When this alliance was defeated by merchant Andersson's private army in the Battle of Otjimbingwe on 15 June 1863, Piet Koper was killed and Simon Kooper ascended to chieftaincy.

[1] The Germans defeated the Nama in the Battle of Swartfontein on 15 January 1905 and forced them to flee first into the Kalahari Desert and then to recede into Bechuanaland, the British colony that later became Botswana.

From there they repeatedly and for several years mounted guerrilla-style attacks at the colony's Schutztruppe (Protection Force),[1] actions that made Kooper rise to fame.

He was imprisoned at Shark Island near Lüderitz in 1907 but escaped into the Karas Mountains where Morenga had used the old Nama fortress ǁKhauxaǃnas as hideout for his rebels.

[2] After this last attempt to capture him, German and British colonial forces negotiated a ceasefire, granting an annual allowance for the rest of his life in return for the cessation of all hostilities from his side.