Travel Guide Okahandja

This small provincial town of the high plateau (altitude 1 430 m), very quiet, was at the beginning of the XIXth century the capital of the Hereros. On the last Sunday of August, a big annual festival gathers more than a thousand families, the women in traditional red and black dress, the men in military dress. The Herero parade, on foot or on horseback, to commemorate the wars with the German colonists. Between its immense eucalyptus trees, the public garden houses the tombs of Herero chiefs, notably that of Samuel Maharero, who died in exile in Botswana and was buried in Okahandja on August 26, 1923. Next to the cemetery is a church built by Rhineland missionaries in 1872. In town, two traditional German pastry shops also serve as tea rooms and share the main street with gas stations, supermarkets and butcher shops (note the very good local biltong, sold directly from the manufacturer, in this main street). But Okahandja is also a classic stop on the way to Windhoek thanks to its two big local handicraft markets (at the entrance of the city coming from the south): very cheap wooden hippopotamus sculptures (but untransportable in the plane...), giraffes and other animals, masks as well as smaller traditional objects (handmade wooden dishes, various trinkets...). The young artisans are generally willing to discuss prices.