Thread by @PaulMMCooper

One of the world's most haunting ruined places is the ghost town of Kolmanskop, in the desert of Southern Namibia.

Once a thriving mining town, it now sits in an enormous "restricted zone" where people are still forbidden to enter, and is slowly being reclaimed by the sands.

One evening in 1908, a humble railway worker named Zacherias Lewala was working on the rails in the Southern Namib desert, shovelling them clear of the sand dunes that constantly roll over the land.

While working, he saw some strange-looking stones shining in the evening light.

Lewala picked up the stones & took them to his employer, who identified them for what they were: rough diamonds.

The find caused a sensation. Soon hordes of prospectors descended on the area, & this unassuming site became a new frontier in the diamond rush.

(📷Werner Bayer)

The prospectors went around with jam jars throughout the day, & even at night the moonlight in the clear desert sky was bright enough to catch the stones glinting in the sand.

By 1912, the area produced 1m carats a year, or 11.7% of the world’s total diamond production.

One prospector even claimed to have won a bet that he could fill a tin cup with diamonds picked from the sand in under 10 minutes.

With the vast wealth to be found, this barren stretch of desert soon became a thriving colonial town: Kolmanskop.

(Source: mg.co.za/article/2008-0…)

The town of Kolmanskop was part of the struggling colony of German South-West Africa.

In 1904, 4 years before the discovery of diamonds, the Namibian Herero people had rebelled against their German colonists, who retaliated with genocidal ferocity, killing over 60,000 Herero.

In 1885, the region had even been offered to the British Cape Colony, whose government politely refused this expanse of seemingly worthless wasteland.

But with the discovery of diamonds, everything changed, & the region became an untapped reservoir of wealth.

(📷Johan Jönsson)

There was only one problem: the diamonds were so easy to find, just littered about the desert, that independent prospectors without any capital were becoming millionaires overnight.

In response, the German government cracked down.

(📷Idobi)

Colonial authorities took a drastic measure. They declared a vast area of Namibia a "Sperrgebiet", or "restricted zone", where ordinary people were forbidden to enter.

Rights to prospect here were reserved for only one company, based in Berlin.

(📷Olga Ernst)

The forbidden zone was vast. With a total area of 26,000 km², to this day it still covers as much as 3% of Namibia's landmass.

Mining takes place in only 5% of this area, with the rest acting as a buffer zone; a closed landscape dominated by extractive industry.

(📷Geof Wilson)

Tribespeople displaced from their land by genocide were further locked out by the Sperrgebiet.

Devoid of other options, they were often employed as labourers in the diamond mines, forced to live in cramped, barracks-like compounds for months.

(Source: thediamondloupe.com/articles/2016-…)

In contrast, Kolmanskop became a diamond hub, & its extreme wealth created a well of luxury in the desert. Fresh water was brought by rail. It had a butcher, baker, post office, & an ice factory.

European opera groups even came out into the desert to perform.

(📷Damien du Toit)

Eccentricity reigned there, with one family keeping a pet ostrich that terrorised other pets & pulled a sleigh.

"The ostrich & sleigh was used at Christmas time to bring Father Christmas & presents," one resident remembers.

(Source: namibia-accommodation.com/listing/kolman… 📷mallix; jbdodane)

"Not a large place," one visitor commented in 1915. "Kolmanskuppe is on the edge of the desert proper, and looks as if it had been washed up by the sea of mountainous sand-dunes"

(Source: books.google.co.uk/books?id=_W-ZC… ; 📷jbdodane)

But the incredible wealth wasn't to last. By the 20s, the intensive mining meant that the diamond fields of Kolmanskop were becoming depleted, & precious stones no longer shimmered so plentifully in the sand.

(📷Project Trust; Thomas Halfmann)

In 1928, the fate of the town was sealed when the richest diamond fields ever known were found on the beach terraces 270km to the south.

To the townspeople of Kolmanskop, nothing else mattered. They left in droves, leaving homes & possessions behind.

(📷gaftels; Pim Stouten)

The town emptied as quickly as it had sprung up, & by 1954 it was completely abandoned.

The dunes that had once rolled over Lewala's railway tracks now burst through the doors & porches of Kolmanskop, filling its rooms with smooth banks of sand.

(📷bobulix; jbdodane)

Nothing is permanent in this shifting landscape.

The wind has even been known to partially excavate graveyards in Namibian ghost towns, in one case exposing a number of mummified bodies long ago interred.

(📷Thomas Halfmann)

Despite the unstoppable advance of the dunes, the dry desert air has preserved the buildings of Kolmanskop perfectly.

The colourful wallpapers are still bright, & the dreamlike quality of the site makes it a favourite location for photographers.

(📷Thomas Halfmann)

However, the town still lies in the forbidden zone, & a license is required to visit it.

The Sperrgebiet was turned into a national park in 2004, but for now it is still controlled by the De Beers diamond company.

(Source: mg.co.za/article/2008-0… 📷jbdodane)

Despite reduced yields, diamond mining goes on in the zone to this day, with 33m tons of sand sifted each year.

It was only in 1994 that the newly-independent Namibia was awarded a 50-50 stake in their country's diamond extraction.

(Source: nytimes.com/1998/04/27/wor… 📷jbdodane)

Today the ruin of Kolmanskop reminds us of capitalism's power, as well as the material & human waste that accompanies it.

It forms a testament to the evils of the colonial system, & a melancholy monument to the close of that chapter of human history.

(📷jbdodane)

The town forms a landscape of memory that provokes a strong emotional response in those who see it.

The dreamlike images of its rooms being reclaimed by the wandering dunes fascinate us, & make us imagine how the world might one day look without us.

(📷Johan Jönsson)

Some further reading:

- Kolmanskop: The Ghost Town of Namib Desert: kolmanskop.net

- 100 years of Namibian diamonds: mg.co.za/article/2008-0…

- A Visit To the Sperrgebiet: thediamondloupe.com/articles/2016-…

- Find a diamond in the sand? (NYT): nytimes.com/1998/04/27/wor…

Please visit the pages of the photographers featured, who were generous enough to allow a Creative Commons license.

jbdodane: flickr.com/photos/jbdodan…

Damien Du Toit: flickr.com/photos/coda/

Johan Jönsson: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Julle

Thomas Halfmann: flickr.com/photos/consigl…

Thanks for listening! If you found this interesting, I've put together more of my research into this thread.

https://twitter.com/PaulMMCooper/status/915959278028148736

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