Page 20 - Fort Sesfontein

History
By staying at Fort Sesfontein, one has to realise that this building is a MONUMENT. The Fort was build
in the year 1896 to be a military station of the KAOKOVELD district, established to control the area
and give safety. Cattle disease was a major concern, but also smugglers trading from Angola. To protect
the wildlife of Kaokoland, especially the poaching of elephants and rhinos, were most important .
To assist the local people, Oberleutnant Schulz and 40 soldiers with 25 horses were based at Fort
Sesfontein.
The local people that live around these areas at those days were around a 130 Topnaar – Namas, under
their captain, Jan Nichamab and also some Herero and Damara families. As nomadic people, similar to
hundreds of years before these people spend most of their lives in the undeveloped and lonely endless
savannahs and mountains of the Kaokoveld. Reverence is still given by their old rock-engravings.
With common support, smuggle and illegal hunting was stopped and so one of the first steps for wildlife -
and nature conservation in Namibia was born.
In 1909 the Fort was handed over to the local police.
In the beginning of World War 1, in 1914, the Fort was abandoned and only 3 graves, from soldiers
who died naturally, give witness to that old time.