This year, 2004, marks the 50th anniversary of Scouting in Tsumen.

The Boy Scout Movement was founded in 1907 by Lord Robert Baden-Powell of England (1857 - 1947).

"B-P", as he is affectionately known by Scouts all over the world, got his ideas for Scouting while serving as a British army officer in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War (1899 - 1902) It was while B-P was leading the defence of the town of Mafeking during a historic 217-day siege that he began to see how boys, trained and trusted, could be as reliable as men.

Upon returning to England, Baden-Powell tried out his ideas at an experimental camp on Brownsea Island. The following year he published the results of his camp in a book called "Scouting for Boys". The book was an instant success and caused the formation of Scout Troops all over Europe (Baden-Powell also founded the Girl Guide Movement). The Scouting movement quickly spread to other countries, and in 1917 it reached what was then known as South West Africa (today Namibia) by way of South African soldiers stationed in the country during World War I. Scouting in SWA happened as spontaneously as it had in Britain, with boys forming patrols independently and setting out to train themselves in useful skills and to do good turns.

Scouting has a long history in Tsumeb. Its earliest beginnings are traced to 1933, when Mr Hein A. Klein-Werner, a member of the Deutsche Pfadfinder (German Scout organisation), wrote a campfire song for a camp-out. "Das Südwesterlied", as it was called, caught on all over South West Africa and was considered by many to be the country’s unofficial national anthem.

This early Deutsche Pfadfinder group eventually closed down due to a lack of adult leaders. Then in 1954, Mr Stan Houston, a longtime Tsumeb resident, organised the first official Boy Scout Troop in Tsumeb. The troop was known as 1st Tsumeb and enjoyed immense popularity among the youth. However, with the departure of the scoutmaster a few years after the troop was formed, Scouting went into abeyance a second time and remained dormant until 1963, when Mr Garnet de la Hunt and his assistant Mr Fritz Kasdorf, both employees of Tsumeb Corporation Limited, reactivated 1st Tsumeb with 25 Scouts. The troop has been active ever since and has won national and regional honours on several occasions. Interestingly, Mr de la Hunt went on to become the Chief Scout of South Africa and, in 1996, was elected to the Executive Committee of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (he was elected chairman of this body in 1999).

Prior to Namibian Independence in 1990, the Scout Association of South West Africa operated under the auspices of the Scout Association of South Africa. Scout of Namibia is now an independent national organisation and is recognised as a full-fledged member of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement.

When 1st Tsumeb was reactivated in 1963, a Cub pack - a special branch of Scouting for younger boys - was also inaugurated under the leadership of Miss Brigitte Kletschke (later Brigitte Gehring) and Marion Borgwaldt. Mrs Faye Beurger then took over, with assistance from Mrs Gail Schultze/ Mrs Jeanette Borchardt and Miss Marianne Falk (now Prinsloo) also served as Cub leaders in the early years. The Cub Pack continues to thrive to this day under the capable leadership of Ms Johanna Theophelus.

In 1971 the 1st Tsumeb Scout Troop made headlines by being the youngest group ever to climb Brandberg Peak in central Namibia. This feat was repeated for three years running. In the early 1970s, Jost Barenburg became the troop’s first Springbok Scout, Scouting’s highest honour in the South African proficiency badge system. During the 1990s, 1st Tsumeb won the prestigious Fish Eagle Award four times for achieving distinction as the best Scout group in Namibia, an accomplishment we are quite proud of.

During the 1960s Tsumeb Corporation Limited set aside a piece of land between the Tsumeb Golf Course and the Municipal Cemetery for use as a Scout/ Guide Centre. With the help of a very active parents committee, three brick buildings and two metal rondavels were erected on the site to support the group’s activities. At present, the Scouts are in the process of purchasing the land and renovating the main building to accommodate present and future growth.

Besides receiving training in skills such as camping, hiking, cooking, pioneering (building structures with ropes and poles), first aid, outdoor survival, orienteering, veldcraft, axemanship, conservation and safety, to name but a few, Tsumeb’s Boy Scouts have been significantly involved in community service projects and public awareness programmes for the past three decades. In the 1970s, for example, the Scouts provided assistance to scores of refugees from Angola who settled temporarily in Tsumeb due to civil war in that country. For the past ten years, the Tsumeb Scouts have participated in the national polio immunization campaigns and have lent a helping hand to such organisations as the Tsumeb Public Library, the Kowie Brits Branch of the Cancer Association of Namibia, the Namutoni Environmental Education Centre at Etosha National Park, the Tsumeb Lions Club, Lombard State Hospital, the local SOS Children’s Village and others. Last year, it was the 1st Tsumeb Scouts that were responsible for constructing and giving logistical support to the first National Scout Camp in an independent Namibia on the farm "Ons Plaas" just outside town.

Following reactivation in 1963, successive scoutmasters have guided 1st Tsumeb up to and into the 21st Century, training hundreds of boys in life skills and good citizenship in the process. Lest their names be forgotten, they are mentioned here for the record: Peter Philip, Douglas Beurger, Darrell Cooke, Danie Venter, Mike Castelyn, Erich Feierabend, Jim Kastelic and Jörg Reddig, and, of course, their assistants down through the years.

Viva Scouting! Viva 1st Tsumeb!