The Cultural Significance of Cattle in Owambo, Namibia: Cattle People, People-Cattle

Helen C. John and Petrus A. Mbenzi

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2025, vol. 51, issue 2, 275-304

Abstract: This article analyses the socio-economic and religio-cultural significance of cattle in Owambo, northern Namibia. Drawing on the emerging area of multispecies ethnography/anthropology, we examine the valuation of cattle in relation to foodstuffs and commodities, as well as their role as symbol in Oshiwambo understandings of social, economic and political relationships and, lastly, the ways in which people in Owambo consider their cattle to have agency and/or personhood as members of the wider community. Using primary fieldwork findings alongside existing socio-historical and ethnographic works, this is achieved through a consideration of the role of cattle in the homestead, in wedding and funeral rituals, and in the description of ondilika (‘magic’ or ‘seer’) cattle. Drawing together disparate and fragmentary information about cattle in Owambo, the article argues that cattle might meaningfully be understood as people in contemporary Oshiwambo perspectives because of their potential ability to ‘fuse’ with their owners.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2025.2548087

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