Klaas Afrikaner was the second Captain of the Orlam Afrikaners, first in the Cape Colony

Cape Colony

The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...

, then in South-West Africa. Klaas became leader of his tribe after his father Oude Ram

Oude Ram Afrikaner

Oude Ram Afrikaner was the leader of a clan that later became known as the Orlam Afrikaners, a sub-group of the Orlam. The clan consisted of mixed-race descendants from indigenous Khoikhoi and slaves from Madagascar, India, and Indonesia...

 died in Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

 at around 1760.

Under his leadership the Afrikaner Clan left the Cape in the 1770s and moved northwards into the area that is today southern Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

. This happened at first with the consent, possibly even under the order, of the South African Cape Government. Later he is credited as one of the founders of Namibia's first systematic settlement in an engineering sense, ǁKhauxaǃnas

ǁKhauxaǃnas

ǁKhauxaǃnas is an uninhabited village with an ancient ruined fortress in south-eastern Namibia, east of the Great Karas Mountains. It is the oldest systematically designed and built structure in Namibia, pre-dating all buildings erected by Europeans...

. This settlement was built as a hidden retreat and a fortress to fend off possible pursuits by the Cape authorities, indicating that by then he had lost whatever mandate he might have had to execute military actions in South-West Africa. At around 1800 he handed over the chieftain

Chieftain

Chieftain may refer to:The leader or head of a group:* a tribal chief or a village head.* a member of the 'House of chiefs'.* a captain, to which 'chieftain' is etymologically related.* Clan chief, the head of a Scottish clan....

ship to his son Jager Afrikaner

Jager Afrikaner

Jager Afrikaner was the third Captain of the Orlam Afrikaners in South West Africa, succeeding his father Klaas Afrikaner at around 1800...

.