The royal house of the Bondelswarts traditional community has decided to move on from chieftainship issues of the Bondelswarts Traditional Authority, and to rather focus on educating the community.
This education would involve customary law, the Traditional Authorities Act and the genealogy of the tribe.
The chairperson of the Bondelswarts royal house, Jimms Christiaan, says different interpretations of the law is at the root of division among the community.
The splintering of the community started after the death of the late kaptein Anna Christiaan in 2011, he says.
Anna Christiaan was the first female chief of the Bondelswarts community.
The disunity of the community relates to the eligibility of Nathanael Christiaan, the first-born son of Anna, and the underaged Denzyl Christiaan, the son of the late acting chief Josef Christiaan, who died in 2015.
Jimms Christiaan made these remarks during the Bondelswarts restoration conference held at Warmbad in the //Kharas region over the weekend.
“There are many groupings within our community. These groupings or splinter groups are due to the differences in the way we interpreted the laws.
“Therefore, it is important for us to get the people on the same page by educating them. We believe this would unite them, so we can move as one people,” Jimms said.
Bondelswarts Traditional Authority councillor and elder within the royal house Petrus Domrogh said the conference did not aim to target any group, accuse people or play the blame game, but aimed to revert to the origins of the tribe and chart a new future for the community.
Domrogh said even within the gazetted traditional authority there is division about processes to be followed as most councillors still believe in patrilineal lineage (descent through the male line).
“When our queen died we should have called the whole tribe together and brought them to unity, but due to a lack of understanding, we as the traditional authority also ran ahead of the royal house and did not recognise their role in identifying the potential candidate for coronation.
“We were only dictating to them how we understood the law, and we went nowhere,” he said.
An elder in the community, Ouma Hanna Kaffer, said some people believe there is no royal house and that the lineage of the royal house ended with chief Katrina Christiaan.
Kaffer said it is therefore important that the community is being educated on the genealogy of the tribe.
“In 1973 when the chief before Katrina died, the community resolved that Katrina should be chief in the absence of a man to lead.
“In 1976, a written affidavit was given to the court saying her first-born son should be made chief to restore the lineage. However, none of these existing documents are being taken into consideration as each one is wise in their own eyes at the expense of the community,” she said.
In 2017, after the community was advised by former minister of urban and rural development Sophia Shaningwa to instal Nathanael, a faction unlawfully installed Johannes Matroos – much to the disappointment of Ignatius Berend who said the community was being disadvantaged.
This matter was before the Karasburg Magistrate’s Court, which informed the community to withdraw the instalment.
“Because we do not have a properly instituted chief, and we do not have an operational trust fund, nothing is happening in the customary court.
“We cannot do anything without a chief. We cannot get proper representation on the genocide negotiations and the feedback workshops to report on progress made regarding resolutions of the previous land conference,” Berend said.
Jimms said the patrilineal line based on the current Witbooi Traditional Authority dispute was found discriminatory by Windhoek High Court judge Thomas Masuku.
Jimms said the gathering resolved to host training at key Bondelswarts community locations such as Karasburg, Gibeon, Keetmanshoop and Windhoek, and to identify contact persons countrywide to reach the broader community.
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