'The Vast White Place': a History of the Etosha National Park in Namibia and the Hai//Om

Abstract

In the African version of wildlife conservation history, the experience has been that game reserves are White inventions which elevate wildlife above humanity and which have served as instruments of dispossession and subjugation. (Carruthers 1995: 101) Introduction For many people, in particular those in Western countries, Africa represents a remote continent, associated with a small and distinct set of stereotyped and exotic ideas. While war, drought, ethnic conflicts and underdevelopment represent the dark side, the variety of wildlife, vast savannahs, and beautiful landscapes form the positive images. The beautiful imagination of wilderness or `nature' serves as a contrast to `our own modern society', reflecting the alleged dichotomy of culture versus nature. The African wilderness is mostly confined to National Parks, which are now important symbols of the continent. But what is often overlooked is that National [pi]arks are hot isolated, pristine islands surrounded by constantly changing cultural landscapes, but that they are part of states and their politics and have until recently usually been inhabited. A closer look at the history of National Parks in Africa shows how hazy the dichotomy between `nature' or wilderness and `culture' really is. One realises that National Parks are not `natural', timeless spaces: native people shaped these environments for millennia, before they were removed, making space for the creation of these now famous symbols of African nature and wildlife. Far from being `authentic', wilderness has been imposed (Neumann 1998). The Etosha National Park in Namibia is one of many examples of such a process; other more well known examples are the Kruger National Park in South Africa (Carruthers 1995), and the Arusha National Park in Tanzania (Neumann 1998). Nowadays, the Etosha National Park covers an area of 22,270 [km.sup.2] and is thus one of the world's largest National Parks and the premier tourist attraction in Namibia (Mendelsohn, el Obeid and Roberts 2000: 34). The popularity of this park is based on its abundance of wildlife: most of Namibia's lions, elephants, rhinos and other large animals live within the boundaries of the park (Mendelsohn, el Obeid and Roberts 2000: 30). In 1997 about 98,100 tourists visited Etosha, spending 268,000 days and nights in the park. Two-thirds of all foreign tourists to Namibia include Etosha in their itinerary. Etosha is obviously the best opportunity in Namibia to see African wildlife, a major motivation for Western tourists visiting Africa. One writer about Etosha expressed this in the following words: The real reasons for the existence of places like the Etosha National Park still lie deeply buried in man's slowly awakening consciousness.... Men are realising that they still need places of refuge where they may escape from themselves, their fellow human beings, the hustle and bustle of their towns and cities, the stink of their garbage heaps and the effluent of their industries. However brief such escapes may be, we all still need them. Conservation movements, both professional and amateur, however weak, bumbling and fitful they may be, are our way of acknowledging this need. Conservation areas are the visible manifestations of this need and our lives, in ways which were not easy to define, are fuller because they are still places where flamingo can build their mud nests, where troops of springbok and herds of zebra can crop the grass, with a few wild cheetahs to stalk them. The Etosha National park is such a place. (Germishuys and Staal 1979: 125). This comment reveals the island character of National Parks clearly: nature is a refuge for people tired of `civilisation'. This view disregards the fact that these islands are the very products of Western `civilisation', imposed upon non-Western populations and `landscapes'. (2) The island-haven nowadays constituting the Etosha National Park has, for centuries at least, been the central residential area of hunters and gatherers, who are generally categorised as one of the `Bushman' or San groups of Namibia, (3) and came to be known as the Hai//om during the nineteenth century. …