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ABSTRACT
South Africa's colony, Namibia, served as a crucial testing ground for apartheid: not only was it the scene of the only significant effort to impose 'grand apartheid', but also of its demise. This essay examines the role of social engineering experts in these efforts by focusing on their role in the social construction of Omega base which housed Bushman soldiers. Treating Omega as an extended case study, I trace out the impact of these decisions and how they helped fashion mechanisms of contra-mobilisation used in the internal pacification of anti-apartheid groups like the UDF. The modus operandi of these experts favoured conspiracy theories and their methodology was akin to acts of divination. I argue that they constituted a ‘Potted Factory' in three important ways: Firstly, potted refers to the way facts and ideas were summarised, abbreviated and decontextualised and became part of the symbolic currency of exchange; secondly, they were enclosed ideologically in a closed system or a sealed container; thirdly, ‘potted' refers to being high, which they were in a figurative sense. Of course, my own analysis also makes use of conspiracy theories as I attempt to explore the ‘dark side’ of military intelligence.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Julie Taylor for her insightful comments, as well those of the two anonymous referees.
Note on the contributor
Rob Gordon is affiliated with the University of Vermont and the University of the Free State. His most recent book was The Enigma of Max Gluckman: An Ethnography of a ‘Luckyman’ in Africa (2018) while his South Africa’s Dreams: Ethnology and Apartheid in Namibia University of Nebraska Press is forthcoming in 2021.
Notes
1 M. Agier, Managing the Undesirables (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2011).
2 D. Lord, From Fledgling to Eagle: The South African Air Force During the Border War (Johannesburg: 30° South, 2008), 38, 281, 333.
3 Certainly not a hegemonic view shared by other members of the South African forces. Some dismissed them as inferior trackers and cowards: T. Stapleton, ‘Bush Tracking and Warfare in Late Twentieth-century East and Southern Africa’, Historia 59, 2 (2014), 229–251.
4 There is an emerging historiography dealing such interactions in northern Namibia: see e.g. J. Silvester, ed., Re-Viewing Resistance in Namibian History (Windhoek: UNAM Press, 2015); H.K. Karapo, ‘Living Memory in a Forgotten War Zone: The Ukwangali District of Kavango and the Namibian Liberation Struggle, 1966–1989’ (MA diss., University of the Western Cape, 2008); N. Shiweda, ‘Omhedi: Displacement and Legitimacy in Oukwanyama Politics, Namibia 1915–2010’ (PhD thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2011).
5 J.O. Sending, ‘Recognition and Liquid Authority’. International Theory 9, 2. (2017), 311–328.
6 J. Breytenbach, Eden’s Exiles (Pretoria: Protea, 2014); I. Uys, Bushman Soldiers: Their Alpha and Omega (Germiston: Fortress, 1993); D. Linford, As the Crow Flies (Pretoria: Proteaboekhuis, 2015); F. Verster, Omega: Oor en Uit (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2016); D. Robbins, On the Bridge of Goodbye (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 2007).
7 Paraphrasing R. Darnton, Censors at Work (New York: Norton, 2014), 13–19.
8 G. Yaron, G. Janssen and U. Maamberua, Rural Development in the Okavango Region of Namibia (Windhoek: Gamsberg-Macmillan,1992), 15.
9 I. Brinkman, ‘Violence, Exile and Ethnicity: Nyemba Refugees in Kaisosi and Kehemu (Rundu, Namibia)’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 25, 3 (1999), 418–439.
10 San or Bushmen are still not recognised as inhabitants of the Kavango in many colonial and postcolonial constructions of the region’s history: see M. Akuupa, ‘The Formation of “National Culture” in Post-apartheid Namibia: A Focus on State Sponsored Cultural Festivals in Kavango Region’ (PhD thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2013).
11 J.P. Cann, The Flechas: Insurgent Hunting in Eastern Angola, 1965–1974 (Pinetown: 30° South, 2013), 36, 57.
12 Linford, As the Crow Flies, 23.
13 L. Lubbe, Van Ovamboland tot Masjonaland (Pietermaritzburg: Interpak, 2014).
14 For assessments of the Kwé before and after militarisation in the Caprivi see the thorough work of Gertrud Boden and Julie Taylor: J. Taylor, ‘Post-Apartheid “Tribalism”? Land, Ethnicity and Discourses on San Subversion in West Caprivi, Namibia,’ African Studies, 67, 3, (2008), 315–338; A. Battistoni and J. Taylor, ‘Indigenous Identities and Military Frontiers Reflections on San and the Military in Nambia and Angola, 1960–2000’, Lusotopie, 16, 1 (2009), 113–131; G. Boden, ‘The Khwe and West Caprivi before Namibian Independence: Matters of Land, Labour, Power and Alliance’, Journal of Namibian Studies, 5 (2014), 27–71.
15 D. De Waal, ‘Gemeenskapsontwikkeling by Omega’ (MA diss., Stellenbosch University, 1988).
16 Verster, Omega, 67, 107.
17 Uys, Bushman Soldiers, 150–151.
18 De Waal, ‘Gemeenskapsontwikkeling by Omega’, 71.
19 Uys, Bushman Soldiers, 204.
20 Verster, Omega, 98.
21 S. Douglas, ‘Reflections on State Intervention and the Schmidtsdrift Bushmen’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 15, 1 (1997), 45–66.
22 De Waal, ‘Gemeenskapsontwikkeling by Omega’.
23 J. Breytenbach, The Last Outpost, unpublished manuscript (1993). My references are largely to ch. 4. A much redacted version of this manuscript was published as Breytenbach, Eden’s Exiles.
24 G. Thatcher, ‘The Hunters Now Hunt Guerillas’, Christian Science Monitor, 19 March 1981.
25 Uys, Bushman Soldiers, 17.
26 Cann, Flechas, 26–29.
27 F. De Beer, ‘Die Weermag as Ontwikkelingsagent in die Derde Wereld’, Scientia Militaria, 8, 4 (1978), 47–51.
28 Personal letter, Col. Stoffberg to author, 20 November 1981.
29 Department of Defence Archives, File SWA Dir. Security Sector 175 161 8/10, L.J. Pasques, ‘Omega verslag Dr Pasques’, 1981.
30 Department of Defence Archives, File SWA Dir. Security Sector 175 161 8/10 Pasques, n.d. All translations are mine.
31 Breytenbach, Eden’s Exiles.
32 I was unable to interview former Omegaians but the subsequent life of those who elected to move to South Africa after Namibian independence has been reported and discussed in a number of studies done at Schmidtsdrif and Platfontein. These studies emphasise their feelings of betrayal and abandonment and highlight issues of mental health. (See e.g. T.N. den Hertog, ‘We have come out of one place: it is called Omega’: An Ethnographic Study on the Role of Context in Understanding Mental Suffering among the !Xun and Khwe of South Africa’ (PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2018). Of pathbreaking importance is Lennart Bolliger’s dissertation based on extensive interviews with former Black members of Koevoet, SWA Territorial Force and 32 Battalion which provide insights into life in the military bases. He was denied permission to interview in Platfontein by the South African San Council who felt that the research issues were too traumatic: L. Bolliger, ‘Apartheid’s African Soldiers: A History of Black Namibian and Angolan Members of South Africa’s Former Security Forces, 1975 to the Present’ (DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 2019).
33 O. Sending, ‘Recognition and Liquid Authority’, International Theory, 9, 2 (2017), 311–328.
34 M. Harris, The Rise of Anthropological Theory (New York: Crowell, 1969).
35 Breytenbach, Eden’s Exiles, 103.
36 Ibid., 106–107.
37 C. Hope, The Café de Move-on Blues: In Search of the New South Africa (Cape Town: Atlantic, 2018), 39. By using Voodoo I seek to exoticise the exoticisers by emphasising similarity rather than difference as is the wont of ethnology.
38 H. Arendt, The Life of the Mind (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1981), 20.
39 S. Fallon, “The Rise of the Pedantic Professor: When Academic Self-Regard Becomes an Intellectual Style.” Chronicle of Higher Education, (1 March 2019). https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Rise-of-the-Pedantic/245808, accessed March 1, 2019.
40 C. Bakkes, Krokodil aan my Skouer (Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 2014) 113–114.
41 T. Schwartz, ‘Cult and Context: The Paranoid Ethos in Melanesia’, Ethos, 1, (1973)153–74.
42 S. Palmié, ‘Genomics, Divination, “Racecraft”’, American Ethnologist, 34, 2 (2007), 207.
43 See e.g. A. Lantian, D. Muller, C. Nurra and K.M. Douglas, ‘“I know things they don’t know!”: The Role of Need For Uniqueness in Belief in Conspiracy Theories’, Social Psychology, 48, 3 (2017),160–173.
44 K. Popper, Conjectures and Refutations (London: Routledge, 1963).
45 See R.J. Gordon, South Africa’s Dreams: Ethnology and Apartheid in Namibia (Oxford: Berghahn, forthcoming). As an undergraduate at an Afrikaans university I studied volkekunde and thus have a close, albeit critical, sense of its particular ethos. 2021
46 N.S. Jansen van Rensburg and C.S. van der Waal, ‘Continuity and Change in South African Cultural Anthropology (Volkekunde): Issues of Essentialism and Complexity’, South African Journal of Ethnology, 22, 2 (1999), 46–59.
47 J.C. Kotze, ‘Die Kuanyama van Ovamboland, Suidwes-Afrika: ’n Studie van Waarde Opvattinge’ (MA diss., Stellenbosch University, 1968).
48 W. Louw, ‘Die Sosio-politieke Stelsel van die Ngandjera van Ovamboland’ (MA diss., University of Port Elizabeth, 1967).
49 P.D. Banghart, ‘Migrant Labour in South West Africa and its Effects on Ovambo Tribal Life’ (MA diss., Stellenbosch University, 1969).
50 K. Verdery, ‘Observers Observed: An Anthropologist under Surveillance’, Anthropology Now, 4, 2 (2012), 14–23.
51 M. Alvesson and A. Spicer, The Stupidity Paradox (London: Profile, 2016). For elaboration see Gordon, South Africa’s Dreams.
52 A. Stoler, Duress: Imperial Durabilities in our Times (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016), 77.
53 Ibid., 82.
54 A. Pitzer, One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps (New York: Little, Brown, 2017), 286.
55 Journal of Southern African Studies, Special Issue: The South African Empire, 41, 3 (2015).
56 A. Velthuizen, ‘Spiritual Knowledge and the Military Landscape: The !Kun Soldiers of Namibia and Angola’, Journal of War & Culture Studies, 12, 4 (2019), 363–375; D. Gibson, ‘Tracking Skelm (Sly/Surreptitious/Covert) Signs in the “Bush” War Landscape in Namibia’, Journal of War & Culture Studies, 12, 4 (2019), 376–392.
57 The role of the Broederbond is discussed more fully in Gordon, South Africa’s Dream.
58 P. Els, We Fear Naught but God (Johannesburg: Covos Day, 2000), 174–175.
59 M. Eirola and J. Bradley, The Way of Life of the Mupapama River Terrace Community (Rundu: Finnbat, 1990). There are unconfirmed reports that Bradley was involved in advising and recruiting ‘turned’ ANC soldiers or askaris in Natal, who were used in covert operations against the ANC.
60 I. Wilkins and H. Strydom, The Super-Afrikaners (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1978), 97.
61 M. Elliot, ‘TED denies veld schools indoctrinate’ Rand Daily Mail, 28 May 1978.
62 Pretoria News, 3 July 1986.
63 A. Harber, ‘Dirty tricks network still flourishes’ Weekly Mail, 3 January 1992.
64 Cited in J. Sanders, Apartheid’s Friends: The Rise and Fall of South Africa’s Secret Service (London: John Murray, 2006), 208.
65 South Africa, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa, Vol. 2 (London: Macmillan, 1998), 301.
66 J. Ellis, The Social History of the Machine Gun (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1975)
67 The National Intelligence Service headquarters, for instance, destroyed an estimated 44 tons of paper-based and microfilm records in a 6–8 month period during 1993. For a detailed account of the 1990–1994 purge, see V. Harris, ‘“They Should Have Destroyed More”: The Destruction of Public Records by the South African State in the Final Years of Apartheid’, Transformation, 42 (2000), 29–56.