Otjimbingwe

[Robert Mahnke]

I am reading a novel called The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, by Peter Orner, set in Namibia, and the start of chapter 8 (“A Spot Northwest of Otjimbingwe”) may be of interest to Pynchon fans:


You claim that you are sorry that I do not accept German protection.  You seem to think that I am guilty even of this . . . This is my answer: I have never in my life seen the German emperor and am sure he has never seen me.
-Hendrik Witbooi, 1885

In the event you should intend to fight me further, I have to ask your Highness to provide me with two more boxes of Henri Martini cartridges so that I can respond to your attack.  So far we have no really fought each other . . .  A great and honest and civilized nation such as yours should not stop ammunition for its enemy.  In the event that I should have enough ammunition, you are welcome to conquer me.
-Hendrik Witbooi, 1893

     The story goes that it was the most savage raid on colonial forces in the whole bloody history of German South-West Africa.  Hendrik Witbooi and his men – answering a call from God – made a surprise attack on the German base at Otjimbingwe.  Five thousand imperial troops led by Herman Goering, hapless father of the more successful future reich marshal, were stationed in the barracks, fast asleep on a sweltering summer evening.  The raid was so successful that Goering himself was forced to flee and, in what must have been a particular humiliation, reduced to begging the protection of the British garrison at Walfish Bay.  Not surprisingly, the Germans did not allow the attack to go unanswered and stormed back three months later, following the arrival of fresh recruits from the Fatherland.  Witbooi retreated to the uninhabitable sand wastes and clay buttes northwest of Otjimbingwe.


This story -- http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleid=7523 -- seems to contain an earlier version of the chapter.  I’ve only just started the novel, but so far, so good.