Cornelius Fredericks led a major southern resistance movement during the Namibian War. His followers included Bondelswarts and Fransmann people, and women and children travelled with the group during long attempts to escape German troops. The movement’s endurance depended on mobility across arid country, but the same forced marches created severe physical hardship for combatants and non-combatants alike.

Fredericks was active around Gibeon and in the southern Namibian borderlands. His forces, together with those of Morenga and Johannes Christian, divided the German pursuit into multiple fronts. The German command repeatedly struggled to defeat these groups because they could disperse, move through difficult terrain, and seek refuge or logistical support beyond the colonial border.

After the defeat at Gochas in January 1906, Cornelius Fredericks’s group could no longer maintain effective resistance. By early March, 235 men and 176 women and children had surrendered and been imprisoned, while others fled toward the northern Cape. The scale of the surrender illustrates how military defeat affected entire communities rather than combatants alone.