Conflict and social change in Namibia, 1850-1954

Abstract

Abstract provided by author: Meredith McKittrick, "Conflict and Social Change in Northern Namibia, 1850-1954" This dissertation explores the appropriation and reshaping of European symbols, ideologies, and cultural forms within two Ovambo societies in northern Namibia from 1850 to 1954. Local responses among the Ongandjera and Ombalantu communities to incursions of long-distance traders, missionaries, a migrant labor economy, and colonial rule occurred along fault lines which already existed within the society --that is, along divides of gender, generation, and class. These responses then led to new social divisions, such as Christian and non-Christian communities. I examine the social conflicts triggered and heightened by the presence of missionaries, the departure of young men on migrant labor contracts, and the empowering of rulers under colonial "indirect rule. " The theoretical core of the dissertation involves looking at the weapons with which these battles for power among the Ovambo were fought --European clothing and consumer goods, mission ideology and education, the mobility of women and young men, and definitions of what was properly "Ovambo" and what powers an "Ovambo" ruler could claim for himself. I argue that examining these processes of appropriation and conflict offers a window into otherwise hidden transformations in social life

The first chapter examines the social impact of the era of merchant capital and slave trading, and argues that western societies were marginalized at this time. It also touches on the first contacts with Europeans and how ideas of "the Ovambo" became implanted in colonial discourse. The second and third chapters examine the establishment of colonial rule, missions, and migrant labor from 1915 to the end of World War II, and the internalization and deployment of these external influences. Chapters four, five, and six take specific events from the post-war period --an infanticide case, a famine, and a religious revival movement --and use them as windows through which to examine the dynamics of redistributing power within these societies. To some extent, young men succeeded in appropriating new categories to their own advantage, while women ultimately found themselves trapped in an expanding matrix of "traditional" and "Christian" gender ideologies and contracting subsistence economies. However, European/Christian notions of "family" were appropriated and used creatively by women when they saw a possible advantage in doing so