The Old Location

The Old Location was Windhoek's segregated township, home to a settled, mixed community with its own churches, brass bands, and long-standing families. In 1959 the city moved to demolish it and push residents further out, to the new township of Katutura, a name remembered as meaning "the place where we do not stay."

Residents answered with boycotts of buses, beer halls, and cinemas. On the night of 10 December 1959, police opened fire on protesters; at least eleven people were killed and dozens wounded.

The shootings radicalised a generation and pushed the young political movements from petitions toward national organisation. 10 December is now Namibia's Human Rights Day.