Kletus Likuwa - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Kletus Likuwa

Re-Viewing Resistance in Namibian History

I am thankful to the Carl Shlettwein Foundation of Basel, Switzerland, who provided the scholarsh... more I am thankful to the Carl Shlettwein Foundation of Basel, Switzerland, who provided the scholarship for my studies. I am also thankful to Professor Patricia Hayes at the University of the Western Cape (U.W.C) who selected me as a candidate for the Shlettwein scholarship and for all her support through out my studies at U.W.C. Thanks to the National Research Foundation (N.R.F) for providing me with a study grant and to Professor Leslie Witz at U.W.C who volunteered to be the supervisor for my N.R.F study grant application. Thanks to all the interviewees in Kavango for providing the information which helped me to write our History. Great thanks to Professor Uma Mesthrie, my supervisor for the research thesis, for all her constant reviews of the chapters of the thesis and guidance in the writing of the thesis. Her encouraging reminders of my work progress always filled me with the joyful spirit to move on to the end. Thanks to all my friends, who at times thought that I was becoming too antisocial , for understanding the troubles I was going through. Thanks to everybody, who in one way or another assisted me to succeed with my studies. To my Mother at Ndiyona village in Kavango, who still waits for my return to our village, and all my brothers and sisters, I say, "mpandu ku mbatero yenu na likudidimiko lyenu kukwande" (Thanks for all your support and your patience with me)

Mgbakoigba: Journal of African Studies, 2017

This paper looks at the origins and effects of a repressive contract labour system, as experience... more This paper looks at the origins and effects of a repressive contract labour system, as experienced by the Kavango and Ovambo contract labourers.1 It also investigates the initial contact with European traders and later employers in the Police Zone, which produced a marked effect on the Ovambo and the Kavango lives. This paper analyses the contract labourers‟ distinct position in the political economy of colonial Namibia, under firstly Germany and later South African rule, and their specific economic, social and living conditions. These aspects are relevant when exploring the exploitation and attempts at totalitarian control by the colonial administration that nurtured class consciousness and political militancy. The exploitative and repressive conditions entrenched in the contract labour system persisted since the inception of Kavango and Ovambo labour migration to the south in the late 19th century, and were factors in their growing political consciousness in the early 1970s. Cont...

Journal of Namibian Studies : History Politics Culture, 2020

This paper focuses on the Owambo Campaign Memorial in Windhoek which was erected to commemorate t... more This paper focuses on the Owambo Campaign Memorial in Windhoek which was erected to commemorate the British South Africa troops who died during the campaign against King Mandume at Oihole on the 6th of February 1917. It explores the origin of the Owambo Campaign memorial project and interprets memorial’s significance to Owambo people. Upon its erection in 1919, the monument was appropriated as a memorial to King Mandume because many Owambo people, particularly the Kwanyama, believed, and still believe, that the king was decapitated and that his head was later taken to Windhoek where it was buried under the monument. This paper examines the significance of the monument’s location, the events surrounding its unveiling, and the subsequent activities amid the political turbulence in the capital city. Windhoek served as an intersection point between the north, the south and the coast, with labour coming from the north to mines, harbours and farms in the south. Thus, during colonial rule ...

Journal of Namibian Studies : History Politics Culture, 2016

Journal of economics and sustainable development, 2016

Agricultural production in the dry lands is limited by inadequate rainfall to grow crops but irri... more Agricultural production in the dry lands is limited by inadequate rainfall to grow crops but irrigated agriculture increases crop yields for food security and economic benefits to the community. The irrigation projects in Namibia have been termed as Green Schemes as they give a green formation that is different from the surrounding dry vegetation. This study investigated the impacts of the Green Scheme on the livelihood of communities. In particular it sought to ask: are there economic benefits and a change in the diversification of food stuff to people living around the Green Schemes; and what challenges do the people around the Green Schemes experience? A survey was conducted on 30 households in each of the two villages. Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select Green Schemes and households respectively. Personal interviews were undertaken using structured and unstructured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, frequencies and cross tabulations were used to out...

This article is about the experiences of contract farm labourers from Kavango in Namibia from 192... more This article is about the experiences of contract farm labourers from Kavango in Namibia from 1925 (when the contract labour system became institutionalised) to 1972 (when the system ended) and focuses on the subjectivity of oral sources. About 30 former contract labourers were interviewed from July to September 2009 but for this paper only 11 interviews were used as they relate primarily to farm labour experiences. Based on recorded oral interviews supplemented with archival and written literature the article explores the labourers’ experience of the migration process and their intra-personal relations at work and sleeping places. Furthermore it explains the social and economic impact of contract labour system on workers and their perceptions of the contract labour system. The aim is to explain how contract labourers present their personal experiences under the contract labour system and what their opinions about the contract labour system are. The significance of this article lies...

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2021

The gendered historical investigation of migrant labour in Namibia (and southern Africa more broa... more The gendered historical investigation of migrant labour in Namibia (and southern Africa more broadly) has rightly considered the ways in which women left behind in the sending areas were obliged to take on additional agricultural duties in the absence of men. This has been viewed by some scholars as a form of material exploitation of women and a potential subsidy to white employers in these settler colonial spheres. While there is some validity to these claims, the relationship between the sending areas and the work site was not simply a material one, and contract/migrant labour recruiting systems entered spaces with existing gendered cultural repertoires concerning how to deal with absent men. The significance of these cultural frameworks is worthy of additional empirical, comparative and theoretical investigation. Through the use of oral interviews supplemented by archival materials, this article discusses these issues in the context of Kavango, northeastern Namibia, which, for much of the 20th century, was a major source of contract labourers to the colonial economy in what was then South West Africa. The article argues that colonialism and labour recruiting schemes built upon and transformed existing precolonial cultural frameworks such as 'the people's child', women's observance of taboos and a local conception of 'home'. This article further posits that the maintenance of this migrant labour system was dependent upon its integration into local worldviews.

European Scientific Journal, Sep 25, 2014

Using oral interviews, archival documents and a review of literature, this paper explores the 196... more Using oral interviews, archival documents and a review of literature, this paper explores the 1960s colonial relocation of black people in Namibia from the Kavango River villages to Nkarapamwe Black Township in Rundu. The paper considers the relevance of the political situation in Namibia at that time, specifically the political insecurity situation along the Kavango River as part of the factors that led to the relocation. The aim is to analyze why people refused to move to the township and what strategies the colonial state used to achieve its objectives of relocation and how the relocation impacted on the economic and social aspects of the community. In the case of the riverside villages in Rundu, the motives for relocation were political in nature to monitor the ongoing frontal war by SWAPO along the Kavango River and although the authorities gave other benign reasons for relocation people hardly found them convincing and discerned their own reasons for being relocated. People initially refused to be relocated because they believed and feared rightly so that the houses in the new township were too small for their family and cultural practices and that they would have no ownership of the house and they would be compelled to pay for all costs of developments in the new black township. While some people moved voluntarily to Nkarapamwe Township in 1968 there are indications that the relocation was a force to many who had initially refused to move but were eventually forced to do so by the threat of having their homesteads burned and losing their jobs. The naming of their community by a proverbial name Nkarapamwe asserted the residents' desire to work closely together to avoid bringing each other into trouble or disrepute with the township administration officials. The paper asserts that relocation impacted negatively on people's economic aspects as it meant finding ways to recover costs of their loss of properties. Equally, it impacted on the people's social aspects as old interpersonal relations and social structure were irretrievably destroyed. This case study is significant as it provide an example of colonial relocation which can be a lesson to the post-colonial township authorities in Namibia on how relocation impacts on people and why authorities should become more considerate of community plights before, during and after relocation process.

Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies, 2016

This is a study on flooding and its impact on the Nkondo community in Rundu, in the Kavango area ... more This is a study on flooding and its impact on the Nkondo community in Rundu, in the Kavango area of Namibia. It draws from archival sources at the National Archives of Namibia. Whilst archival documents provide an idea of what and how colonial officials thought of and related to the colonial subjects, they cannot represent the feelings, beliefs and interpersonal relationships of the ordinary people. This article thus made use of oral interviewing, not as a means to fill the gap but as an alternative to exploring memories of former Nkondo residents about the 1950s flood and its impact. Interviews were carried out in 2004 and 2005 when 14 people were interviewed for the histories of forced removals in Rundu, but only five are used for this article as they specifically speak to the story of flooding. Interviewees were chosen through referrals from the headmen of the surrounding villages of Rundu. Interviewees were asked questions that provide a chronological representation of a case st...

The Journal of African History, 2013

Journal of Namibian Studies : History Politics Culture, 2018

The article examines the activities of native recruiters along the Kavango River boundary. Native... more The article examines the activities of native recruiters along the Kavango River boundary. Native recruiters (NRs) were local people appointed by an Assistant Native Commissioner (ANC) of Rundu on behalf of the Northern Labour Organization (NLO) to recruit contract labourers from the Kavango area and Angola for farms and mines in Namibia. The article looks specifically at their collaboration with individuals and institutions in the recruiting process. It further highlights NRs difficulties of establishing networks in distant villages, the unpredictable population movements and settlement patterns across the Kavango River, conditions of wealth and food self-reliance of local communities and the Bushmen attacks as impediments to their recruiting activities.