The Omuramba Omataka is the largest, albeit seasonal, watercourse flowing from South West Africa to the Okavango River. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Hayes via" <south-africa@rootsweb.com> To: <south-africa@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2015 4:51 AM Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] Omataka > On 22 Mar 2015 at 11:08, Pat Frykberg via wrote: > >> Can any one tell me about this please. It's a word that lies in my memory >> of >> Namibia in the 1930s. Again from memory with no facts, it is associated >> with a >> family who arrived at Neuras in a wagon and outspanned for the night. >> Sort >> of gypsies? . In my memory are the words "omataka boers" Love some real >> info. >> thanks Patricia Frykberg (aka Pat) > > I seem to recall an Omuramba Omatako that was a kind of dry watercourse > used by taders and hunters to travel north-east from central Namibia to > the Okavango. And it became the Shoshongo Dum somewhere along its course. > It starts near two distinct concical hills called Omatako, which can be > seen from the road to Otjiwarongo. I'd look up something i once wrote > about it, but my web browser is taking forever to load, so I'll send this > off and come back to it when it's loaded. > > 10 minutes later > > http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com/2013/03/where-on-earth-is-shoshongo-dum.html > or > http://tinyurl.com/l7oal2y > > and > > https://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/from-shakawe-to-maun-via-lake-ngami/ > or > http://tinyurl.com/l4qgko7 > > > > > -- > Steve Hayes > E-mail: shayes@dunelm.org.uk > Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com > Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm > Phone: 083-342-3563 or 012-333-6727 > Fax: 086-548-2525 > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

On 22 Mar 2015 at 7:19, Colin Möhr wrote: > The Omuramba Omataka is the largest, albeit seasonal, watercourse flowing from > South West Africa to the Okavango River As Keith pointed out, "omuramba" is the Herero word for a seasonal watercourse. It was also applied be 19th century traders to similar watercourses in Ovamboland, although the local name there is "oshana" -- see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshana_Region I think that where the Omuramba Omatako crosses the Botswana border it is known as the Shoshongo Dum, though I'm not quite certain about that. It was certainly known as the Shoshongo Dum in the 19th century, but the name doesn't seem to be found on modern maps. -- Keep well, Steve Hayes Blog: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/famhist1.htm E-mail: shayes@dunelm.org.uk