A history of the Ovambo of Namibia, c1880-1935

Abstract

Abstract taken from [title and date unknown], A9s: History: Military Studies, p. 1938:

Colonialism primarily targeted Ovamboland as a labour source, but the state's ability to increase and systematise contract labour was limited. Labour demand from the mining heartland continued to exceed labour supply until 1930, when in the context of regional famine and worldwide depression this trend began to alter

In 1884, Ovamboland was nominally divided between Portuguese and German colonial territory, but not occupied until 1915. Merchant capital penetrated the region decades prior to colonisation. From the north, the Angolan slave trade had a diffuse impact long before direct connection in the 1850s. In the south, merchant capital centred on the Cape and Walvis Bay penetrated Ovamboland in the 1860s and drew the larger polities into a competing regional mercantile economy. Christianisation commenced slowly from this time. Prior to colonial occupation, migrant labour to southern mines began, but supply never equalled demand. The rinderpest epidemic of 1897 and famine of 1915 accentuated processes of internal socio-economic change already underway since the involvement of political èlites in long -distance trade

In 1915 Portuguese forces defeated the Kwanyama and occupied northern Ovamboland. Sooth African officials peacefully occupied southern Ovamboland after their conquest of the German army in Sooth West Africa. The thesis from here coocentrates on developments under South African rule. The sharpest political change brought by colonialism was the 'levelling' process of eliminating kings who were too independent and backed by armed supporters, and the up-grading of headmen as substitutes where kings were removed. Co-operative kings and senior headmen then held authority in a system of indirect control by a few colonial officials - later held up as a model of 'indirect rule'