Damara
(ˈdɑːmərə, ˈdæ-)
Also Dama (ˈdɑːmə).
In full Hill Damara, Berg Damara, or Mountain Damara. One of a negroid people in the mountainous parts of South-West Africa, who have adopted the language of the Nama Hottentots.
| 1801 J. Barrow Trav. S. Afr. I. vi. 397 The Damaras are obviously the same race of people as the Kaffers. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XI. 731/2 Damaraland, a region of South-Western Africa..so called from the native race known..to the Cape colonists as Damara (Damra, or Dama). Ibid., 85,000 are Herero proper, 30,000 Hill Damara, 3000 Bushmen. 1884 A. K. Johnston Africa (ed. 4) xxvi. 463 These degraded Hill or Berg-Damaras name themselves Houquain or ‘real men’. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 736/2 The Bantu..enslaving the Mountain Damaras. 1935 L. G. Green Great Afr. Mysteries x. 122 The Berg Damaras..living in the almost inaccessible mountain strongholds of South West Africa. 1947 M. Oldevig Sunny Land 53 There were also the Dama people, living in the mountains further to the north, who were capable of forging iron weapons—the Hilldamaras or Klipkaffirs of the present day. Ibid., The Damas. 1956 A. G. McRae Hill called Grazing xii. 126 This derelict appeared to be a Berg Damara, a tribe with hardly any tribal cohesion. |