The Scramble For Chobe

On April 24, 1884 the Germans caught the British off guard by proclaiming a Protectorate over the Namib coast south of the Cape Colony’s enclave at Walvis Bay.

This proclamation was  preceded by the negotiation in 1883-84 of a number of dubious concessions from minor coastal rulers by a merchant named Albert Luderitz, who used them as a basis for claiming the territory on behalf of his German Colonial Society, whose legal successor was the German Colonial Company of South West Africa or “DKG” (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft fur Sudwestafrika ).