BASTER

Afrikaans Baster (from baster, "bastard," or "half-breed"), member of a racially mixed group in Namibia and northwestern South Africa, most of whom are descendants of 18th-century Dutch and French men and indigenous Nama (Khoikhoi) women of southwestern Africa. They speak a language that is primarily Afrikaans and follow a Western way of life. In the late 20th century they numbered about 32,000. The Basters were originally seminomadic pastoralists and hunters who gradually settled as pioneers in the northwestern frontier areas north of the Cape Colony. Largely through missionary work during the 19th century, they coalesced into fiercely independent, autonomous communities that maintained their identities even after being incorporated into the Cape Colony. Others moved farther north into what is now Namibia in the late 1860s because of pressure from Boer settlers and eventually established a settlement that became known as Rehoboth. The Rehoboth community remains the largest group of Basters. They practice subsistence farming and keep cattle and sheep, but they also rely heavily on the remittances of migrants who work in Windhoek as skilled artisans, in Walvis Bay as labourers or fishermen, and in the diamond mines near the Orange River mouth at the South African border.