This stamp celebrates 100 years since the first post office. The stamp hints though at an earlier history, when Missionary developed a regular communication to look out for each other. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip if your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
In keeping with the 100 year post office theme, the stamp dates the mail carrying camel crossing the Kalahari desert to 1904. By then there was a long history of it. Spread out colonial outposts had to stay in touch even if the technology did not yet make it easy. Think of how treacherous these necessary and regularly scheduled treks were.
Todays stamp is issue A128, a 50 Cent stamp issued by South West Africa, on July 7th, 1988. It was from the last days of the South African administration before the area became Namibia. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations mistakingly dating the start of the postal service to the construction of the first village post offices during the German period of the area. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used.
The coast of South West Africa was first spotted by the Portuguese at a time when it was very sparsely populated by nomads who the British called Bushmen and the Germans called Hottentots. Nam seems to be the current boring term for them. The British were first with a permanent settlement on the coast at Walvis Bay and the Germans followed further south at Luderitz. The postal service on camel dates to 1814 and was a regular messenger service between Christian Missionary camps in the interior. Again there was British and Germans involved with Congregationalists of the London Missionary Society and German Lutherans of the Rhenish Missionary Society.
South West Africa began to change with the arrival of a former tobacco trading German named Adolf Luderitz. He had worked in America and Mexico in failed tobacco ventures. Back in Germany, he married a rich heiress and was ready anew to seek his fortune. He was very concerned at the number of young Germans that were setting out to America as he had. He felt that they were loosing his Germanness. He thought an area of just Germans in Africa could be a better outlet for Germans seeking a fresh start. The newly united Germany was very weary of African commitments but Bismarck was convinced to grant Luderitz’s area German protection. Luderitz had expanded his area of control by trading rifles for land with the African tribes. With official German support, a deal was struck that gave South West Africa a strip of land called the Caprivi strip that connected the colony to the Zambezi River and by extension to German colonies in east Africa. Keeping connections being so important so far from home. Adolf Luderitz desperately sought to find the mineral wealth that might justify all the work he put in. During one of his missions his boat on the Orange River was lost showing how treacherous it all was. As he was checking in nightly, it is at least known what day he was lost. The Hottentot chief who took the rifles for the land later claimed he did not understand the magnitude of the land he was giving up. He then filed a complaint with the Germans demanding money.
Namibia Post Offices still function though the camels have been retired. A private company NamPost took charge of the postal system in 1992 and claims to have 135 post offices and 743 employees. The Caprivi strip still officially belongs to Namibia though it attempted to break away under the African name Itenge around the year 2000. Perhaps a private profit seeking postal service is not ideal to keep solid connections. The town in Namibia retains Luderitz’s name post independence as it attracts tourists but many of the streets named for him in German cities are being renamed one by one.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the adventurers who travel far whether for profit or God. It sure beats standing around with your hand out. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting