• 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