What is the History of Namaqua Park?
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What is the History of Namaqua National Park?
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Namaqua National Park was officially proclaimed in 1999. Conservation in the area already started in 1988, when WWF-SA purchased a part of the Skilpad Farm in order to conserve wildflowers. By 2002, the first RARE Environmental Education Campaign began in the Namaqua National Park, which is the first of its sort in Africa.
In 2003, the land amalgamation of surrounding farms in the area reached a size of 72 000 ha. By 2004, work began on a proposed corridor to the coast and, in 2005, negotiations started with De Beers Namaqualand Mine to eventually acquire the Groen-Spoeg River section of the national park by 2008.
Namaqua National Park was named after the Khoikhoi of the area. “Nama” is the area that they are from, and the suffix, “qua”, means “people”. They were Iron Age pastoral herders that replaced the Stone Age San (Bushmen) hunter-gatherers that previously inhabited this area.
The Khoikhoi tribes arrived in southern Africa about 2 500 years ago and brought with them long-tailed, smooth-haired sheep, goats, dogs and cattle. They move around constantly to provide their livestock with enough grazing. The area that is now Namaqua National Park is within the region that the Namaqua Khoikhoi used to move to seasonally for grazing.