Relationships with the Portuguese authorities deteriorated as the latter came to rely less on the Trekkers to teach them animal husbandry and shooting.
The Swedish traveler and Army officer Peter Möller commented as early as 1895-1896 on some of the many reasons the Afrikaners may want to leave Angola: "The Boers could not obtain full citizenship, gain full ownership of their farms, or teach their children in Afrikaans, and their [Protestant] faith was threatened while their chance to make a living farming or shipping declined."
On August 22, 1928, the first group crossed the Kunene near Swartbooisdrift, and by February 27, 1929, 1,922 people, including 373 families, had been repatriated to SWA.
In 1928, however, quite a few Angola-Boers were affiliated to the Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa (NHK), the result of a schism in Angola in 1908.
Therefore, the first three congregations of the NHK also stemmed from the repatriation in 1937: in Gobabis on July 31, in Otjiwarongo on August 21, and in Grootfontein on September 4.
The disparity persists in Namibia today in the GKSA's Namibian numbers of 2,000 confirmed members and the NHK's local tally of 1,058.
Pasch (Humpata pastor from 1908 to 1911) preaching to the native mat volk ("tame folks," as the Boers called the servants they brought with them on their journey) and administering sacraments only every three months.
Appeals by the schismatics to the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands proper failed when the latter declared the NHK position Scripturally erroneous and advised the malcontents to reconcile themselves with the Rev.
Pasch and the South African church that had spiritually and financially nurtured them, a prospect with which the schismatics were dissatisfied.
Strydom described ecumenical relations between the GKSA and NHK in Angola to still be poor, but not as "miserably bad" as immediately after the schism.
The Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa (NGK), which had almost no Dorsland Trekker members and urged the few remaining ones after the evacuation to turn to the GKSA.
writes as follows about the Afrikaners' role in the founding of the settlement: "The Particular Synod of the Cape Reformed Church had, on May 26, 1930, delegated the Rev.
van Jaarsveld to seek out members from Angola and South Africa and organize a church to guide them in the Word and the Sacrament.
Van Jaarseveld blessed the inauguration with the words of Ephesians 2:19-22: 'Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
An emotional moment arose when the last minutes from a meeting in Humpata, Angola, were read, approved, and signed by the council.
Grounds acquisition was discussed, and the Humpata church council agreed to stay active until the foundation.
On Saturday, June 7, 1930 (the Gobabis congregation's foundation date), the Reformed Church members gathered at Helew 408 farm, near the house of P.C.
Van Jaarsveld, the chairman, explained to the congregation that the existing Angola church council had been dissolved and a new one needed to be elected, which it then was by secret ballot.
Van der Merwe went to Windhoek first, but difficulties serving the area from there led him to relocate to Gobabis in May 1940.
Van der Merwe worked hard to build the Gobabis church, but World War II delayed his plans, so it would not be until October 27, 1944, that he would return to begin construction.
The sixth and last congregation founded before World War II was the Windhoek Reformed Church in the regional capital.
van der Merwe was confirmed as Windhoek's first full-time pastor, and he stayed there until 1957, when he left to serve as a missionary at the Potchefstroom-Noord Reformed Church.
Johan van Ryssen had in 1949 already become the first pastor to serve Outjo regularly, until he left for Parys, Free State in 1953.
Van der Walt preached 11 Sundays a year in Grootfontein, 11 in Walvis Bay and Usakos, and 22 in Otjiwarongo.
In 1959, the centennial year of the GKSA, there were 12 congregations in South West Africa with 1,436 confirmed and 1,328 baptized members served by 4 pastors.