South-West Africa

by William Eveleigh

Health Conditions

The physical conditions already described determine the healthfulness of the country; the sun, the elevation, the dryness, being responsible for the good climate of the interior. The direct rays of the sun are very strong during the day, for clouds are infrequent; many weeks may pass without the smallest cloud being visible; but these rays are not dangerous, and sunstroke is unusual. In India, as Bryce has shown, one has always to be mounting guard against the sun. “He is a formidable and ever-present enemy, and he is the more dangerous the longer you live in the country. In South Africa it is only because he dries up the soil so terribly that the traveller wishes to have less of him.”[4]

The extreme dryness of the air on the plateaux enables Europeans to endure heat that would be unbearable in London or New York. A shade temperature of 108 °F. in either of these cities would be responsible for many a collapse, but it would pass at Windhoek without anyone being the worse for it. Even on the Namib some compensation would be afforded by the sea breezes.

There are people who have lived at Luderitzbucht, one of the driest parts of the Namib, continuously for eight or ten years, and they are exceedingly active and healthy, while at Windhoek strong and sturdy children are developing a splendid physique in the pure, bracing air of the plateau. Malarial fever, which hangs like a death cloud over many parts of Africa, is sometimes found in the north and north-west of the country, but it prevails in a mild form. Last year, for instance, there were only six deaths from this cause among Europeans, right through the country. The dreaded black-water fever is occasionally met with in the tropical north. The diseases common along the coast are mostly intestinal, due almost entirely to the lack of a good supply of pure water. Rheumatic troubles are also fairly common on the seaboard. The death-rate for 1913 was only 11·3 per thousand of the white population, and 21·75 per thousand among the natives. Inflammation of the lungs, due largely to unhealthy dwellings and lack of care with clothing, accounts for the higher mortality among the natives.

The dryness and purity of the air away from the coast account for the absence of most forms of chest disease. More than one sufferer from consumption in its earliest stages, who has come from Europe, has found a new lease of life on the salubrious uplands. There can be no doubt that in spite of the abnormal heat sometimes experienced, South-West Africa is well fitted to afford a pleasant home and to maintain in vigour people drawn from the cooler regions of Europe. That healthy children can be reared here has been already demonstrated.