Vlermuis (Vledermuis, Vleermuis), Piet * ?, ca. 1770 (1761) † Gobabis, 1864. "[...] interpreter, evangelist, prominent figure in matters requiring diplomacy. Came to Namaland from the Cape with Chief Amraal Lambert, Jakobus Lambert and missionary Schmelen in 1814, stayed at Bethany for several years. Was often referred to as 'chief' by Schmelen. Close associate of Amraal for many decades, died in smallpox epidemic; [...]"1 "Der abgesandte Bote kam nach sechs Tagen mit der Meldung zurück, die Khauas-Hottentotten sowie die Reste des Kahimemastammes befänden sich in Kalkfontein, einer Wasserstelle, etwa 30km Eukiro abwärts, unweit von dessen südlichem Ufer. Den Brief hatte er nicht abgeben können, da der einzige des Lesens kundige Mann des Stammes, der Magistrat Fledermuis, bei Otjunda gefallen wäre."2 Contradicting Lau3 - who claims that there were two brothers Vlermuis (Piet and Paul) - Dedering suggests that it must have been the same person.4 "The Vlermuis family rose to a leading position among the Kai/khauan, though continually quarrelling with the family of Amraal. Unlike the Oorlam Amraal with his Cape Khoekhoe background, who never learnt to speak Nama properly, Vlermuis might have been of Nama origin. He lived with the missionary Johann Seidenfaden at Heirachabis until the latter abandoned his station in 1808. Heirachabis was predominantly inhabited by members of the !Kharakkhoen (Franzman people), and according to the missionaries, who generally took great pains to differentiate between Nama and Oorlams, he might have risen to Oorlam status as an indigenous member of the mission community. When the Warmbad missionaries were forced to flee from the Afrikaner Oorlams to Pella in 1811, he was praised for his determinded military support for the mission congregation. His repeated skirmishes with Afrikaner caused the missionaries to supply him with a considerable arsenal of firearms and ammunition. Thus furnished with superior firepower, Vlermuis returned to Namibia where he settled near Klipfontein (Bethany) in c. 1813, which he suggested to Schmelen would be a suitable mission station. Before the Vlermuis clan merged with the Armraal family to form the Kai/khauan in the 1830s, they split form the Bethany community, accelerating the conflicts which led to the final demise of Schmelen´s station, and roamed as raiders in southern and, perhaps, central Namibiba as well as along the lower and middle Orange River. During the 1840s, Piet Vlermuis emerged again at Naosanabis and Gobabis as a close ally of the missionaries, exerting considerable influence as interpreter and guide for Joseph Tindall and Edward Cook. When he died in the smallpox epidemic of 1864 in Gobabis, Vlermuis had reached the biblical age of about 100 years."5 In the period after the traumatic demise of the Warmbad station [1811], Piet Vlermuis, the old ally of the missionaries, explored Great Namaqualand to find a suitable place for a new mission station. There are indications, the ample supplies of firearms and ammunition, which the missionaries had procured from the Cape government on behalf of their ousted community, had added considerably to Vlermuis´s rise to Oorlam status. Schmelen, wandering with his followers in the Pella region, received a message from Vlermuis in March 1814, proposing a new settlement for the missionary."6 "A prominent feature of Schmelen´s mission work was that his assistants possessed a high degree of independence. Members of the mission elite - among them Vlermuis and Amraal Lambert - travelled through Great Namaqualand and established links with neighbouring groups. These mission assistants played an important role in the emerging interaction between the mission centre and indigenous groups and individuals. They explored the route from Bethany to Angra Pequena and organized the daily affairs, including church services, of the community in the missionary´s absence. The religious activities of the men Schmelen affectionately " called 'my chiefs' contributed decisively not only to the initial progress of mission work but also to the formation of new Oorlam groups. Bastard/Oorlams, who were conferred with the coveted insignia of modernization such as horses, guns and wagons, carried the promises of acculturation with them. An Oorlam assistant, being the first Christian missionary ever to appear at a Nama kraal, must have seemed the embodiment of social change. It appears that these indigenous missionaries had the most persuasive ideological impact on Namibian groups. They spoke the same language and did not deter Khoisan by drawing them into the complicated religious interrogations that Schmelen used to conduct with his potential converts. When Schmelen was forced to withdraw in 1822, it turned out that his opponents had sharpened the tools of their leadership and consolidated their own political network within the mission environment.7" "[...] competition escalated among those Africans who strove for access to the missionary´s services. The site of Bethany implied certain advantages for a leader like Piet Vlermuis, who had invested considerable effort in securing the cooperation of Schmelen. Bethany was situated at a safe distance from the Afrikaner Oorlams with whom Vlermuis had previously clashed. Secondly, Schmelen´s station was not too far from the colonial boundries. He could therefore easily maintain relations with Bastard communities and other mission stations in the Orange River region. Moreover, Bethany was situated close to Angra Pequena, seasonal anchorage of whalers who were to become involved in trade relations with Namibian groups. From the start of his mission station, Schmelen was eager to find a road to Angra Pequena with the intention of establishing connections with the ships, and to open a direct supply line with Cape Town. Both Vlermuis and Kobus Boois had reportedly not been to the Namibian coast before Schmelen´s arrival at Bethany. In May 1815 Schmelen and some of his followers launched an expedition to Angra Pequena. One of his travelling companions was furnished with an oxwagon. It was only Vlermuis and some of his people, though, who finally reached Angra Pequena after a tedious journey through the coastal desert. [...] Very soon Schmelen realized that his people made use of these trade relations to barter firearms. Moses Vlermuis, a son of Piet, had joined the mission station in c. 1816 but, unlike his father, he refused to submit to church discipline. After a failed search for whalers, Moses raided neighbouring livestock-breeders. Schmelen did not succeed in obtaining assistance from Piet Vlermuis to control his son, but mangaged to restore some of the stolen cattle to their owners. Subsequently, disgruntled father and son Vlermuis left Bethany to attack more kraals and renew their relations with Jager Afrikaner."8 Eggert (in Gobabis from 1856 to 1859) mentions three families with the name Vledermuis [sic] who lived in Gobabis in 1858: Paul, David and Piet. 9 In 1838 "Envoys from other groups like Khauas people, Veldskoendraers and the Swartboois arrived at Warmbad [under Cook at that time], amongst them some veterans of the early Namibian mission stations, such as John Kagab of the !Kharakhoen (Franzman people), Adam Lambert, brother of Amral, and Piet Vlermuis."10 Dedering quotes the original text by Cook: "The two leading men of the party, Adam Lambert and Piet Vleermuis, are very interesting characters. They were baptized by Mr. Schmelling [sic], and the latter was his interpretter [sic], and although they have greatly fallen, they evince at present a sincere desire to save their souls" (CL, WMMS, Cook, Nisbett Bath, 27.11.1838.) "Missionary functions were also performed independently by Piet Vlermuis and Adam Lambert, who often visited Cook at Warmbad and accompanied him on his journeys to the Afrikaner community. These two had been members of the mission elite since the first missionaries had come to the southern Namibia in 1806; Adam Lambert was depicted by Cook as a highly spiritual person occasionally prone to weeping fits. [...] After Lambert and Vlermuis had come to Warmbad for the first time in 1838, they began to preach and teach at Naosanabis, the new residence of the Khauas people, where they organized school classes for people form 'seven different tribes, four of which are black'"11 During Cook´s travel to the interior of Namibia from Warmbad in 1840 he met Jonker Afrikaner at Tsebris near Rehoboth. Together with Piet Vlermuis and the chief of the Topnaars (/Aonin, !Gomen), he travelled to the traditional residence in Walvis Bay.12 When Tindall left Naosanabis in June 1842, "[...] he counted 52 registered church members, and 430 adults and children visiting the school under the guidance of Piet Vlermuis"13 Kleinschmidts wrote during a visit to Gobabis in February 1861, that Piet Vleermuis, together with the RMS missionary Krapohl and his wife, had organised people to come to the church service which he [Kleinschmidt] held at Gobabis: "Dieser alte treue Mann [Piet Vleermuis], ein würdiges Seitenstück zum alten Presbyter Tibot auf Berseba und Johannes Domrog im Großfluß, steht als ein geistlicher Vater unter seinen Kindern. Geschwister Krapohl lieben ihn sehr. Erstaunt war ich, als mir der Alte mal gelegentlich erzählte, daß er schon ein Mann gewesen sei, als Vater Schmelen als Jüngling das Land betrat, mithin muß er schon an die hundert Jahre alt sein, was man ihm nicht ansieht."14 Married: A small hint may suggest, that the wife of Piet Vlermuis was A. Vlermuis. In a list (1840) of congregations, baptism candidates, baptism class members and students is one column with teachers. For the Ambraal [sic] people the teacher is mentioned as P. and A. Vlermuis.15 Children: * one son must have been married to Catharina.16 * Moses17 Education: Other family members connected to RMG: His brother Paul Vleermuis was also an evangelist, teacher, interpreter for the RMS, and died, like Piet Vleermuis during the smallpox epidemic of 1864.18 Other Vleermuis members: Adam Vleermuis ("clearly a member of the well-known Gobabis family but no details have been traced." 19 RMS missionary, who had worked in Gobabis and left after conflicts, writes about the death of Adam Vleermuis. He died at the end of July: "Der Sterbende spricht an den Pforten der Ewigkeit sein Bedauern darüber aus, in dieser Stunde nicht in meiner Nähe zu sein. Er bitte mich um Vergebung alles dessen, was er an mir gesündigt und als Zeichen seiner Sinnesänderung und Versöhnung mit mir bestimmt er eine junge Kuh für mich, um so zugleich etwas zur Zurückerstattung des mir Geraubten beizutragen."20 Frederik Vleermuis ("member of the 'raad' at Gobabis; he may have been the son of Paul Vleermuis but this could not be ascerteained;"21 Hegener mentions two Vleermuis brothers: Nathanael and Gottlieb Vleermuis both from Berseba in 1888 and somehow connected to Paul Vister and through him involved in the conflict between Hendrik Witbooi and Paul Vister. Gottlieb Vleermuis was present and gave the last, biblical words when Moses Witbooi and Adam Klaase were executed by Paul Vister in Gibeon.22 Jeremias Vlermuis (Nama) attended the "fifth course" of the Augustineum in Okahandja. He was from Gibeon and born 1915. He attended 6 years school in Maltahöhe and worked on Kranzplatz before coming to the Augustineum. He was not married during the course. He spoke Nama. He completed the course with the examination on the 02.12.1938 and was send to the RMS mission school at Wortel/Warmbad.23 Mission Stations: History with the RMG: Further Reading: [Stals quotes B. Lau, but Lau only mentions Paul Vleermuis [sic]. Stals further referes to "Bericht Weber, Gobabis 04-06 1864", "Bericht Eggert, Wesley Vale, 22.05.1855", Bericht Weber, Gobabis, Ende 1860".] 1 Carl Hugo Hahn. Tagebücher 1837-1860. Diaries Part 5. Register and Indexes. A Missionary in Nama- and Damaraland. Archives Services Devision. Windhoek, 1985. S. 1241 - 1364. 1 Karte S 1297. (Lau gibt als Quellen an: BRMG 1861, 65; 1864, 326-30; CA LMS Letters, Schmelen 1812-28.) 2 Leutwein 1906:113. 3 Lau 1985:1297. 4 Dedering 1997:61. 5 Dedering 1997:60-61. 6 Dedering 1997:111. 7 Dedering 1997:111-112. 8 Dedering 1997:113-114. 9 BRGM No. 23. 1858:354. 10 Dedering 1997:147. 11 Dedering 1997:150. 12 Dedering 1997:158. 13 Dederin 1997:162. 14 BRMG 1861:67-68. 15 Van Schalkwyk 1963:114. 16 BRMG No. 23. 1858:356. 17 Dedering 1997:114. 18 ibid. p. 1297. 19 Andersson 1997:317. 20 BRMG 1887:86. 21 Andersson 1997:317. 22 BRMG 1888:208. 23 AELCRN V 6.1:38-39. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 3/3 28.04.2021 28.04.2021 C:\LOCG\Privat\EvangelistenProjekt\Vleermuis Piet.doc