The Berseba captaincy after 1938. Collective identity and conflict in a traditional community in southern Namibia

Reinhart Kössler

Africa Spectrum, 2001, vol. 36, issue 3, 347-362

Abstract: The deposition of Berseba's last Kaptein Diederik Goliath in 1938 marks the high point of an enduring conflict within the /Hai-/khaua, the only Nama group to have preserved their territory more or less intact throughout the colonial period. After 1938, enhanced administrative penetration ensued by the South African colonial authorities. Confronted with this, /Hai-/khaua collective identity was articulated in endeavours to safeguard the territory and in demands for the captaincy to be reconstituted. The implementation of the homeland policy in its Namibian version, marked by the Odendaal Plan, helped to resuscitate internal conflict in Berseba from the mid-1960s onwards. Now, the ensuing realignment of the opposing groups took on also a party political colouring, as national politics became more influential. The situation was exacerbated by fresh interventions of the South African occupying power. Internal conflict, which can also be seen as a development blockade, has not been resolved even today, although recently, there are tendencies to reach a settlement. At the same time, though the prism of intra-communal conflict, the resilience of this Nama community, against all pessimistic prognoses, may be gauged.

Date: 2001
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