Namibia under South African Rule: Mobility and Containment, 1915-46 (original) (raw)

1999, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute

pdf improve a rapidly deteriorating situation, only to see their circumstances worsen markedly in the long run; and the way in which external forces acted to "keep traditional" the Himba and Herero peoples of Kaokoland. The last section "Beyond the Police Zone/Ovamboland", treats the alternative social mobility offered to young Ovambo men by the opening up of "new spaces on the ideological landscape" provided by Christianity and skills such as literacy; the generational conflict that ensued as more and more young people embraced Christianity and labor migrancy in order to enjoy the social mobility that the resulting goods and ideas made possible; the ambiguities of Lipumbu's resistance to the imposition of indirect rule in Ovamboland; and the ultimate determination of Namibia's northern border during this time. Namibia Under South African Rule represents a substantial contribution to Namibian historiography. The authors have aimed at, and succeeded in, challenging older (tired!) historical approaches, such as the nationalist paradigm which unproblematically finds the "roots and manifestations" of history "in the logic of colonialism and capitalism and in the experience of oppression and resistance" (p. 15). As a welcome relief, the editors have "… been critical of crude dichotomies between resistance and collaboration and preferred to frame incidents of overt resistance into more complex paradigms, rather than a series of set pieces in a staged historical battle between the forces of colonialism and proto-nationalism" (p. 16). In so doing, the book also avoids viewing the South African colonial state as "coherent, unified and homogeneous" (p. 15). Equally important for the Namibian case, the editors caution against the dangers of transplanting any "South African grand narratives" (eg. land dispossession) to Namibian soil (p. 18). The book also seeks to theorize the reasons for "empirical gaps" in Namibian history, for example, the noticeable absence of women in the legal definition of native (and in legislation in general) in colonial Namibia (p. 14). The "Trees Never Meet Project" has spawned numerous other projects including a photographic exhibition (and now book) called The Colonizing Camera and the establishment of the Namibian History Trust. Clearly, the project has promoted an ongoing dialogue between scholars and those outside the academy. In my view, this points to perhaps the most significant gap in this book, that somehow the editors were not able to share those insights from nonacademic participants. But in every other way, the project and resultant book should be applauded. Namibia Under South African Rule actually embodies its own metaphor of mobility and containment: this book contributes greatly to moving forward Namibian historiography which had remained rigid and stagnant for far too long.