Namibia under South African Rule: Mobility and Containment, 1915-46

354 Pages·1998·62.042 MB·English

by  Patricia Hayes, Jeremy Silvester, Marion Wallace, Wolfram Hartmann

•
under South African Rule
Mobility & Containment
1915-46
.EDITED BY
PATRICIA HAYES• JEREMY SILVESTER
~,. MARION WALLACE• WOLFRAM HARTMANN

Books on Namibia
published by
James Currey
& Ohio University Press
Colin Leys & John S. Saul
Namibia's Liberation Struggle
The Two-Edged Sword
Edited by Patricia Hayes, Jeremy Silvester
Marion Wallace & Wolfram Hartmann
Namibia under South African Rule
Mobility & Containment 1915-46
Jan-Bart Gewald
Herero Heroes
A Socio-Political History of the
Herero of Namibia 1890-1923
Gretchen Bauer
The Labor Movement & the Consolidation
of Democracy in Namibia 1971-96
Namibia
under South African Rule
Mobility & Containment
1915-46
An illustration of the proverb 'Trees Never Meet, but People Do' by Joe Madisia
To the memory of:
Dan Haipinge
Brigitte Lau
Petrus Ndongo
Namibia
under South African Rule
Mobility & Containment
1915-46
EDITED BY
PATRICIA HAYES • JEREMY SILVESTER
MARION WALLACE • WOLFRAM HARTMANN
with BEN FULLER Jnr
'The Trees Never Meet' project
JAMES CURREY
OXFORD
OUT OF AFRICA
WINDHOEK
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS
James Currey Ltd
73 Botley Road
Oxford ox2 Obs
Out of Africa Publishers (Pty) Ltd
P.O. Box 21841
Windhoek
Ohio University Press
Scott Quadrangle
Athens, Ohio 45701
© James Currey Ltd 1998
First published 1998
1 2 3 4 5 02 01 00 99 98
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Namibia under South African rule: mobility & containment, 1915-46
1. Namibia - History- 1915-46 2. Namibia - History - 1946-1990
I. Hayes, Patricia
968.8'1'03
ISBN 0-85255-748 -5 Games Currey Cloth)
ISBN 0-85255-747 -7 Games Currey Paper)
ISBN 99916-2 -099-0 (Out of Africa Paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Namibia under South African rule : mobility & containment, 1915-46 /
edited by Patricia Hayes ... [et al.] (the "Trees Never Meet" project).
p. cm.
Papers based on a conference hosted in Aug. 1994 in Windhoek by the
"Trees Never Meet" project together with the History Department
of the University of Namibia
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8214-1244-2 (cloth: alk. paper)ISBN 0-8214-1245-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Namibia-History-1915-1946-Congresses. I. Hayes, Patricia .
II. "Trees Never Meet" (Project)
DT1625.N36 1998
968.8103-dc21 98-11463
CIP
ISBN 0-8214-1244-2 (Ohio University Press Cloth)
ISBN 0-8214-1245-0 (Ohio University Press Paper)
Typeset in 10/11 ½pt Plan tin
by Nicholas Hardyman, Oxford
Printed in Great Britain
by Villiers Publications, London N3
V
Contents
List of Maps, Photographs, Tables & Appendices Vll
Preface viii
Acknowledgements lX
Notes on contributors Xl
Abbreviations xm
Glossary XlV
Maps xv
Introduction
1
'Trees Never Meet' 3
Mobility & Containment: An Overview
1915-1946
JEREMY SILVESTER, MARION WALLACE, & PATRICIA HAYES
Construction of People
Construction of the State
2
Vagrancy, Law & 'Shadow Knowledge' 51
Internal Pacification
1915-1939
ROBERT J. GORDON
3
'A Person is Never Angry for Nothing' 77
Women, VD
&Windhoek
MARION WALLACE
4
Beasts, Boundaries & Buildings 95
The Survival & Creation of
Pastoral Economies in Southern Namibia 1915-1935
JEREMY SILVESTER
5
The 'Famine of the Dams' 117
Gender, Labour & Politics in Colonial Ovamboland
1929-1930
PATRICIA HAYES
vi Contents
The Reserves
Contesting Containment
6
'We have been Captives Long Enough. We Want to be Free' 149
Land, Uniforms & Politics in the History of Herero
in the Interwar Period
GESINE KRUGER & DAG HENRICHSEN
7
Power & Trade 175
In Precolonial & Early Colonial Northern Kaokoland
l 860s- l 940s
MICHAEL BOLLIG
8
'We Live in a Manga'
Constraint, Resistance 194
& Transformation on a Native Reserve
BEN FULLER J"r
Beyond the Police Zone
Ovamboland
9
Migration in Ovamboland 219
The Oshigambo & Elim Parishes
1925-1935
HARRI SIISKONEN
10
Generational Struggles & Social Mobility 241
In Western Ovambo Communities
1915-1954
MEREDITH McKITTRICK
11
'Ondillimani!' 263
Iipumbu ya Tshilongo
& the Ambiguities of Resistance in Ovambo
WOLFRAM HARTMANN
12
The Moveable Frontier 289
The Namibia-Angola Boundary Demarcation
1926-1928
RANDOLPH VIGNE
with 'Onhaululi' by PETRUS NDONGO
Bibliography 305
Index 323
vii
Maps, Photographs,
Tables & Appendices
MAPS
Map 1 Namibia, 1939, showing the reserves xv
Map 2 Keetmanshoop district: Distribution of black stock-owners with grazing xvi
licences, 1918
Map 3 Southern Namibia showing district and reserve boundaries, 1937 xvii
Map 4 Ovamboland, 1915 xviii
Map 5 Lutheran parishes in northern Namibia xix
Map 6 Otjimbingwe Reserve (Karibib District) xx
PHOTOGRAPHS
1. Seven women in colonial high fashion 7
2. South African forces in SW A in 1915 8
3. Reburial of South African soldiers killed in Ovamboland in 1917 9
4. Migrant workers tramping south 35
5. South African police on patrol in the Kavango in the early 1920s 62
6. Women with children in the Old Location 84
7. Herero women and children with Sybil Bowker 88
8. Farmhouse belonging to poor settler farmers 106
9. Young girls on dam-diggings during the 'Famine of the Dams', 1929-30 117
lOa-c. Queues for maize meal during the 'Famine of the Dams' 133
11. Officers in the otjiserandu 150
12. The funeral of Samuel Maharero, Okahandja, 1923 157
13. Major Manning in Kaokoland, 1917 177
14. Muhona Katiti, first chief in Kaokoland's Himba reserve 181
15. A manga used to hold cattle during branding 194
16. Herero women making cream 209
17. Relief distribution during the 'Famine of the Dams' 231
18. Relief workers digging a dam in Olukonda Mission Station, 1929 232
19. The first tour by Major Manning to western Ovamboland, 191 7 242
20. Chief Iipumbu ya Tshilongo 267
21. Petrus Ndongo, Odibo, September 1994 289
22. The body of Mandume ya Ndemufayo after his death in 1917 290
23. The disputed falls at Oruhakana (Ruacana) 298
TABLES
2.1 Police strength (selected years), 1920-39 61
2.2 Mortality rates of police animals, 1923-6 63
2.3 Crimes reported to police, 1926-38 64
2.4 Conviction rates (selected years), 1924-39 65
2.5 Convictions, Grootfontein, most common offences, 1916-51 65
2.6 Selected categories of criminal charges laid, 1932-9 66
2.7 Prison labour supplied, 1920-8 67
9.1 Lutheran parishes in the Ovambo region, 1900-50 222
APPENDICES
9.1 Out-migration from the Oshigambo and Elim parishes, 1925-35 237
9.2 In-migration to the Oshigambo and Elim parishes, 1925-35 239