• Jonker Afrikaner established the ‘Baiweg’ (bay road) •

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One of the important trade routes in southern Africa linked Lake Ngami, south of the Okavango Delta in present-day Botswana, to the Cape region. The journey was long and arduous, taking many months.

Alternatively, there was a much shorter route to Walvis Bay, which saved a few months. However, one had to travel through difficult terrain and cross the approximately 100 km wide Namib Desert.

From 1843 to 1844, Afrikaner Oorlam Kaptein Jonker Afrikaner had the ‘Baiweg’ (bay road) constructed from Winterhoek / Windhoek to Walvis Bay. It was designed for ox carts, which were the main means of transport in the country at the time. Rocks had to be cleared from the path, sections filled with rocks and earth, and care had to be taken to ensure the path wasn’t too steep.

A loaded cart was pulled by about 20 oxen. They needed water and pasture. The route therefore had to be laid out in such a way that it passed springs and grazing areas at intervals of a day.

The Baiweg led across the Khomas Highlands to Tsaobis near the Swakop Rivier (dry river). From the Tinkas spring, it crossed the gravel plains of the Namib Desert to Walvis Bay.

At Tsaobis, routes from the north and northeast of present-day Namibia also joined the Baiweg. From nearby Otjimbingwe, missionaries soon established a road to Groß-Barmen near Okahandja. It offered a smoother alternative to the arduous route across the hilly Khomas Highlands.

Jonker also had a road built for ox carts through the Auas Mountains south of Winterhoek / Windhoek, serving as a passage southwards. These roads represented an additional source of income for him. Jonker’s ‘komandos’ collected tributes for transport on all trade routes through his territories.

Sources:

• Henrichsen 2011
• Stengel, Heinz Walter (1972): Der Baiweg, in: ‘Namib und Meer’, Bd. 3/1972, Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Swakopmund
• Wallace 2011

Afrikaner Oorlam Kaptein Jonker Afrikaner, who established the ‘Baiweg’ (bay road) from Winterhoek / Windhoek to Walvis Bay in 1844. Woodcut after a drawing by Charles Andersson, printed in his book “Lake Ngami” (1856), p. 235. Source: PDF download on Darwin-Online.org.uk