The Oorlam people (also known as "Orlaam", "Orlam", "Orlams", "Oorlammers", "Oerlams", or "Orlamse Hottentots") are a subtribe of the Nama people, largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony (today, part of South Africa) to Namaqualand and Damaraland (now in Namibia). Their name is said to be a corruption of the Dutch "Oberlanders".
Oorlam clans were originally formed from mixed-race descendants of indigenous Khoikhoi, Europeans and slaves from Madagascar, India, and Indonesia. Similar to the other Afrikaans-speaking group at the time, the Trekboers, Oorlam originally populated the frontiers of the infant Cape Colony, later living as semi-nomadic commandos of mounted gunmen. Also like the Boers, they migrated inland from the Cape, and established several states in what is now modern South Africa and Namibia. The Oorlam migration in South Africa also produced the related Griqua people.
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