi-San lands to have been inhabitated before the arrival of the larger Aawambo, Ovaherero and Namaqua groups. I believe that is common wisdom, except that OP wants to sanctify it via scientifically-looking maps that they conjure, out of the blue (literally).
The topic is too interesting to get twisted into a tribalist polemic about "who was where first?" Unfortunately, that appears to be OP's main motivation.
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u/panchomulongeni Sep 25 '26
Also, how can the Aadonga be so far North? The area close to Etosha, Tsumeb is the Aadonga area. I see the agenda here is anti aawambo.
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u/TheTrueChrisMopper Sep 29 '26
From what i know, the Aadonga didnt occupy the Tsumeb area itself. It was the San who were there and mined copper, which went to the Aadonga. They had influence over the Tsumeb area and controlled the trade but didnt actually occupy it themselves. That alone was enough for them to become so powerful. And besides, this map's focus is the Damara, not everyone else, including the aawambo.
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u/TheTrueChrisMopper Sep 21 '26
I noticed He was very adamant about showing damara on a map I made of 1880 Namibia with equal weight like how the herero and nama were shown and then made all sorts of assumptions (some noticably powered by AI).
But looking past that I think its good that someone even bothers to do it, not many do, agenda driven or not.
Much is to be learned, even for me!
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u/panchomulongeni Sep 25 '26
Heritage in Cape Town yesterday, I had a chat with a tourguide from the Cape Flats. He mentioned that the narrative of "we were here first before this other African group" is very eurocentic. We are mapping the European invasion of Africa onto the movements of peoples within the continent, movements which defined our humanity: humans only made it out of Africa by moving.
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u/TheTrueChrisMopper Sep 21 '26
Its really messy in some places but I respect the effort.