Indigenous Identities and Military Frontiers

Abstract

What was the role of San in the conflicts of Southeast Angola and Northeast Namibia during the period 1960-2000? What were the effects of this involvement on their identity-building processes? Much of this history has yet to be written. Based on field research in the period 2003-2006, and on secondary sources, this piece emphasizes that the socio-political and economic ramifications of ‘militarized’ San identities extend beyond the periods of conflict themselves. The paper focuses on Khwe, a San group living in West Caprivi, but highlights parallels and connections between the roles and identity-building of San under the military in both Namibia and Angola. Their collaboration with the apartheid military has contributed to the construction of Khwe as a ‘subversive’ threat to nation-building. Simultaneously, Khwe in Namibia and immigrant !Xun in South Africa have often sought to gloss over their military past in favour of mobilizing identities as ‘indigenous people’ to garner support from NGOs and strengthen their claims to authority. The effects and implications of San military identities in post-conflict southeast Angola are yet to be studied; this paper offers preliminary suggestions for themes to be investigated.