The Kwanhama partitioned by the border and the Angolan perspective of cross-border identity

ABSTRACT

The Kwanhama, whose ancient kingdom occupies a vast area in Angola and in Namibia, are one of the African cases of people partitioned by the establishment of colonial borders. This division, along with the profound transformations of the last decades in the region – war, displacement and conditioned circulation – shaped the way a common identity has acquired different features in both countries. In the (under-researched) Angolan side, cross-border identity has progressively concentrated on the idea of a split between the two countries, as the Kwanhama king, Mandume, is believed to be buried on both sides of the border; and at the same time on the notion of a common belonging across the border. Based on data collected through fieldwork interviews in the Cunene province in Angola, this article adds to the discussion of the apparently ambiguous ideas of partitioned and shared notions of belonging.

KEYWORDS:

• Angola-Namibia border
• Cunene
• Kwanhama
• Mandume
• border
• identity

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under Grant PTDC/AFR/098339/2008.

Note on contributor

Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues specialises in African Studies and currently works as a senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute in Sweden. Her main research areas include urban anthropology and sociology, urban transformation, poverty and development, borders in Africa. Cristina’s research is mostly conducted in Angola but she has also been working in other Portuguese-speaking African countries.

ORCID

Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1997-4190

Notes

1 In the original language, the correct plural written in Portuguese is Ovakwanhama. However, the Angolan colonial literature introduced the plural Kwanhamas based on the Portuguese language structure. This term is now common usage, and I have therefore opted to use it throughout the text alternatively with Kwanhama. Additionally, Kwanyama and Ovakwanyama spelling is also used, particularly when referring to English publications and references.

2 Referred in the Acknowledgements. In the same period, the author participated in several activities of the ABORNE, the African Borderlands Research Network.

3 See <http://hdl.handle.net/10071/3029>.

4 Principally priest Carlos Estermann but also Theodore Delachaux, Edwin M Loeb or Ernesto Lecomte.

5 While the Namibian liberation movement SWAPO took refuge in Angola when the country became independent in 1975 and fought the South African regime until 1989 when independence was finally achieved, in Angola the two rival parties, the government MPLA and the UNITA guerrilla movement were in the middle of an internal dispute that lasted until 2002.

6 In some texts, like the Wikipedia entry for Ovambo, there are references only to the Kwanhama, Cafima, Evale and Ndonga in Angola; and to the Ndonga, Kwanhama, Kwambi, Ngandjera, Mbalantu, Mbadja, Kolonkadhi and Kwaluudhi in Namibia.

7 One of the major concerns with controlling the population of Ovamboland was access to migrant labour, specifically with the opening of the copper mines of Tsumeb (1906), and the Luderitz diamond mine in 1908 (Clarence-Smith & Moorsom 1975). There were also, throughout the century, large numbers of Kwanhama job seekers in Angola (especially Moçâmedes and Benguela), where they would stay for a year or two (Neto 1963). Permanent migration associated with labour was very low and there was a constant ebb and flow between the two countries, which therefore did not cause a complete disconnect with the native land, on either side of the border, since local traditional authorities prohibited stays of more than six months outside the province and workers would usually migrate in groups (Clarence-Smith 1979).

8 Worth mentioning is the negotiation and maintenance of an 11-kilometre wide neutral zone for several years before the final delineation of the border in 1926 (see Maia 1922; The Geographer 1972; Braz 1943; Oliveira 1999; Loeb 1962). The initial demarcation by the Berlin Conference was therefore not totally accurate (Dobler 2008: 16). The zone was incorporated as Angolan territory after several years of negotiation and dispute between Portugal, Germany and South Africa, and in this period, the Kwanhama used the neutral zone to their advantage to avoid colonial regulation (especially taxes) and to maintain pre-colonial migration patterns, which led to tensions between the two colonising countries. These would be settled only when the zone was conceded to Portugal (Kreike 2004: 67).

9 Additionally, the Oshikwanyama term omungulo designates environmental borders, such as the border between savannah and forest, see Dirk Otten (2005).

10 C, male 45, local administrator, interview November 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene.

11 Ten Bantustans were created in the then South-West Africa for the purpose of concentrating the members of designated ethnic groups (of the black community) under the logic of providing them ‘autonomy’ in a certain territory under the policy of apartheid.

12 In particular after the conference ‘Borders and borderline zones in Africa’ (1993). More recently (2007), the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE) was created, funded by several European science institutes through the European Science Foundation. Also significant is the publication since the mid-1990s of the Journal of Borderlands Studies, with many contributions from African cases.

13 See more details in Carlos Estermann (1956), Maria Lima (1977) or Hayes (1993).

14 Term employed by the colonial British administration.

15 MD, male 56, local businessman, interview November 2010, Mupa, Cunene.

16 União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, the faction opposing the MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) during the civil war.

17 Of these, the invasions in May 1978 (Cassinga) and August 1981 (Amaral 1980: 9) hold particular importance.

18 J, male 46, local planning staff, interview July 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene.

19 V, male 43, head of the department of culture of the government of the province, interview July 2010, Ondjiva Cunene; also the same idea expressed by J, male 46, local planning staff, interview July 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene.

20 M, female 42, livestock farmer and cross-border trader, interview November 2010, Calueque, Cunene. Due to sanitary restrictions, the Namibian government has established a cordon in northern Namibia impeding the Angolan cattle passing beyond this ‘second’ informal boundary. See Giorgio Miescher (2012).

21 Stores that sell mainly beer (hence the name Cuca, an Angolan beer).

22 A, female 35, businesswoman, interview August 2012, Calueque, Cunene.

23 C, male 45, local administrator, interview November 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene.

24 Ibid.

25 V, male 43, head of the department of culture of the government of the province, interview June 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene; also DC, male 48, cross-border trader, interview November 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene. See also Udelsmann Rodrigues (2011).

26 AJ, male 38, catholic priest, interview November 2010, Mupa, Cunene. See also Udelsmann Rodrigues (2011).

27 A, female 35, businesswoman, interview August 2012, Calueque, Cunene.

28 M, female 42, livestock farmer and cross-border trader, interview November 2010, Calueque, Cunene.

29 J, male 46, local planning staff, interview July 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene. See also Udelsmann Rodrigues (2011).

30 V, male 43, head of the department of culture of the government of the province, interview November 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene.

31 See the many examples provided by the author, including that of Mandume.

32 E, male 35, tourist, interview August 2012, Oihole, Cunene.

33 AJ, male 38, catholic priest, interview November 2010, Mupa mission, Cunene.

34 C, male 45, local administrator, interview November 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene.

35 E, male 35, tourist, interview August 2012, Oihole, Cunene.

36 AJ, male 38, catholic priest, interview November 2010, Mupa, Cunene.

37 MD, male 56, local businessman, interview November 2010, Mupa, Cunene.

38 She is the cousin of Cornelius Shelungu who succeeded Mandume in 1996, for he left no heirs.

39 T, male 52, local traditional leader, interview August 2012, Ondjiva, Cunene.

40 Ibid.

41 MD, male 56, local businessman, interview November 2010, Mupa, Cunene.

42 V, male 43, head of the department of culture of the government of the province, interview November 2010, Ondjiva, Cunene.