The prophet's 'war against whites': Shepherd Stuurman in Namibia and SouthAfrica, 1904-7

The article focuses on the political activities of a Khoekhoe prophet in th e early 1900s. His life story shows that Christian ideas played a crucial r ole in the resistance of Africans against European rule in southern Africa. Shepherd Stuurman alias Hendrik Bekeer wandered from the eastern Cape in S outh Africa to German South West,Africa in 1904. His millenarian message of the impending end of white supremacy contributed decisively to the outbrea k of the war between the Nama and Germans. The latter believed that Stuurma n acted as an 'agent' of the South African Ethiopian movement in order to f oment a racial war. The Germans also insinuated that the 'lenient native po licy' of the British at the Cape had encouraged African resistance to exten d into the German colony and that the British were therefore partly respons ible for the war in Namibia. A price was put on Stuurman's head, and an att empt was made to have him killed even after he had returned to the Cape Col ony. The prophet, who had abandoned the struggle in Namibia because his mil itary incompetence aroused suspicion among; the Nama, reappeared in the nor thern Cape under the name of Hendrik Bekeer. There he incited several Afric an workers to kill their white foremen in order to unleash aIl-out 'war aga inst whites'. Before he was sentenced to death, the prophet eloquently defe nded his actions in court and insisted that he had acted on orders from God , who had 'chosen him from the Hottentot tribe'. Despite his frequent refer ences to his Khoekhoe identity, the prophet formulated ideas of anti-coloni al resistance which extended beyond Africa, thus imagining the reversal of the power relations between colonizers and colonized on a global scale.