Hermanus van Wyk

Under his leadership, the mixed-race Basters moved from the Northern Cape to leave white racial discrimination, and migrated into the interior of what is now central Namibia; the first 30 families settled about 1870.

van Wyk was born in 1835 to a mixed-race Baster family in the Fraserburg district in the Cape Colony, today South Africa.

Scouts of the Baster clan discovered the fertile area around Rehoboth,[2] which at that time had largely been abandoned by the Nama people after they had been attacked by the Orlam Afrikaners in 1864.

Under van Wyk's leadership of the Kaptein's council, the Basters drafted a constitution (Afrikaans: Vaderlike Wette, literally English: Paternal Laws).

[2] Due to the relative wealth that the community had accumulated, van Wyk attempted to buy the land around Rehoboth from Swartbooi.

On 15 September 1885, van Wyk and the Germans signed a "Treaty of Protection and Friendship"; this permitted the Basters to retain a degree of autonomy in exchange for accepting colonial rule.

After the outbreak of World War I, in 1914 the United Kingdom took over the area as a British Protectorate, administered by South Africa beginning in 1915.

Hermanus van Wyk
A black-and-white photography from 1872. Four middle-aged men sit behind a small folding table in front of a cottage. A book is prominently placed in the middle of the table.
The first council of the Baster , 1872, presenting the community's Vaderlike Wette (constitution, the book on the table). Hermanus van Wyk is the third from left.