From Reserve to Homeland: Local Identities and South African Policy in Southern Namibia

Abstract

Reserves in Southern Namibia under South African rule stand out both for the direct rule system to which they were subjected and for their ambiguous relationship to the ethnic identities of their inhabitants. While reserves were created, above all, as reservoirs of labour power, they also acquired meaning due to the long-term attachment formed by specific groups to specific places and pieces of land. From their inception up to the 1950s, the meaning of Southern Namibian reserves was kept unclear, partly as an ideological cloak for colonial rule in the interests of the settler economy. This is exemplified by the contrasting cases of Berseba and the Krantzplatz or Gibeon reserve, usually associated with the Witbooi. The 'ethnic shift' that culminated in the homeland strategy, implemented in Namibia from the mid-1960s onwards, appeared to respond to traditional aspirations frustrated by the former dispensation, but the reality of the construction of Namaland demonstrated the ulterior aim of the South African administration to create more efficient means of control and to concentrate African populations. This led to removals that infringed on traditional claims of jurisdiction. The conflicts provoked in this way contributed decisively to the development of party politics in Southern Namibia during the 1970s. The settlement of Bondelswarts in the area around Gibeon was of particular importance in challenging Witbooi claims to jurisdiction and this conflict remained unresolved a decade after independence. It testifies to the long-term consequences of colonial state intervention into the intricacies of established group identities.