Axel Wilhelm Eriksson

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Axel Wilhelm Eriksson (1846–1901) was a Swedish ornithologist, settler and trader in what is now Namibia. Born in Vänersborg, Sweden, he went to South West Africa in 1866 to learn from explorer Charles John Andersson. In 1871 he and Anders Ohlsson opened a brewery at Omaruru and built a successful trading post that employed about forty whites by 1878. His business linked southern Angola with the Cape Colony, helping to create regional trade routes. Eriksson also collected birds from South West Africa, Angola and the Transvaal; most of his collection later went to the municipal museum in Vänersborg. He was respected by many communities and was known by the Herero as Karuwapa Katiti, “the small white person.” He died on 5 May 1901 at his farm Urupupa. His grave near Rietfontein, southwest of Grootfontein, was declared a national monument in 1978; a sign recalls his aid to trekkers in 1879. Access to the site has been difficult, but steps to re-establish it began in 2019, with a planned visit postponed by COVID-19 to 2021. Eriksson married Frances Stewardson in 1871 and had two sons, Axel (1871–1924), a painter, and Andrew Albert (1876–1955), a priest; they also had a daughter, Maud Alice. He later divorced and married a Herero princess, producing a son, Jacob (born about 1884), who became a farmer in what is now Mozambique; his fate is unknown. His brothers Carl and Gustav also moved to South West Africa.