Last modified: 2009-06-27 by bruce berry
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image by Jens Pattke, 18
Apr 2009
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image by Jens Pattke, 19
Apr 2009
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image by Jens Pattke, 19 Apr 2009
![[Walvis Bay CoA]](../images/n/na)wb.gif)
image from this
website, reported by Jarig Bakker, 23 May 2001I was looking for a flag of the Namibian town of Walvisbaai / Walvis
Bay. This former South African town and seaport (part of Namibia since
1995), has no other flag flying at the municipality other than the Namibian national
flag. (There are other symbols related to Walvisbaai as the logo of the
Port, or the logo of the Economic Exclusive Zone, but these are commercial).
Perhaps, there is no flag of Walvisbaai?
You can find the name of the town written in two different ways: English:
Walvis Bay - Afrikaans: Walvisbaai
The most common form is in English. But probably it's only an hybrid,
an incorrect way because the name in English should be Whale Bay (never
used), as "walvis" is Dutch and not English.
Santiago Tazon, 23 May 2001
Walvis Bay does not fly a distinctive municipal flag. English is now
the official language of Namibia and hence Walvisbaai is no longer used
(officially anyway!).
Walvis Bay is the principle port of Namibia located on the Atlantic
Coast. Until March 1994 the town was part of South Africa and administered
as part of the former Cape Province of South Africa. Municipal arms were
originally granted by the then Administrator of South West Africa on 01
December 1964 and later registered with the South African Bureau of Heraldry
on 30 October 1967. The arms are described as:
ARMS: Or, on a fess wavy Azure a barrulet way Argent, in chief a whale
and in base a pelican, both proper
CREST: An anchor cabled erect, Sable
WREATH AND MANTLING: Or and Azure
SUPPORTERS: Two flamingos proper
MOTTO: IN UTRUMQUE PARATUS (Prepared for Either).
Bruce Berry, 24 May 2001
I have just read an article on Walvis Bay in Namibia, located
to the west of
Windhoek, that it was a very important navy port in the past. In 1966
it seems to have become part of the UN mandate on South West Africa but in 1977 South Africa incorporated
Walvis Bay into the Cape Province and ignored the UN's resolution.
In my "The Complete World Atlas " published in 2000 by Maes & Zeijlstra
I learned that Walvis Bay is still part of South African territory. Even after independence
of Namibia, does South Africa still control Walvis Bay? And if
so what is the flag of Walvis Bay?
Nozomi Kariyasu, 3 Dec 2001
The situation with Walvis Bay is as follows:
12 Mar 1878 - Walvis Bay becomes a British Protectorate
7 Aug 1885 - Incorporated into the Cape Colony
31 May 1910 - Becomes part of the Union of South Africa (along with
Cape Colony)
1922 - Administration of Walvis Bay assigned to South West Africa Mandate
by League of Nations
1977 - Walvis Bay re-integrated into South Africa (as part of the Province
of the Cape of Good Hope) ignoring the UN mandate
1 Mar 1994 - Walvis Bay ceded to Republic of Namibia by South Africa
South Africa no longer administers Walvis Bay, having ceded it to
Namibia
in 1994. When administered as part of South Africa, Walvis Bay did not
have its own flag. Walvis Bay is not considered a separate entity by Namibia
and as such does not currently have a flag of its own. The town of Walvis
Bay, however, does have municipal arms which are sometimes displayed on
a flag.
Bruce Berry, 3 Dec 2001
The town's name is a hybrid, Walvis Bay in English. The Afrikaans name
is Walvisbaai. The bay was named in its first annexation by the Dutch in
the time of Jan van Riebeeck, but the annexation was a dead letter and
the bay was never occupied by the Dutch. The bay quite possibly got its
name from one of the ships in Van Riebeeck’s fleet, which was called Walvis.
The name was also given to one of the four bastions of the Fort de Goede
Hoop which Van Riebeeck built.
The bay was annexed by Britain in 1878 and became part of the
Cape
Colony in 1884. The extent of the Walvis Bay territory was 1 124 km2 ,
much of it desert but including an important wetland south of the main
bay at Sandwich Bay. It was intended that further territory in the vicinity
would be annexed in due course, since the area fell into the British "sphere
of influence". However Britain was out maneuvered by Germany, when in 1892
it acknowledged Lüderitz's treaties with local chiefs and made further
annexations along the coast. German maps referred to the bay as "Walfischbucht",
and since these were often seen in South Africa and South West Africa,
it was often imagined that the German name was actually in use at some
point in time. There are references to "Walfisch Bay" or even "Wallfish
Bay", a totally spurious name.
On 1 October 1922 Walvis Bay was – for all practical purposes – handed
over to the administration of the Mandated Territory of South West Africa
(formed in January ’21), although in terms of international law it remained
part of South Africa and the Cape Province. On 30 August 1977 the Cape
Province again became responsible for the administration of Walvis Bay.
For parliamentary electoral purposes it was at first part of the constituency
of Sea Point (in Cape Town), and later of Namaqualand. (The Sea Point constituency,
when it included Walvis, also included the guano islands along the coast.
Some of these are still part of South Africa, but several of them were
off the coast of South West Africa/Namibia.)
Following Namibian independence in 1990, agitation arose for Walvis
Bay to be handed over to that country began. This was finally done by the
National Party government in 1993. The guano islands north of the Orange
River were handed over at the same time. The Namibian government also demanded
that the Orange River boundary be shifted from the north bank to the middle
of the river, as is usual in river boundaries. Pretoria made sympathetic
noises but did nothing until early 2001, when the Department of Foreign
Affairs announced that it would stick to the policy of the Organisation
of African Unity and keep the boundary as it was. The unorthodox arrangement
regarding the Orange River's north bank was originally made by Sir Harry
Smith when he was Governor of the Cape in 1848. It also affects the
Free
State Province, which has, however, remained silent on the question.
Mike Oettle, 18 Dec 2001
