Walvis Bay: Odd Enclave

"One thing about all this controversy. It's made a lot of people start to think a lot more seriously about us," So says J.J.J. Wilken, the town clerk and unofficial historian of the 374-sq.-mi. territory of Walvis Bay. Until international attention focused on independence for Namibia, few people had much reason to think at all about this spectacular but isolated deep-water port on the continent's barren southwestern coastline. Apart from the harbor and its railroad connections, Walvis Bay has little to recommend even to its inhabitants: 10,000 whites of mixed British, Dutch and German descent, 4,000 "coloreds," and 11,000 blacks, most of them migrant workers from other parts of South West Africa.

Discovered by Portuguese seafarers in the 15th century, Walvis Bay was used as a staging base by 18th century New England whaling men (Walvis means whale in Afrikaans). The area was settled by British pioneers from Cape Town in 1843 and subsequently annexed by Britain; since 1910 it has been governed by South Africa. The community that developed after rail lines were laid in 1915 occupies a narrow space, hemmed in by the gray-flecked ocean and the vast Namib desert.

Less than an inch of rain falls annually, which explains why houses are built without gutters or rain-spouts. But damp overcast mornings with mist are frequent, and sulphur fumes occasionally erupt from the nearby ocean bed. Taking advantage of the omnipresent sand, Walvis Baymen have built an 18-hole golf course with predictably spectacular bunkers. Perhaps the world's only drive-in movie atop a sand dune is a popular spot. Favorite sports include dune-buggy races and sand skiing at speeds of 40 m.p.h. down the precipitous 600-ft. dunes. The principal hazards for golfers, moviegoers, racers and skiers alike appear to be meandering flamingos and gulls.

Walvis Bay residents wish the desert could provide them with a living as well. Says Paul Vincent, editor of the local Namib Times: "Think how rich we could be if we could get into the business of exporting sand." As it is, the town's principal source of revenue, fishing, is slowly dying. Production of processed pilchard at Walvis Bay canneries has slumped from 1.5 million tons ten years ago to 45,000 tons now, either because of overfishing or ecological changes in the South Atlantic.

Envisioning its enclave as a potential Hong Kong of Africa, Walvis Bay's town council has repeatedly petitioned the South African government to make the territory a free port. But Pretoria is more concerned with the area's strategic importance. Walvis Bay is the only deep-water port on the 1,000-mile Namibian coast. As a consequence, the worst South African fear is that a SWAPO-dominated government in Windhoek might allow the Soviets to set up a naval base there.

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