Academic literature on the topic 'Yeye (African people) – Namibia – History'

Namibian politics and society are today dominated by people who trace their descent from the settlements and homesteads of Ovamboland in southern Angola and northern Namibia. Yet, prior to 1915, and the defeat by South Africa of the German colonial army in German South-West Africa, very few Ovambo had settled in areas to the south of the Etosha Pan. In 1915, a Portuguese expeditionary army defeated Kwanyama forces in southern Angola, and unleashed a flood of refugees into northern Namibia. These refugees entered an area that was already overstretched. Since 1912 the rains had failed and, on account of the First World War, trade and migration had come to a standstill. As a result the area was experiencing its most devastating famine ever. Unable to find sanctuary in Ovamboland, thousands of people trekked southwards into central Namibia, an area which had only just come under the control of South Africa. The famine allowed for the easy entrance of South African military administrators and labour recruiters into Ovamboland and heralded the demise of Ovambo independence. By focusing on developments in the central Namibian town of Karibib between 1915 to 1916, the article explores the move of the Ovambo into central and southern Namibia. It traces the impact of war and drought on Ovambo societies, and follows Ovambo famine migrants on their route south into areas administered by the South African military administration. Discussion also concentrates on the reception and treatment of Ovambo famine migrants in the Karibib settlement, and argues that the refugee crisis heralded the establishment of Ovambo in modern central and southern Namibia.

Abstract The South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO of Namibia) had a unique status among anti-colonial movements. Fighting South Africa’s illegal occupation of South West Africa/Namibia, dubbed by the United Nations as a “trust betrayed,” it resorted to armed struggle in the 1960s. SWAPO was subsequently recognized as “the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people” by a United Nations General Assembly resolution since the mid-1970s. The political culture in post-colonial Namibia is much characterized by the dominance of SWAPO as a former liberation movement and its official history. This paper summarizes the relevance of the armed struggle for the heroic narrative. It contrasts the glorification with some of the ‘hidden histories’ and trajectories related to some less documented realities of the armed struggle and its consequences which do not have much visibility in the official historiography. It thereby finally seeks to present a more nuanced picture by giving voice to some protagonists of a post-colonial political culture not considered as mainstream.

AbstractIn the year 1966, the first government hospital, Oshakati hospital, was inaugurated in northern South-West Africa. It was constructed by the apartheid regime of South Africa which was occupying the territory. Prior to this inauguration, Finnish missionaries had, for 65 years, provided healthcare to the indigenous people in a number of healthcare facilities of which Onandjokwe hospital was the most important. This article discusses these two agents’ ideological standpoints. The same year, the war between the South-West African guerrillas and the South African state started, and continued up to 1988. The two hospitals became involved in the war; Oshakati hospital as a part of the South African war machinery, and Onandjokwe hospital as a ‘terrorist hospital’ in the eyes of the South Africans. The missionary Onandjokwe hospital was linked to the Lutheran church in South-West Africa, which became one of the main critics of the apartheid system early in the liberation war. Warfare and healthcare became intertwined with apartheid policies and aggression, materialised by healthcare provision based on strategic rationales rather than the people’s healthcare needs. When the Namibian state took over a ruined healthcare system in 1990, the two hospitals were hubs in a healthcare landscape shaped by missionary ambitions, war and apartheid logic.

ABSTRACTHistorical-comparative linguistics has played a key role in the reconstruction of early history in Africa. Regarding the ‘Bantu Problem’ in particular, linguistic research, particularly language classification, has oriented historical study and been a guiding principle for both historians and archaeologists. Some historians have also embraced the comparison of cultural vocabularies as a core method for reconstructing African history. This paper evaluates the merits and limits of this latter methodology by analysing Bantu pottery vocabulary. Challenging earlier interpretations, it argues that speakers of Proto-Bantu inherited the craft of pot-making from their Benue-Congo-speaking ancestors who introduced this technology into the Grassfields region. This ‘Proto-Bantu ceramic tradition’ was the result of a long, local development, but spread quite rapidly into Atlantic Central Africa, and possibly as far as Southern Angola and northern Namibia. The people who brought Early Iron Age (EIA) ceramics to southwestern Africa were not the first Bantu-speakers in this area nor did they introduce the technology of pot-making.

This study aims to demonstrate processes by which Going Glocal, a Global Citizenship educational program based on Postcolonial Theory, can challenge social representation of the African Other among participating students. Postcolonial Theory argues that the colonial history of countries directly affects the current state of previously colonized countries and contemporary relations between people from Europe and Africa. Critical Whiteness Theory is concerned with the privileged position of a white self, for whom these privileges usually do not become tangible. 15 university college students traveled to Namibia as part of 2012 Going Glocal project and semi-structured interviews were conducted with them directly after they came back, as well as focus groups at the very beginning and end of the program. Two students with opposite socio-economic and ethnical backgrounds were selected for this case study. Their responses were interpreted using Social Representations Theory as a theoretical framework, to reveal the divergent positioning the interviewees took, and were analyzed according to Postcolonial and Critical Whiteness Theory.

The first issue of 2013 contains fifteen contributions dealing with a potpourri of themes. The first contribution is an oratio presented by the retired Dean of the Faculty of Law of the NWU and former editor of PER, Francois Venter, during his exodus in October 2012. He gave his presentation in his mother tongue, Afrikaans, and asks the question if one may assume that being a professor entails belonging to a profession, in other words, an academic profession. The second oratio was a keynote speech delivered by Torsten Stein, the Director of the Institute of European Studies and holder of the chair for European law and European Public Law at Saarland University, Germany. He delivered his speech during November 2012 at the 3rdHuman Rights Indaba on The Role of International Law in Understanding and Applying the Socio-economic Rights in South Africa's Bill of Rights, which was held by the Faculty of Law (NWU, Potchefstroom Campus) in collaboration with the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation. He shared some thoughts about the nature, development and implementation of socio-economic rights within an international and European setting. The next nine articles make up the bulk of this issue. The first one is by Babatunde Fagbayibo, who gives an analytical overview of the common problems affecting supranational attempts in Africa. He argues that Africa's efforts to solidify its unity should be geared towards building on the experiences of past and present experiments at the sub-regional level. Samantha Goosen discusses the very thorny issue of battered women and the elements of self-defence if she has to stand trial for killing her husband. Recent developments in the area of pro bono legal services are the heart of Dave Holness' article. He focuses on legal service delivery for the indigent by attorneys in private practice acting pro bono in civil rather than criminal matters. Henk Kloppers discusses the very topical issue of corporate social responsibility. He gives an overview of the social and ethics committee created in terms of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 as a potential driver of corporate social responsibility. The always newsworthy theme of HIV/AIDS and the question of whether to disclose or not to disclose one's status forms the focal point of Andra le Roux-Kemp's contribution. Chucks Okpaluba gives an overview of South African and Commonwealth decisions dealing with the issue of reasonable and probable cause in the law of malicious prosecution. The never-ending problem of language diversity once again comes to the fore in the article by Loot Pretorius. He asks the question if the recently adopted Use of Official Languages Act 12 of 2012 complies with the normative instructions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. In his second essay on the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008, Stephan Terblanche deals with a number of procedural issues related to the sentencing of child offenders. The last article, which is by Bonnie Venter, deals with the ethical question of whether the payment of kidney donors could be regarded as constitutionally acceptable or not. In the first of five notes, Nqobizwe Ngema asks if the African custom of theleka (the withholding of a wife by her father or guardian from her husband to coerce him to pay the outstanding lobolo) has an impact on the custody of children in the context of the best interest of the child. The central question Phazha Ngandwe asks is how states can discharge their duties and obligations vis-à-vis their nationals without perpetuating the bottlenecks to and the stigma that attaches to migration and thereby upsetting the international and regional integration objectives of the free movement of people. Mzukisi Njotini's note discusses the adequacy of South Africa's measures designed to protect critical information infrastructures. In the second last note, Anthea Wagener considers the practice of South African motor-vehicle insurers of using gender as a rating variable to classify risks into certain classes, thereby determining insurance premiums, and asks if this practice boils down to unfair discrimination. The final note by Anri Botes deals with the history of labour hire in our neighbouring country, Namibia.

This article points to the responsibility historians have in the formation of what we may call the collective memory of persons, groups and states. What are the images of “the other” conveyed in textbooks and media? In Norway, the historian Tore Linné Eriksen has – more than any other scholar – used his research, writings and enormous capacity for work to educate students, youth and the public in general and to create a more just image of “the other”. His driving force has been an extraordinary ability to be at the forefront in spotting international research, as well as his sense of justice and respect for the non-western world. His last extensive work on global history (Globalhistorie 1750–1900) clearly demonstrates these capabilities. In the early 1980s, long before the wave of genocide studies after the Rwanda catastrophe of 1994, Eriksen’s two works on Namibia –Namibia: Kolonialisme, apartheid og frigjøringskamp i det sørlige Afrika (1982) and The Political Economy of Namibia: An Annotated Critical Bibliography (1985) – used the concept of genocide to describe German conduct in Namibia in the early 20th century. In 2007, Eriksen published his book about what he calls the first genocide of the 20th century, Det første folkemordet i det tjuende århundret. Namibia 1903–1908. German and African history is woven into the question of whether the dangerous relations that developed between German settlers and Africans can be labelled genocide. The present article attempts to present Eriksen’s arguments. An introductory section deals with the trends in the international research literature and establishes a link between colonialism and genocide. In 2008, Eriksen’s article on the extinction of the Herero people in Namibia – “Utslettelse av Hererofolket i Namibia 1903– 1908” – was published in Bernt Hagtvets collection of articles, Folkemordenes svarte bok. The following year, Tore Linné Eriksen’s article in the journal Historisk Tidsskrift (2009) on genocide in a comparative colonial perspective won the prize for best article of the year. In Eriksen’s global history, referred to above, it is stated and shown that, to a certain extent, there is disagreement among historians as to what can be called genocide. What about the extinction of indigenous peoples due to diseases in the wake of European immigration? In his use of the term, Eriksen is more cautious than the authors of some of the works he refers to. The present article argues for more attention to be paid to the concept of “intent” when it comes to interpreting the tragic outcomes of conflict.

Around Africa there seems to be an increasing disillusion with 'development', seen under the rubric of teleological 'progress', which is touted by post-colonial governments as being the cure for Africa's ailments and woes. Numerous authors have pointed out that this local disillusion, and the attempt to manage the inequities that arise through development and modernity, can be seen to be understood and acted upon by local peoples through the idiom of witchcraft beliefs and fears (see Geschiere & Fisiy 2001; Geschiere 1997; Nyamnjoh 2001; Comaroff & Comaroff 1993; Ashforth 2005) and spirit possession nanatives (see Luig 1999; Gezon 1999), or more simply, occult beliefs and praxis (Moore & Sanders 2001). The majority of the Mayeyi of Namibia's Eastern Caprivi perceive that development is the only way their regiOn and people can survive and succeed in a modernising world. At ~he same time there is also a seeming reluctance to move towards perceiving witchcraft as a means of accumulation (contra Geschiere 1997). This notion of the 'witchcraft of wealth' is emerging, but for the most part witches are seen as the enemies of development, while spirit possession narratives speak to the desire for development and of the identity of the group vis-a-vis the rest of the world. The thesis presented argues that, although modernity orientated analyses enable occult belief to be used as a lens through which to 1..mderstand 'modernity's malcontents' (Comaroff & Comaroff 1993), they can only go so far in explaining the intricacies of witchcraft and spirit possession beliefs themselves. The dissertation argues that one should return to the analysis of the cosmological underpinnings of witchcraft belief and spirit possession, taken together as complementary phenomena, in seeking to understand the domain of the occult. By doing so the thesis argues that a more comprehensive anthropological understanding is obtained of occult belief and practice, the ways in which the domain of the occult is constituted and the ways in which it is a reflection or commentary on a changing world.

Mandume has fought two colonial powers, Portugal and British-South Africa from the time he became king in 1911 to 1917. This thesis looked at the different ways in which Manume is remembered in Namibia and Angola after these countries had gained their independence from colonialism. His bravery in fighting the colonizers has awarded him hero status and he is considered a nationalist hero in both Namibia and Angola. However, he is memorialized differently in Namibia and Angola. The process of remembering Mandume in different ways is related to where his body and head are buried respectively. This is because there is a belief that his body was beheaded, and his head was buried in Windhoek while the rest of his body is buried in Angola. The monument that is alleged to host his head is claimed to belong to him to this day. However, this monument was erected for the fallen South African troops who died fighting him. The author argued that this belief was in response to the need to reclaim a monumental space to commemorate Mandume in the capital city.

Thesis (PhD)-- Stellenbosch University, 1995.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The history of the Oorlam Afrikaners began in the seventeenth century during the disintegration of the Cape Khoikhoi. Through this process a number of independent family groups came into existence. One of these, the Oorlam Afrikaners, had the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. This allowed them, despite their relative small numbers, to develop into a driving force in the history of Namaqua- and Namaland. The first two phases in this development were led by Klaas Afrikaner and his son, Jager Afrikaner. At the time of Jager Afrikaner's death in 1822, his people were living at Blydeverwacht and Jerusalem in southern Namaland. On his deathbed he handed over the leadership of the Oorlam Afrikaners to his second son, Jonker Afrikaner. This gave rise to dissatisfaction which eventually led to a split in the ranks and the moving of Jonker and his followers northwards. Due to Jonker's military skills and the advantages he and his followers had because of their access to firearms and ammunition, they established a reputation for effective warfare. In the thirties this in turn encouraged a Nama tribe, the Red Nation, to ask their help in defeating the Herero when they (the Nama) were driven from their traditional pastures. After driving the Herero back to the area north of the Kuiseb River, Jonker and his followers themselves settled in Central-Namaland, residing at places like Niais, Tsebris and eventually Windhoek. The Oorlam Afrikaners' position of power was vulnerable in one aspect - it was depended on the preservation of their access to firearms and ammunition for its existence and survival. Because of this Jonker initiated contact with the missionaries and traders by means of the English traveller, James Edward Alexander, who visited him in 1837. This in tum set in motion a chain of events which would clearly illustrate the interdependence of the indigenous people, missionaries and traders. Edward Cook and Joseph Tindall of the Wesleyan Mission Society were the first missionaries to visit the northern Oorlam Afrikaners. Their claim on Jonker, however, was not acknowledged by the Rhenish missionaries, Heinrich Kleinschmidt and Carl Hugo Hahn, who settled in Windhoek with Jonker's permission. Here an exceptional relationship developed between Jonker and Kleinschmidt. Jonker's wish to reunite the Oorlam Afrikaners and the unwillingness of the Wesleyan missionaries of the southern Afrikaners to work together with the Rhenish missionaries, eventually forced Kleinschmidt and Hahn to leave Windhoek. Meanwhile traders had arrived in the country. They supplied firearms, ammunition, brandy and other commodities to Jonker and his people on credit. By 1846 the indigenous people were so deeply in debt that they saw no other option than to start raiding the Herero in order to pay what they owed. Thus a period of violence and clashes across cultural borders and even within tribes began. Tension between Jonker and one of his Herero allies, Kahitjene, for example led to an attack on Kahitjene and the destruction of the mission station at Okahandja by Jonker in August 1850. A further escalation in violence was temporarily prevented by the arrival of the English traveller, Francis Galton. He threatened Jonker with British reprisals. After his departure growing resistance of indigenous leaders against Jonker erupted in an attack on Windhoek in May 1854. Again tension in the country was suppressed by external factors, this time the arrival of the copper miners. They promoted peace because the continuation of their work was impossible without it. Through their mediation the Matchlessmine Peace was concluded in November 1855. At the same time the way in which they played off the indigenous groups against each other, forced these leaders to form a collective forum against the mining community. This was done in the Treaty of Hoachanas, concluded in 1858. In 1858, after moving around and residing at Grootwarmfontein and Okapuka, Jonker and his people moved to Okahandja. With Okahandja as base, he became involved in Ovambo politics. Two years later, when the outbreak of lungsickness made the obtaining of cattle in the interior impossible, his previous contact gave him the opportunity to raid the Ovambo. He returned an ill man and died on 16 August 1861 in Okahandja. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Christiaan Afrikaner. After his death it became clear that the Oorlam Afrikaners owed the attaining of their position of power to the leadership abilities of Jonker Afrikaner. Through a combination of diplomacy and a display of power, and the way in which he manipulated people and group relations, he succeeded in setting the pace for events in the whole region between the Orange and Kunene Rivers.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die geskiedenis van die Afrikaner-Oorlams begin tydens die disintegrasie van die Kaapse Khoikhoi in die sewentiende eeu. Deur die loop van hierdie proses het verskeie onafhanklike familiegroepe, soos die Afrikaner-Oorlams, tot stand gekom. Hoewel aanvanklik klein en onbeduidend, het hulle vermoe om hulle by veranderende omstandighede aan te pas, mettertyd gelei tot die ontwikkeling van die Afrikaner-Oorlam-familiegroep as 'n magsfaktor in die geskiedenis van Namakwa- en Namaland. Die eerste twee fases van hierdie ontwikkeling het plaasgevind o.l.v. Klaas Afrikaner, en toe sy seun Jager. Toe Jager Afrikaner in 1822 oorlede is, het hy die leisels aan sy tweede oudste seun, Jonker Afrikaner, oorhandig. Op hierdie stadium het die Afrikaner- Oorlams in suidelike Namaland, by Blydeverwacht en Jerusalem, gewoon. Jager se optrede het tot 'n skeuring in Afrikaner-geledere gelei. Jonker Afrikaner se volgelinge het, danksy sy krygsvernuf en die voorsprong wat hulle toegang tot wapens en ammunisie hulle gegee het, 'n reputasie vir effektiewe oorlogvoering opgebou. Dit het 'n Nama-groep, die Rooinasie, aangespoor om hulle om hulp te vra toe hulle in die dertiger jare deur die Herero uit hulle tradisionele weivelde verdring is. Jonker-hulIe het die Herero teruggedryf tot anderkant die Kuisebrivier en hulle toe self in sentraal-Namaland gevestig, onder meer by Niais, Tsebris en uiteindelik by Windhoek. Jonker-hulle se nuwe magsposisie was kwesbaar in die opsig dat die daarstelling en voortbestaan daarvan afhanklik was van die behoud van hulle toegang tot vuurwapens en ammunisie. Daarom het Jonker in 1837, d.m.v. die Engelse reisiger James Edward Alexander, kontak met sendelinge en handelaars geYnisieer. Dit het aanleiding gegee tot 'n reeks gebeure wat die ineengestrengeldheid van die lotgevalle van die inheemse inwoner, sendeling en handelaar sterk na yore gebring het. Die eerste sendelinge wat die noordelike Afrikaner-Oorlams besoek het, was eerwaardes Edward Cook en Joseph Tindall van die Wesleyaanse Sendinggenootskap. Die Rynse sendelinge, Heinrich Kleinschmidt en Carl Hugo Hahn, het die Wesleyane se aanspraak op Jonker egter nie erken nie en hulle, met Jonker se toestemming, op Windhoek gevestig. Hier het mettertyd 'n besondere vertrouensverhouding tussen Jonker en Kleinschmidt ontwikkel. Jonker se begeerte om die onderskeie Afrikaner-Oorlam-groepe te herenig en die suidelike Afrikaners se sendelinge, die Wesleyane. se onwilligheid om met die RSG saam te werk, het Kleinschmidt-hulle egter uiteindelik gedwing om Windhoek te verlaat. Ondertussen het handelaars in die land aangekom wat ammunisie, vuurwapens, brandewyn en ander handelsartikels op krediet aan Jonker en sy mense verskaf het. Teen 1846 was die inheemse bevolking so diep in die skuld dat hulle geen ander uitweg gesien het as om die Herero te begin beroof om hulle skuld te delg nie. Hierdie optrede het 'n tydperk van geweld en botsings oor kultuurgrense heen en selfs binne stamverband ingelei. Spanning tussen Jonker en een van sy Herero-bondgenote Kahitjene, het byvoorbeeld gelei tot 'n aanval op laasgenoemde en die vernietiging van die sendingstasie Okahandja, in Augustus 1850. 'n Verdere eskalasie in geweld is tydelik verhinder deur die aankoms van die Engelse reisiger Francis Galton, wat Jonker gedreig het met Britse militere optrede. Na sy vertrek het opbouende verset teen Jonker onder inheemse leiers in Mei 1854 tot uitbarsting gekom in 'n aanval op Windhoek. Weer eens is die spanning in die land onderdruk deur eksterne faktore, die keer die aankoms van koperdelwers. Hulle het vrede aangemoedig omdat die voortsetting van hulle werksaamhede daarsonder onmoontlik was. Deur hulle bemiddeling is die Matchless-myn Vrede in November 1855 gesluit. Terselfdertyd het die wyse waarop hulle die verskillende inheemse groepe teen mekaar afgespeel het, inheemse leiers genoodsaak om die Traktaat van Hoachanas in 1858 te sluit, 'n verdrag wat aan hulle 'n gemeenskaplike forum teen die mynmaatskappye sou verskaf. Nadat Jonker en sy volgelinge onder meer op Grootwarmfontein en Okapuka gewoon het, het hulle in 1858 na Okahandja verhuis. Hiervandaan het Jonker betrokke geraak in die Ovambo-politiek. Dit het hom twee jaar later, toe longsiekte die verkryging van vee in die binneland onmoontlik gemaak het, die geleentheid gebied om die Ovambo te gaan beroof. Jonker het siek van hierdie roof tog af teruggekeer en op 16 Augustus 1861 op Okahandja gesterf. Hy is opgevolg deur sy oudste seun, Christiaan Afrikaner. Na sy dood het dit duidelik geword dat die Afrikaner-Oorlams hulle magsposisie hoofsaaklik aan Jonker se leierskap te danke gehad het. Deur'n kombinasie van magsvertoon en diplomasie en die manier waarop hy mense- en groepsverhoudinge gemanipuleer het, het hy vir bykans veertig jaar die pas aangegee vir gebeure in feitlik die hele landstreek tussen die Oranje- en Kuneneriviere.

This research deals with Bible translating into Oshikwanyama between 1891 and 1974. Poeple who live in northern Namibia and southern Angola speak Oshikwanyama. The research will focus on stages of translation projects and work done by translators, co-ordinators and the translation committee, as from German missionaries from the Rhenish Missionary Society for Finnish missionaries from Finnish Missionary Society. However, the focus will concentrate more on the agency of African indigenous translators. The German missionaries started the translation of the New Testament into Oshikwanyama with the assistance of the indigenous people when they arrived in Oukwanyama in 1891. The New Testament was printed in 1927 in London. The Finnish missionaries started the translation of the whole Bible into under the auspices of the BFBS Oshikwanyama in late 1958, and it was published by the BSSA in Cape Town in 1974. In line with the focus of this research, little has been documented up t6o now about African missionary identities and their contributions. The present research on Bible translation into Oshikwanyama aims to correct this by giving their biographies in some details. The issue of Bible translation into Oshikwanyama went hand in hand with the development of the language in written form. Therefore at the end the Oshikwanyama were very happy because God now speak to them in their language and at the same time their language has been recignized. In this research you will find out that indigenous people were not only behind the translation of the Bible into Oshikwanyama, but they were involved in that translation, proofreading and the correct appropriation of words. The 1974 Bible in Oshikwanyama is the product of African missionaries. After reading this thesis you will know them by their names and individual contributions.
Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.