Bureaucrats of Liberation narrates the history of the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of... Show moreBureaucrats of Liberation narrates the history of the Southern Africa Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a civil rights organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy. Between 1963 and 1994, the Southern Africa Project connected lawyers from Namibia, South Africa, and the United States. Within the Project’s network, activist lawyers exchanged funding resources, provided logistical support for political trials, and mediated new voting and governmental systems. Show less
This book is based on Leonor Faber-Jonker’s Research Master's thesis 'More than just an object: A material analysis of the return and retention of Namibian skulls from Germany', runner-up in the... Show moreThis book is based on Leonor Faber-Jonker’s Research Master's thesis 'More than just an object: A material analysis of the return and retention of Namibian skulls from Germany', runner-up in the African Studies Centre, Leiden's 2016 Africa Thesis Award. This annual award for Master's students encourages student research and writing on Africa and promotes the study of African cultures and societies. In September 2011 twenty Namibian skulls were repatriated from the collection of the Charité university hospital in Berlin. The remains had been in Germany for more than a hundred years: they belonged to victims of the 'German-Herero war' (1904-1908) in German South-West Africa, a genocide that cost the lives of eighty per cent of the Herero and half the Nama population. The majority of the skulls had arrived in Berlin as preserved heads, and all had been used for scientific race research in the first decades of the twentieth century. Despite the triumphant return of the skulls, not everything went smoothly. The Charité was criticized for failing to answer questions about the identity of the remains, and the Namibian government and Nama and Herero representatives failed to agree on their final resting place. This had everything to do with the complicated nature of the skulls involved. Faber-Jonker analyses how these human remains – remains of individuals – became war trophies, anthropological specimens, and, finally, evidence, symbols, and relics, by examining how, by whom, why, and in what context the skulls were physically handled in the practices of collecting (1904-1910), studying (1910-1924),- and repatriating (2011). Show less
Studies of cultural tourism and indigenous identity are fraught with questions concerning exploitation, entitlement, ownership and authenticity. Unease with the idea of leveraging a group identity... Show moreStudies of cultural tourism and indigenous identity are fraught with questions concerning exploitation, entitlement, ownership and authenticity. Unease with the idea of leveraging a group identity for commercial gain is ever-present. This anthology articulates some of these debates from a multitude of standpoints. It assimilates the perspectives of members of indigenous communities, non-governmental organizations, tourism practitioners and academic researchers who participated in an action research project that aims to link research to development outcomes. The book's authors weave together discordant voices to create a dialogue of sorts, an endeavour to reconcile the divergent needs of the stakeholders in a way that is mutually beneficial. Although this book focuses on the ?Khomani Bushmen and the Zulu communities of Southern Africa, the issues raised are ubiquitous to the cultural tourism industry anywhere. Show less
Evers, S.J.T.M.; Notermans, C.; Ommering, E. van 2011
Descriptions of the late 1800s landscape in the Ovambo floodplain in north-central Namibia closely match the area's late 1900s appearence, suggesting that little change occured between the pre... Show moreDescriptions of the late 1800s landscape in the Ovambo floodplain in north-central Namibia closely match the area's late 1900s appearence, suggesting that little change occured between the pre-colonial baseline and the postcolonial outcome. Yet, paradoxically, colonial conquest, population pressure, biological invasions, new technology, and economic globalization caused both dramatic deforestation and reforestation in less than a century. The paradox stems from the fact that the prevailing global environmental models obscure and homogenize the process of environmental change: different and contradictory interpretations are dismissed as alternative readings or misreadings of the same process. Deforestation and reforestation in Namibia, however argues that the paradox highlights the need to reframe environmental change as plural processes occuring along multiple trajectories that may be dissynchronized and asymmetrical. Show less
Based on archival research, this book deals with the mass killings of peoples (particularly Herero and Nama) and conquest of land by German colonial forces between 1904-1908 in what was then known... Show moreBased on archival research, this book deals with the mass killings of peoples (particularly Herero and Nama) and conquest of land by German colonial forces between 1904-1908 in what was then known as German South West Africa (present-day Namibia). Most histories dealing with this Herero-German war at best only make passing reference to concentration camps and the prisoners kept there. The present book retraces the history of the concentration camps, also paying attention to patterns in the way prisoners were treated and what internment in the camps entailed for these people; the history of the Shark Island concentration camp in Lderitz; and the authorities responsible for the concentration camp mortalities. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Abbink, G.J.; Bruijn, M.E. de; Walraven, K. van 2003
This collective volume reinterprets the genre of resistance studies, introduces recent conceptual perspectives and considers examples of African (civil) wars and insurgent movements. Contributions... Show moreThis collective volume reinterprets the genre of resistance studies, introduces recent conceptual perspectives and considers examples of African (civil) wars and insurgent movements. Contributions: Rethinking resistance in African history, an introduction, by Klaas van Walraven and Jon Abbink. Part I (Historical perspectives): Resistance to Fulbe hegemony in nineteenth-century West Africa, by Mirjam de Bruijn and Han van Dijk; Colonial conquest in central Madagascar: who resisted what?, by Stephen Ellis; Revisiting resistance in Italian-occupied Ethiopia: the Patriots' Movement (1936-1941) and the redefinition of post-war Ethiopia, by Aregawi Berhe. Part 2 (Social inequalities and colonial hierarchies): Ambiguities of resistance and collaboration on the Eastern Cape Frontier: the Kat River Settlement 1829-1856, by Robert Ross; African mutinies in the Netherlands East Indies: a nineteenth-century colonial paradox, by Ineke van Kessel; Absence of evidence is no proof: slave resistance under German colonial rule in East Africa, by Jan-Georg Deutsch. Part 3 (Violence, meaning and ideology in resistance): The Kawousan War reconsidered, by Kimba Idrissa; 'Sawaba''s rebellion in Niger (1964-1965): narrative and meaning, by Klaas van Walraven; The vagaries of violence and power in post-colonial Mozambique, by Gerhard Seibert. Part 4 (Resistance as heritage and memory): Herero genocide in the twentieth century: politics and memory, by Jan-Bart Gewald; 'Namibia, land of the brave': selective memories on war and violence within nation building, by Henning Melber; Dervishes, 'moryaan' and freedom fighters: cycles of rebellion and the fragmentation of Somali society, 1900-2000, by Jon Abbink Show less
