Here's a review of some books about Namibia, several of them sound quite interesting.
BASLER AFRIKA BIBLIOGRAPHIEN (BAB)
Namibia Resource Centre - Southern Africa Library in Switzerland
PO Box 2037, CH 4001 Basel
NAMIBIA BIBLIOGRAPHICAL UPDATE No 3:2000
Compiled 8.5.2000 by Dag Henrichsen ISSN 1422-9900
This update covers monographs, periodicals, unpublished theses,
papers and other materials as received by the BAB Namibia Resource Centre
only.It is selective and annotations do not imply a comprehensive
treatment of the title. For more detailed information kindly contact Dag
Henrichsen at
The NAMIBIA BIBLIOGRAPHICAL UPDATE is issued since February 1997 and
approximately once a month. Backissues can be consulted on our
webpage:
http://www.baslerafrika.ch
REFERENCE & GENERAL WORKS
Richard B. Lee & Richard Daly
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gathers
Cambridge (University Press), 1999, 511p., maps, ill., index
ISBN 0 521 57109 X
This encyclopedia, 'by leading experts', contains ethnographic case
studies and thematic essays. Megan Biesele & Kxao Royal -/o/oo write
about the Ju/'hoansi (pp.205-209) but forget, as is often the case
with Bushmen in Namibia, those many Ju/'hoansi living on farms and in
resettlement camps. The discussions amongst anthropologists about the
relevance and directions of their research, including reference to
the socalled Kalahari debate, are briefly touched on in the introduction
and in some of the thematic essays.
Axel J. Halbach
Namibia. Wirtschaft, Politik, Gesellschaft nach zehn Jahren
Unabhaengigkeit
Windhoek & Bonn (Namibia Wiss. Gesellschaft & Weltforum-Verlag),
2000,
244p., maps, tab.
ISBN 99916 40 15 0/ 3 8039 0494 3
This is a broadly scetched socio-economic analysis of Namibias
politics, economy and society since 1990. This first detailed review on the 10
years after independence is written by an author who has analysed
Namibian developments since the past 30 years. Whilst his long
research experience and knowledge with regard to Namibia is an important
asset, his analysis of the Namibian society still is imformed by the ethnic
paradigms of past regimes. However, the book provides a wealth of
information, especially with respect to the economic changes and
politices after 1990, the state budget and monatary politics. The
author does'nt say much on Namibias foreign policy which in any case lacks
any serious research whilst his analysis of international and regional
trade is very useful. The merit of this book lies in its general framework,
providing overviews combined with structural analyses, specific
discussions and detailed information. Trends and events until March
2000 are considered. The usefulness of the book would have been greatly
enhanced and would make it a real reference work if the publishers
would have added an index.
Gretchen Walsh
The ambiguos adventure continues ... researching Africa on the
Internet
In Africana Bulletin (Boston University African Studies Center), No
54,
April 2000, pp 2-3.
The brief article focuses on Namibia which according to the author
'is particularly well served by academic web sites'. The web sites of the
National Library of Namibia and Basler Afrika Bibliographien are
critically looked at.
ARCHAEOLOGY
Tilman Lenssen-Erz & Marie-Theres Erz
Brandberg. Der Bilderberg Namibias. Kunst und Geschichte einer
Urlandschaft
Stuttgart (Thorbecke), 2000, 127p., maps, ill., tab.
ISBN 3 7995 9030 7
This is the first overview for a general readership on the
fascinating history and archaeology of the Brandberg area. The authors, expert
archaeologists of the area, have not only produced readable texts on
complex and controversial archaeological and historical issues
concerning the nature and interpretations of rock paintings and
engravings. The publishers have also produced a beautiful book,
incorporating the textual and visual levels very appropriately. It
remains to be asked when an Namibian audience, including school
children, will be able to hold in their hands a book of such splendid
and well researched quality in order to sense the historical
treasures at the Brandberg? Strange is the fact that the book includes a map on
modern Namibia which shows some of the former ethnic homelands
instead of the modern regions.
BOTANY
Ben-Reik van Wyk & Nigel Gericke
People's plants. A guide to useful plants of southern Africa
Pretoria (Briza Publications), 2000, 351p., ill., index
ISBN 1 875093 18 2
This is a fascinating book on useful plants, as foods & drinks, for
health & beauty, for skills & crafts. Plants listed are given in
various(local) names and their contemporary and historical useage is briefly
described and illustrated. Unfortunately, the book does not include
maps which makes it difficult to locate principal areas of plant
distribution. Numerous references to Namibian plants and usages.
ECONOMY
Sylvanus I. Ikhide & Kava Katjomuise
Estimating the demand for money in Namibia
Windhoek (Bank of Namibia, Occasional paper), 1999 (?), 24p.
The paper analyses the changes in real money balances since 1990,
income and interest rates aswell as monetary policies.
Hein Moellers
Ein neues Leben. Ein Selbsthilfeprojekt in Katutura
In afrika sued (Bonn), Nr 1/2000, November-Februar 2000, pp 30-31
ISSN 0947 8353
This article presents a self-help project Greenwell Recycle
Innovation Project of eight women in Katutura. The Project produces utensils
like pots, vessels and furniture for everyday use made from scrap
material.
Ussif Rashid Sumaila
Impact of management scenarios and fishing gear selectivity on the
potential economic gains from Namibian hake
Bergen (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Working Paper 1999:3, 26p., tab.
ISSN 0804 3639
'This paper develops a model for Namibian hake, which incorporates
the biology, gear selectivity and the economics of the hake fisheries in
a framework that allows the analysis of gear impacts on the potential
economic gains from the resource.' The author provides figures on the
standing biomass, catch sizes and proportions.
2000 Huntinamibia
Windhoek (Venture Publications & Namibia Professional Hunting
Association),
2000, 52p., ill.
Annual magazine for the promotion of Namibia as 'a hunter's
paradise'.
This edition includes articles from the Ministry of Environment and
Tourism, the Namibia Professional Hunting Association and several
individual authors, on topics like game species, trophy hunting and
conservation, legal requirements, hunting techniques (including
bow-hunting) and personal hunting adventures.Not surprisingly, the
edition includes an article on 'The Bushman Hunter', lamenting that
'it is almost impossible to find a Bushman clan completely dependent on
old values and traditions to make a living.' By contrast, the magazine
includes a list of some 400 names and addresses of hunting
professionals registered with the Namibian Professional Hunting Association.
HISTORY & ANTHROPOLOGY
Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher
Afrika. Kulte, Feste, Rituale
Munich (Bucher), 1999, 2 vols, 360p.; 384p, ill., maps
ISBN 3 7658 1243 9
This expensive, glossy coffeetable book by world-renowned
photographers, originally published for the US market in 1999 under the title
'African Ceremonies', deserves some serious scrutinization with regard to the
portrayal of 'Africa'. The hundreds of photographs in the two
volumes,
full of colour and manipulation to an extend that I had to close the
books regularly after a few pages, invent the Idea Of Africa in a way
that Mudimbe would perhaps hardly believe would be possible. Needless
to
say, the Africa of this book is rural, colourful, mysterious, ethnic,
and different, and is composed of bodies, blood and earth. A myth.
African ceremonies obviously do not take place in any cities or in
New
York, for example. For the Namibian audience is might come as a
surprising fact that 'Bushmen', a principal building bloc of such
books,
are totally absent! This according to my knowledge is a novum in all
the
coffetable books of such type. Volume one includes a chapter on
'Himba
marriage' (pp 286-301). Volume two includes a chapter on 'Himba
healing
treatments' (pp. 196-211) and portrays the female healer Katjambia
Inge Brinkman & Axel Fleisch (eds)
Grandmother's footsteps. Oral tradition and south-east Angolan
narratives on the colonial encounter
Cologne (Ruediger Koeppe Verlag), 1999, 255p., ill, maps, index.
ISBN 3 89645 056 6
This is an important collection of oral narratives from people from
south-east Angola who now live as immigrants in Kavango, north-east
Namibia. Their narratives, presented here in interview from and in
local
languages together with an English translation, focus on Portuguese
colonialism in Angola, often the arrival of Portuguese in Angola:
Chief
Diongo Cao, the one who brought slavery and colonialism; Hearken to
the
suffering the Portuguese inflicted upon you!; How the Angolan people
acquired wisdom; Then they came with priests and guns; etc. The
interviews/narratives provide a fascinating inside into popular
constructions of history, strongly influenced by the oral liberation
histories as performed/distributed by the Angolan liberation
movements.
The analytic introduction to the interviews/narratives discusses
these
issues aswell as the linguistic context of the texts.
Budack, Kuno
Raubmord 1912. Die 'Falk- und Sommer-Morde'. Ein Beitrag zur
Kriminalgeschichte von Deutsch-Suedwestafrika
Windhoek, 1999, 276p., ill., map, index
ISBN 99916 50 18 0
This book tells the dramatic story of the murder of a German police
officer, two African women and an African youth, in 1912 by two
German
men, Falk and Sommer. The author has conducted extensive research and
presents detailed narratives of the investigations by the government,
the police and a string of private helpers, both settlers and
Africans,
the trail and death sentence of the murders in Windhoek. The
narrative
is illustrated with many historical photographs, many from private
archives.
The book does not intend to contextualise the murder and
investigations
into a broader picture of court rulings, murder and death sentences
during the German colonial period. Yet it follows, as it typical of
'Suedwester Historiographie', a somewhat hidden agenda with respect
to
crucial aspects of German colonialism in Namibia. Thus the author
intends to show that the small police contingent in the colony dealt
effectively with the difficult investigations of the cases and that
the
colonial court and the governor stressed the impartiality of the law
when issuing the 'same' sentence for German murders as it would have
done for African murders. It is not clear why this is felt by the
author
to 'beg respect' from the reader for the colonial police (p. x) or
should be regarded as a 'civilizing' (zivilisatorische) role of the
police in German South West Africa. The author dedicates the book to
the
imperial police of GSWA and it is hard to belief that this is an
ironic
dedication. As he explains, his dedication is offered to those
'officers
and officials, who acted for impartial justice and order
(Gerechtigkeit)
for everyone irrespectively of pressure and interest groups.' One
wonders, why the book does not include a brief chapter on the general
history of the imperial police, or the courts in Windhoek, in order
to
allow readers to get a more balanced picture of the role and doings
of
these institutions, instead of this 'dedicated work of respect'? As
is
often the case with such books from Namibia, they reveal much about
the
ideological constructions of German ethnicity.
Dick Lord
Vlamgat. The story of the Mirage F1 in the South African Air Force
Weltevreden Park (Covos-Day Books), 2000, 321p., ill., map, index
ISBN 0 620 24116 0
This book is not dedicated to the German colonial police but 'the men
and women who flew and supported the Mirage F1 during its 22 years of
service to the nation.' The book attempts to reconstruct the history
of
South African Air Force (SAAF) activities throughout southern Africa,
including the Namibian and Angolan war areas. As an insider of 'the
bushwar' in northern Namibia, the author narrates numerous personal
and
institutional details on SAAF operations from Ondangua, Grootfontein,
Rundu and Ruacana into Angola, and detailed war operations against
SWAPO, MPLA and Zambian camps from the late 1970s onwards and during
the
intensive war phase in southern Angola between 1986 and 1988. As
such,
the book also contains information on SWAPOs air defence system in
southern Angola and on its war machinary in general.
The narrative contain much on the social history of the SAAF and its
air
force bases in Namibia, with some interesting details on personalized
forms of dealing with violence and war. Language is an important
aspect
in this book which reveals much of past and current (white male)
thinking and stereotyping. The book has no footnotes and needs
serious
scrutinazation of its information and interpretations, as do all
Covos-Day Books which are mostly written by former 'war veterans'.
The
book contains important photographs on SAAF activities.
LITERATURE
Joy Hooi-Narimas & Nick Snatcross
Chewing the bones. Junior Secondary English Literature Anthology
Windhoek (Gamsberg Macmillan), 1999, 218p., ill.
ISBN 99916 0 169 X
This anthology is aimed at learners in grades 8 and 9 and include a
couple of Namibian authors and their short-stories and poems. It is
accompanied by a teacher's book with the same title, 43p., ISBN 99916
0
170 3.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Rory Bester & Barbara Buntman
Bushman(ia) and Photographic Intervention
in African Arts, Vol XXX11, No 4, Winter 1999, pp 50-59
This article looks critically at the contribution of photography to
the exoticization of cultural identity and the spectacularizing history
of Bushmen. It analyses Paul Weinbergs photographic documentations on
Khoisan people as an 'important intervention with the photographic
history of Bushman(ia)', as a counter-attempt to the romantic
stereotype. However, Weinbergs photographs are revealed as 'producing
'victims' for an audience expecting subjugation', despite Weinbergs
attempts of representation of difference. As such, Khoisan
communities 'are bound to remain colonized subjects, generalized and abstracted
by someone else's camera.'
POLITICS
Amnesty International (AI)
Angola and Namibia. Human rights abuses in the border area
AI March 2000, AI Index: AFR O3/01/00, 19p.
The report critically analyses the human rights violations and abuses
along the border between Angola and Namibia since December 1999. It
is based on a visit by AI researchers to the Kavango region in January
and February and additional information issued by the National Human
Rights Society in Windhoek. It includes reports of extrajudicial executions
by the Angolan Army FAA, arbitrary shootings by the Namibian NDF and
Special Field Force, attacks and killings by UNITA, the refugee
situation in Kavango and the Osire camp, deportations and torture,
and the issue of child soldiers.
Cristiana Fiamingo
Namibia, ovvero delle ambiguit=E0 d'una democrazia
In Afriche e Orienti (Bologna), No 4, inverno 1999, pp.19-25
Analysis of the parliamentary and presidential elections of December
1999, explanations for voting behavior and an indepth outline of the
socalled Caprivi crisis.
Hanns Lessing
Biltong und Pap. Wahlen in Namibia zementieren Swapo-Herrschaft
In afrika sued (Bonn), Nr 1/2000, November-Februar 2000, pp 8-10
ISSN 0947 8353
The author who teaches at the Theological Seminar in Windhoek
analysis the December elections, the election campaign, and new lines of
social polarisation. He stresses the fact that 'the exil slogan 'One
Namibia, one Nation' is less and less implemented.' The Caprivi question
entrenched the social and political polarisation as well as the
'military complex'.
Tom Lodge
Heavy handed democracy. SWAPO's victory in Namibia
In Southern Africa Report (Toronto), vol 15, No 2, 2nd quarter 2000,
pp26-29, ill.
ISSN 0820 5582
Another analysis of the parliamentary and presidential elections in
late 1999, the election campaign and voting behaviour. In contrast to
other analysis, Lodge looks at the election manifestos of both SWAPO and
CoD.
Andre du Pisani, interviewed by Rolf-Henning Hintze
Abweichende Meinung nicht als legitim verstanden
In afrika sued (Bonn), Nr 1/2000, November-Februar 2000, pp 10-12
ISSN 0947 8353
The political scientist at UNAM, Andre du Pisani, analyses the recent
presidential and parliamentary elections and provides insights into
electoral shifts.
John Saul
Liberation without democracy? Rethinking the experiences of the
southern
African Liberation Movements
In Jonathan Hyslop: African Democracy in the era of globalisation
Johannesburg (Witwatersrand University Press), 1999, pp.167-178.
ISBN 1 86814 331 7
This is a stimulating essay on 'an issues that has haunted the
process of southern African liberation ever since the 'thirty years' war' to
realise such liberation from white minority rule ... 'liberation
without democracy?'. Saul starts by analysing Namibia which 'perhaps,
provides the worst-cast scenario with respect to the question we are asking'
and looks at other southern African countries. Saul does not provide new
research on Namibia since the publication of his book, together with
Colin Leys, 'Namibia's Liberation Struggle' (1994).
Wolfgang Werner
Die Landfrage in Namibia: Eine Bilanz nach zehn Jahren
Unabhaengigkeit
In Afrikanischer Heimatkalender (Windhoek), 2000, pp.39-46, ill.
ISSN 0400 714X
Very brief survey of the land issue, land politics and land laws in
Namibia after 10 years of independence. Werner, who has published
several of these surveys before, raises critical questions with
regard to the importance of the land issue as is attested to by researchers
and some pressure groups, whilst the low key-status it takes in the
political agenda of the government point to a different political
agenda. Werner is sceptical of the potential of a land reform to
combat rural poverty.
SOCIOLOGY & GEOGRAPHY
Olivier Graefe
Territoires urbains, pouvoirs locaux et gestion fonciere en Namibe.
Oshakati, Ongwediva, Ondangwa et Rundu. Des collectivites urbaines en
gestation
Unpublished PhD thesis, Universite de Paris X-Nanterre, Departement
de
Geographie, 2000, 365p., maps, tab, fig.
This is a thoroughly researched thesis which 'focuses on the making
of local communities' in four towns in northern Namibia. 'After
presenting the political context in which the four towns have emerged -
including a history of urbanization of northern Namibia - the author analyses the establishment of the new local authorities ... He stresses their
relations of dependence and subordination with the central power and
the competition they face with other local powers, whether old or new.
... Land management has been taken as an indicator of territorial
recompositions. The thesis throws light on the practices, strategies
and logics displayed by political and institutional powers and
city-dwellers to control and appropriate land. It shows how the relation between men and land evolves as well as the evolution of the social relations
when land is at stake. Overlapping territories are being shaped by
alliances and antagonisms that are liable to change.' The thesis is accompanied
by many maps and illustrations and has to be regarded as an important
contribution to the recent history on and current socio-geographical
situation in northern Namibia.
Inge Tvedten & Selma Nangulah
Social relations of poverty: A case-study from Owambo, Namibia
Bergen (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Report R 1999:5, 59p., tab., map.
ISSN 0805 505X
'This study addresses urban poverty and the importance of social
relations and networks ('social capital') in the coping strategies of
the poor'. The case study refers to four shantytowns in Oshakati and
two rural villages with extensive urban connections, Ompundja and
Oniihende. A wealth of data is provided with the regard to the population
structure, socio-economic characteristics like income, housing,
education, health, nutrition, famly relations, female headed
households, marginalization and social exclusion. The brief section on poverty in rural Owambo illustrates the rural-urban and rural-rural relations of
poor people. The report is sensitive to the different perceptions of
poverty.
ANNUAL REPORTS
Namwater Annual Report, Windhoek, 1998/1999, 22p.
Basler Afrika Bibliographien
Namibia Resource Centre & Southern Africa Library
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