Hermanus van Wyk (1835–1905) was the first Kaptein of the Baster community at Rehoboth in South-West Africa, today Namibia. Under his leadership, the mixed-race Basters moved from the Northern Cape to leave white racial discrimination, and migrated into the interior of what is now central Namibia; the first 30 families settled about 1870. They acquired land from local natives and were joined by additional Baster families over the following years. The Baster people developed their own constitution, called the Paternal Laws (Vaderlike Wette in Afrikaans). They relied on the herding of sheep, goats and cattle as the basis of their economy.
Outnumbered by the native Damara, Nama and Herero peoples, the Basters had periodic conflict with them in the late 1870s and 1880s, when the latter two groups were also in conflict. They suffered losses of valuable livestock. After the German Empire annexed South-West Africa as a colony, van Wyk negotiated a kind of autonomy for Rehoboth and the land around it through a protection treaty with the Germans in 1885. In the early 1900s, the Basters joined the Germans in a colonial war against the Nama and Herero. Since Namibia gained independence in 1990, the Basters lost considerable land. While the community is influenced by their Paternal Laws, the area is under a local town council.