Ou Jan, Jan
* ca 1830, ? † .



Only traced in the "Memories of a South West African Doctor" by Dr. Con Weinberg, who was stationed in Gibeon - later in Mariental - as a District Surgeon and Railway Medical Officer from 1926-39. In the chapter "The clergy" he deals with the different missionaries, dominees, pastors and priests in his district. Amongst them he describes Carl Berger and mentions "Ou Jan", without indicating that "Ou Jan" actually fulfilled any Evangelist/Co-worker-functions. From Weinbergs information it can however deducted that this was the case. Further studies of the personal file of Berger can perhaps shed more light on "Ou Jan".
"The Rhenish Missionary Society had also established a station far down the Auob River at Haruchas. There was a Bushman settlement there but most of the Bushmen fled further into the Kalahari with the coming of the blessings of civilisation. The missionary Carl Berger was the only European I ever met who could speak the Bushman language, clicks included. The Society decided to abandon the mission, but Carl Berger remained as a farmer and trader. He prospered exceedingly as the Bushman [sic] bartered with and truste him; and he was a competent farmer. His home was clean and peasant to spend a night in. He was a small thin man with a high colour and long snow white hair. He was always ready to perform any religious ceremony, such as christenings and burial services or the organising of prayer meetings. He was referred to affectionately as "der Gottlicher Gescheftsmann" [sic] - the holy financier. There was an aged "tame" bushman, living at Haruchas called "ou Jan" - who was over one hundred years old."1
Married:

Children: 

Education:

Other family members connected to RMS:

Mission Stations:


History with the RMS:

1 Weinberg 1975:132+133.
---------------

------------------------------------------------------------

---------------

------------------------------------------------------------