Manasse ǃNoreseb

Manasse ǃNoreseb Gamab (also Manasse of Hoachanas, circa 1840–1 December 1905) was the thirteenth Kaptein of the Khaiǁkhaun (Red Nation), a subtribe of the Nama people in Namibia, between 1880 and 1905. At the start of Imperial Germany colonisation of South-West Africa, Manasse was one of the most powerful leaders in the area.

Early life and ascendance to chieftaincy Manasse was the son of chief Gameb ǁNanimab and his wife Gamis. He was baptised at the mission station of Hoachanas in 1860 and married a Christian convert. When he was expelled from church in 1864 he also left his wife. Manasse then took a second wife and lived with the San people in the area of Hoachanas.

When chief ǂGoraxab ǁOasib (Barnabas) died in 1871, Manasse ǃNoreseb declared his candidacy to succeed him. Due to earlier conflict the missionaries at Hoachanas prevented him from becoming chief and installed ǀGâberob ǂGoraxamab (Petrus) in his place. When Petrus died in the Battle of Otjikango in the Herero–Nama War of 1880, Manasse again attempted to gain chieftaincy of the Khaiǁkhaun and succeeded. According to oral evidence, Manasse ǃNoreseb gave the order,

The German Empire's Schutztruppe defeated both the Nama and the Herero during this war. Survivors were detained in concentration camps, much the same way as the British had set up camps for forced labour in their colony of South Africa, during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902. Thousands of people, including women and children, died in these concentration camps from illness, neglect, and malnutrition.

After the defeat in the war, Namas were displaced all over the country, and even deported to the German colonies of Togoland and Kamerun. Thus the ethnical structures of the Nama people were destroyed; the Red Nation only got a new chief in 1922. It was Fritz Lazarus ǁOaseb, the one–time rival of Manasse installed by Witbooi. According to oral evidence, Manasse's head was cut off after he fell, the flesh was removed by cooking, and the skull was sent to Germany for research on racial superiority. When his remains were dug up in 1999 for reburial in Hoachanas, the skull was missing from the corpse.