Bondelswarts

The Bondelswarts, also known as Kamiǂnûn, are a Nama community associated with the dry country of southern Namibia. Their homeland centres on Warmbad, near the Orange River. Pastoral life in this region depended on access to widely separated water and grazing places.

Historians suggest that the Kamiǂnûn were present in southeastern Namibia by around 1600, though the early chronology is uncertain. Warmbad's springs became a meeting place in the region, and the London Missionary Society established a station there in 1806. These later written records offer glimpses of a community whose history extends beyond the arrival of missionaries and colonial administrations.