‘The Time of the United Nations in South West Africa is Near’: Local Drama and Global Politics in Apartheid-Era Hereroland

Abstract

By examining a local succession dispute in Waterberg East Native Reserve in apartheid-era Namibia, this article explores how rural Herero communities experienced and interpreted debates surrounding decolonisation and apartheid through the context of local politics. Events in Waterberg East illustrate the ways in which rural communities employed historical discourses surrounding claims to land and authority, to translate these regional and global controversies into the parochial sphere, in order to negotiate questions of ethnic identity, sovereignty, and the future of the territory.