The Skeleton Coast’s human history is primarily a history of things that went wrong. Ships wrecked. Sailors drowned or died of thirst on the beach. Explorers turned back. Trading posts failed. The coast resisted habitation and economic exploitation with remarkable consistency.
The San and Pre-Colonial Period
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The San people of the Namib interior used the coastal zone seasonally, coming to the shore to collect shellfish and engage in resource extraction that the interior did not provide. Rock art near the coast, including at the Brandberg (in the adjacent Damaraland), attests to the cultural significance of this landscape. The coast itself was not permanently inhabited; the absence of fresh water prevented any settled presence.
The Topnaar (Khoekhoegowab: //Aonin) people used the Kuiseb River mouth (near Walvis Bay) seasonally, harvesting the nara melon that grows in the dry riverbed. This was the most productive human use of the coastal zone before European contact.
Portuguese Exploration (1486 to 1500)
Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1487, establishing that the African continent could be circumnavigated. He and earlier explorers including Diogo Cão (who reached Cape Cross in 1486) mapped the Skeleton Coast as part of the sustained Portuguese effort to find a sea route to the East Indies.
The Portuguese left the coast largely alone once the sea route was established. There was nothing here worth settling; the coast provided no fresh water, no harbour, and no trade goods. The stone crosses (padrões) marking the furthest points of exploration are the primary legacy.
German Colonial Period (1883 to 1915)
Germany declared a protectorate over South West Africa in 1883, and the Skeleton Coast fell within the colonial territory. The Germans attempted to exploit the guano islands and the fishing potential of the Benguela Current, with limited success. The colonial period saw the establishment of Swakopmund and Lüderitz as harbours, but the Skeleton Coast proper remained largely unoccupied.
The shipwrecks of the colonial period are part of the coast’s historical record: vessels supplying the colonial economy wrecked with some regularity in the fog and surf.
The 20th Century
The fishing industry, developing from the 1920s onward, created the first sustained economic use of the Skeleton Coast. Pilchard fishing (for fish meal and fish oil) at Walvis Bay and the Lüderitz coast generated significant revenue and established the processing infrastructure still visible at Walvis Bay. The seal harvest, once substantial, has been reduced but continues in limited form.
The conservation status of the Skeleton Coast developed through the 1960s and 1970s; the national park was formally declared in 1971, protecting the coastal zone from further industrial development.
Portuguese exploration of the Skeleton Coast
Complete shipwrecks guide