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The colonial encapsulation of the north-western Namibian pastoral economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Michael Bollig
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Extract

The inhabitants of Kaokoland, Himba and Herero, have recently gained prominence in the discussions concerning a controversial hydro-electric power scheme in their region. They are depicted as southern Africa's ‘most traditional pastoralists’ by groups opposing the dam and those demanding it. The article describes how Kaokoland's pastoralists suffered tremendously from the politics of encapsulation the South African government adopted against them. Having been enmeshed in interregional trade networks, commodity production and wage labour around 1900, they were isolated by the South African government within a period of twenty years. Buffer zones for the commercial ranching area and prohibitions on movement across other newly invented boundaries limited their spatial mobility. Trade across borders was inhibited altogether. Pastoralists who had diversified their assets during the previous fifty years and had taken the chance of a first wave of commercial penetration were forced back on to subsistence herding.

Résumé

Les habitants de Kaokoland, de Himba et de Herero ont été récemment au coeur des discussions concernant un projet hydroélectrique controversé dans leur région. Les détracteurs et les défenseurs de ce projet les décrivent comme les éleveurs de bétail les plus traditionnels du sud de l'Afrique. L'article décrit les préjudices considérables qu'ont subi les éleveurs de Kaokoland dans le cadre de la politique d'enclavement adoptée par le gouvemment sud-africain à leur encontre. Après avoir été pris dans l'engrenage de régionaux, de la production de denrées et du travail salarié autour des années 1900, ils se sont retrouvés isolés par le gouvernement sudafricain en moins de vingt ans. Ils ont vu leur mobilité limitée dans l'espace par la mise en place de zones tampons associées aux zones d'élevage commercial et par l'interdiction de franchir de nouvelles lignes frontières définies. Le commerce transfrontalier fut totalement interdit. Les éleveurs qui avaient diversifié leurs activités au cours des cinquante années précédentes et s'étaient risqué à s'engager dans une première vague de pénétration commerciale furent contraints de revenir à un élevage de subsistance.

Type
At the colonial margin: the past in the present
Information
Africa , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , October 1998 , pp. 506 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1998

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