Smuggled Sheep, Smuggled Shepherds: Farm Labour Transformations in Namibia and the Question of Southern Angola, 1933–1975

Abstract

This article considers the history of labour relations within Namibia’s agricultural sector, with specific emphasis on the karakul sheep industry. It examines debates concerning shortages of shepherds and the increasing efforts on the part of (white) sheep farmers in southern Namibia to import contract labourers from northern Namibia and southern Angola. The ability of local Nama labourers in southern Namibia to desert abusive employers and return to reserves (albeit overcrowded) caused farmers to rely increasingly, from the late 1930s, on migrant shepherds, with illegally recruited Angolans rising in importance – making up over 40 per cent of total recruits throughout the mid 20th century. The reopening of Namibia’s mines and industries after the Second World War, alongside increased Portuguese recruitment of Angolans from Cunene province for their own karakul industry (founded with smuggled rams), caused white farmers to change strategy abruptly from the mid 1950s. With heavy subsidies from the South West Africa Administration, farmers invested in labour-saving technological improvements on the sheep farms themselves, particularly jackal-proof fencing, transforming a shepherd-intensive industry into a near shepherdless one in less than a decade. This, along with the development of homeland structures, gave white farmers the leverage to reinvigorate informal, ad hoc labour hire. Using Namibian, Angolan and South African sources, this article reconstructs the transnational political economy of labour in Namibia’s sheep-farming sector, and it considers how transformations in agricultural technology restructures labour hire, often away from ‘formal’ contract waged labour towards other forms of exploitative labour relations.

Keywords:

• Namibia
• Angola
• farm labour
• labour migration
• karakul sheep
• fencing
• homelands

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Mattia Fumanti and the JSAS editorial board for assistance with the submission process for this article and for the special issue as a whole. I thank Félix de Oliveira Calandula for translating for me in Caraculo and Moçâmedes, Werner Hillebrecht for his archival assistance in Windhoek, and Dag Henrichsen, Susanne Hubler and Heidi Brunner for their help with photographs at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in Switzerland. I would like to also express my appreciation to those who read and commented on draft versions of this article: Peter Alegi, William Gervase Clarence-Smith, Stephanie Quinn, Kai F. Herzog, William B. Lyon, participants at the 2018 Double Colonialism in Namibia conference in Bloomington and the 2019 North Eastern Workshop on Southern Africa conference in Burlington, and JSAS’s two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1 Unless I am referring to a specific institutional or governmental body, I will, in this article, use the present-day national term Namibia to refer to the historical territory of South West Africa. This is a common practice among historians of Namibia, as emphasised in, for example, L. Lenggenhager, ‘Circulating Nature: From North-Eastern Namibia to South Africa and Back, 1960–1990’, and in M. Ramutsindela, G. Miescher and M. Boehi (eds), The Politics of Nature and Science in Southern Africa (Basel, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2016), pp. 87–105.

2 Y. von Schütz, ‘Die Arbeidsvraagstuk op Plase’, Die SWA Boer (January 1957), p. 5.

3 M. van der Linden, Workers of the World: Essays toward a Global Labour History (Leiden, Brill, 2008), pp. 373–5.

4 S.J. Rockel, Carriers of Culture: Labor on the Road in Nineteenth-Century East Africa (Portsmouth, Heinemann, 2006). L. Schler, Nation on Board: Becoming Nigerian at Sea (Athens, Ohio University Press, 2016). See also J. Tischler, ‘Agriculture’, in S. Bellucci and A. Eckert (eds), General Labour History of Africa: Workers, Employers and Governments, 20th–21st Centuries (Geneva, ILO, 2019), pp. 119–49.

5 Workers who are both free proprietors of labour power and free of substantive property. K. Marx, Capital, vol. 1 (New York, Vintage, 1977 [1867]), pp. 873–6.

6 See K. Marx, Grundrisse (New York, Penguin, 1993 [1973]), pp. 604–7, 767–70. M. Denning, ‘Wageless Life’, New Left Review, 66 (2010), pp. 79–97.

7 The heartland of Namibia’s karakul sheep industry are its southern districts, namely: Lüderitz, Karasburg/Warmbad, Bethanie, Keetmanshoop, Maltahöhe and Mariental. These districts make up the modern-day ǁKaras and Hardap regions. Due to the distant, isolated locales of these farms, often far from both communal areas (formerly termed ‘native reserves’) and migrant labour sending areas, I consider southern Namibia’s karakul farms as an agricultural labour zone distinct from the cattle-farming areas of central and northern Namibia and the maize farms of Grootfontein and Tsumeb districts. This is discussed more extensively in my pending PhD thesis at Michigan State University, provisionally titled ‘Protecting the Flock: Breeding and Building Apartheid in Southern Namibia, 1915–1990’.

8 W. Beinart, The Rise of Conservation in South Africa: Settlers, Livestock and the Environment, 1770–1950 (New York, Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 235–65. M. McKittrick, ‘An Empire of Rivers: The Scheme to Flood the Kalahari’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 41, 3 (2015), pp. 485–504.

9 National Archives of Namibia (NAN) Archives of the SWA Administration: Secretariat, A-Series (SWAA) 1968 File A.413/1: Interim Report of the Drought Investigation Commission of South West Africa, 1924.

10 B. Bravenboer, Karakul: Gift from the Arid Land (Windhoek, Karakul Breeders’ Association, 2007), pp. 83–5.

11 On the karakul industry, consult L. Neubert, The Karakul Industry: Policy Options for Independent Namibia (Lusaka, UN Institute for Namibia, 1989). A.D. Thompson, Karakul Sheep: Government Flock and the Industry in South West Africa (Windhoek, SWA Agricultural Branch, 1938). K.W. Spitzner and H. Shäfer, Die Karakulzucht in Südwestafrika und das Haus Thorer (Cape Town, ABC Druckerei, 1962).

12 NAN Archives of the Division of Agricultural and Veterinary Services (AGV) 13 File C.C. A.2/4: A.D. Thompson, Manager of Neudam Experimental Farm ‘Curing Karakul Lamb Pelts for Market’ – undated (1933?). The drying process has changed in recent years, moving away from the arsenite solution.

13 SWA Administration, Report of the Long Term Agricultural Policy Commission (hereafter LTAPC) (Windhoek, 1950), p. 140.

14 D.C. Krogh, ‘The National Income and Expenditure of South West Africa, 1920–1956’, South African Journal of Economics, 28, 1 (1960), p. 5.

15 LTAPC, p. 95.

16 Karakoelskaapboerdery-nywerheid Beskerming Proklamasie, no. 31 (1930).

17 NAN SWAA 1102 File A.140/4/24: Mission Afrique Française Libre, Johannesburg to Secretary for S.W.A. – 17 September 1941. NAN SWAA 1102 File A.140/4/24: Secretary to the High Commissioner, British India to Secretary for SWA – 8 March 1944.

18 National Archives of South Africa (NASA) Argiewe van die Sektretaris van Buitelandse Sake (BTS) 1/18/29 (v. 1): Secretary for Agriculture and Forestry, Pretoria to Secretary for External Affairs, Pretoria ‘Importation of Karakul Sheep from SWA’ – 18 January 1936.

19 NASA BTS 1/18/29 (v. 1): Memo from Government Economic Adviser, Cape Town – 31 January 1936. Archives of the Karakul Board of Namibia (KBN), General Correspondence, 1937–44: letter to Allgemeine Zeitung (12 January 1937).

20 NASA BTS 1/18/29 (v. 1): Secretary for SWA to Secretary to the Prime Minister, Pretoria ‘Request for Uplifting Embargo’ – 2 July 1937.

21 NAN Archives of the SWA Agricultural Branch (AGR) 602, unnumbered file: KIAB: Minutes of Meeting at Windhoek – 14 July 1941.

22 Bravenboer, Karakul, pp. 104–5. For a further example of the permit system, consult NAN AGR 480 File 68/3: Permit vir die Uitvoer van Karakoelskape, no. 43/46: R. le Riche – 12 June 1946.

23 Bravenboer, Karakul, pp. 97–8. NAN AGR 605 File 76/5: Uitvoerende Komitee Besluit: Uitvoer van Karakoelskape na die Unie – 16 October 1958.

24 NAN SWAA 2412 File A.521/13/3: Chief Native Commissioner Windhoek to All Magistrates – ‘Farm Labour Commission’ – 30 August 1939. E. Kreike, Re-Creating Eden: Land Use, Environment, and Society in Southern Angola and Northern Namibia (Portsmouth, Heinemann, 2004), p. 94.

25 J. Silvester, ‘Black Pastoralists, White Farmers: The Dynamics of Land Dispossession and Labour Recruitment in Southern Namibia, 1915–1955’, (PhD thesis, University of London, 1993), pp. 300–305.

26 Ibid., p. 307. NAN Archives of the Farming Industry Commission (KFI) Box 1 Folder 2: Minutes of Farming Industry Commission – (14 December 1926). Among other cases, see NAN LKW 1/1/1: Hendrik Josephs. Case no. 37 of 1916.

27 NAN Archives of the Long-Term Agricultural Policy Commission (KAP) Box 1 File AC.6/1: LTAPC: Meeting with Native Commissioner J.H. Allen – 3 December 1948.

28 NAN Amptelike Publikasies (AP) 5/7/5: Report of the South West Africa Native Labourers Commission, 1945–1948 (hereafter cited as SWANLC). See also Bravenboer, Karakul, p. 128.

29 NAN SWAA 2426 file A.521/26 (v. 5): ‘Resumé of Operations to Date of the Northern Labour Organisation’ – undated, probably 1928.

30 According to W. McHardy, one of the LCM recruiters, there was technically no such thing as the Southern Labour Organisation, and this title was a misnomer. NAN SWAA 2426 File A.521/26 (v. 5): Minutes of Conference: NLO and LCM – 24 April 1942.

31 While Ovambos were the majority of workers at the diamond mines, a fair number of Tswana and Zambians were also recruited via Francistown, and there was some ethnic division of labour within the industry. NAN SWAA 2450 File A.521/60: Native Labour: Strikes, 1924–1939.

32 Part of the reason for this was the downturn in the mining sector during the Second World War.

33 NAN SWAA 2426 File A.521/26 (v. 5): Secretary, Northern Labour Organisation, Ltd. to Chief Native Commissioner, Windhoek – ‘Review: 1925 Recruiting Agreement’ – 19 March 1942.

34 NAN SWAA 2427 File A.521/26: Resolution of Windhoek Native Labour Conference – 7–8 December 1925.

35 NAN SWAA 2426 File A.521/26 (v. 5): SWANLA Annual Report, 1943.

36 NAN NAO 90 File 35/24: Manager, SWANLA ‘Report on Visit to the Kaokoveld’ – 6 January 1952.

37 NAN SWAA 2426 file A.521/26 (v. 5): ‘Resumé of Operations to Date of the Northern Labour Organisation, Ltd’. – undated, probably 1928.

38 NAN Archives of the Magistrate at Maltahöhe (LMA) 3/3/3 File N.3/11/2: Hoofbantoesakekommissaris van SWA to Landdros Maltahöhe ‘Bantoe van Angola: Indiensneming en Paspoortbeheer’ – 1 October 1973.

39 K. Likuwa and N. Shiweda, ‘“Native Recruiters” Activities along the Kavango River Boundary in North-East Namibia, 1925–1943’, Journal of Namibian Studies, 23 (2018), pp. 87–100.

40 J. Ball, ‘Colonial Labor in Twentieth Century Angola’, History Compass, 3 (2005), pp. 1–9.

41 Ibid., pp. 5–6.

42 A. Keese, ‘Why Stay? Forced Labor, the Correia Report, and Portuguese–South African Competition at the Angola–Namibia Border, 1917–1939’, History in Africa, 42 (2015), pp. 86–7.

43 Ibid., p. 95.

44 Ibid., p. 96. G. Dobler, Traders and Trade in Colonial Ovamboland: Elite Formation and the Politics of Consumption under Indirect Rule and Apartheid, 1925–1990 (Basel, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2014), pp. 44–5, 67–8.

45 Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo (ANTT), Serviços de Centralização e Coordenação de Informações de Angola (SCCIA), liv. 187 ref. 007/0002: Estudos sobre Populações: Grupo Étnico Ambó (Luanda, SCCIA, 1973), pp. 259–74.

46 SWANLC, pp. 55–6.

47 Ibid., pp. 50–51.

48 NAN SWAA 2426 File A.521/26 (v. 5): Minutes of Conference held between the NLO and the Lüderitz Chamber of Mines – 24 April 1942.

49 NAN SWAA 2426 File A.521/26 (v. 6): Meeting of District Surgeons of Grootfontein, Okavango, and Ovamboland – 1 April 1948. SWANLC, pp. 32–40. See also H.V. Ndadi, Breaking Contract (Windhoek, AACRLS, 2009 [1974]), pp. 17–19.

50 There were also proposals for a class ‘D’ farm worker, aged 13–16, but this was never institutionalised.

51 SWANLC, p. 21.

52 Silvester, ‘Black Pastoralists, White Farmers’, pp. 339–41. D.C. Jones, ‘Facing the Epokolo: Corporal Punishment and Scandal in Twentieth Century Ovamboland’ (PhD thesis, SUNY Albany, 2014), pp. 123–5.

53 NAN SWAA 2426 File A.521/26 (v. 6): Native Commissioner Ondangua to Chief Native Commissioner, Windhoek – 23 May 1945.

54 On discussions of shortages, see R.J. Gordon, ‘Mines, Migrants, and Masters: An Ethnography of Labour Turnover at a Namibian Mine’ (PhD thesis, University of Illinois, 1977), p. 46.

55 SWANLC, pp. 20–21.

56 NAN SWAA 2412 File A.521/13/3: Report of the Commission Appointed to Enquire into Certain Aspects of the Native Labour Question in the Territory (28 July 1939), pp. 61–2. By this era, most German farmers also used Afrikaans in communication with farm labourers. NAN ELFI 0830: Günther Wagner, ‘Ethnic Survey of Windhoek District’ (1951).

57 SWANLC, p. 21.

58 Ibid., p. 64.

59 NAN SWAA 2426 File A.521/26 (v. 7): Secretary, SWANLA to Chief Native Commissioner, Windhoek ‘Meeting at Windhoek on 18 September 1950’ – 4 October 1950.

60 NAN SWAA 2426 File A.521/26 (v. 7): SWANLA Annual Report for Year ending 30 June 1950.

61 M.J. Olivier, ‘Inboorlingbeleid en -Administrasie in die Mandaatgebied van Suidwes-Afrika’ (PhD thesis, Stellenbosch University, 1961), pp. 269–71.

62 NAN Argiewe van die S.W.A. Vereniging van Boerewerkgewers van Kontrak-Inboorlinge (A.0370) Box 12: SWANLA Annual Report, 1963.

63 NAN Archives of the Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner, Windhoek (BAC) 79 File HN.3/11/2: Streekswerkverskaffingskommissaris, Windhoek ‘Verslag van Algemene Sake en Onderwerpe in verband met Arbeidsaangeleenthede wat op ‘n Vergadering van Boereverenigings Gewoonlik Behandel word’ – undated, probably June 1956. Furthermore, some Namibian Ovambos pretended to be Angolan Ovambos in order to access WNLA contracts.

64 NAN BAC 88 File HN.3/16/2/1: SWANLA Annual Report for Year Ending 30 June 1959.

65 NAN SWAA 2427 File A.521/26 (v. 9): SWANLA Annual Report for Year Ending 30 June 1954.

66 ANTT SCCIA liv. 187 ref. 007/0002: Estudos sobre Populações: Grupo Étnico Ambó (Luanda: SCCIA, 1973), p. 265.

67 NAN SWAA 2429 File A.521/26/4 (v. 4): SWANLA Annual Report for Year Ending 30 June 1956.

68 W.G. Clarence-Smith, The Third Portuguese Empire, 1829–1975: A Study in Economic Imperialism (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1985), p. 19. A. Keese, ‘Developmentalist Attitudes and Old Habits: Portuguese Labour Policies, South African Rivalry, and Flight in Southern Angola, 1945–1974’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 41, 2 (2015), p. 246.

69 Ball, ‘Colonial Labor’, p. 4.

70 On consumerism, see N. Shiweda, ‘Yearning to be Modern? Dreams and Desires of Ovambo Contract Workers in Namibia’, Journal of Namibian Studies, 22 (2017), pp. 81–98. See also M. McKittrick, To Dwell Secure: Generation, Christianity, and Colonialism in Ovamboland (Portsmouth, Heinemann, 2002), p. 189.

71 NAN Archives of the Native Commissioner, Ovamboland (NAO) 070 File 30/1: S.A.P. District Commandant, Omaruru to Native Commissioner, Ovamboland ‘Alleged Smuggling of Karakul Rams from S.W.A. into Angola’ – 18 April 1950.

72 While most of the Angola Boers moved to Namibia in the 1920s, some stayed until Angolan independence in 1975; see N. Stassen, Boers in Angola (Pretoria, Protea Boekhuis, 2012).

73 NAN SWAA 1102 File A.140/4/39: Criminal Investigation Department, Outjo to S.A.P. Omaruru, ‘Alleged Smuggling of Karakul Rams from SWA to Angola’ – 17 October 1950. NAN SWAA 1102 File A.140/4/39: Deputy Commissioner, Windhoek to Secretary for SWA ‘Alleged Smuggling of Karakul Rams’ – 20 November 1950. Indeed, the Lubango veterinarian, Dr E.V. Martins, was long involved in Karakul smuggling from Namibia. See NAN NAO 026 File 20/3: Verklaring: Joaquim dos Santos: Outjo – 29 November 1939.

74 NAN NAO 070 File 30/1: Criminal Investigations Department, Outjo to S.A.P. Omaruru, ‘Alleged Smuggling of Karakul Rams’ – 16 August 1950.

75 M. dos Santos Pereira, O que pode valer o caracul na economia e ocupação de Angola (Lisbon, Centro de Estudos Económicos, 1955), p. 15. The expansion of Angola’s karakul industry was tied to broader colonial development plans promulgated by Lisbon; see P. Stone, ‘An Ambitious Portuguese Plan’, African Affairs, 55, 221 (1956), pp. 320–25.

76 R.D. de Carvalho, ‘Encapsulation, Prosperity, and Hunger among the Kuvale of Southern Angola’, in M. Bollig and J.B. Gewald (eds), People, Cattle, and Land: Transformations of a Pastoral Society in Southwestern Africa (Köln, Rüdiger Köppe, 2000), pp. 523–36.

77 C. Castelo, ‘African Knowledge and Resilience in Late Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Agro-pastoralists of Southwestern Angola’, Portuguese Studies Review, 25, 1 (2017), p. 98.

78 C. Castelo, Passagens para África: O Povoamento de Angola e Moçambique com Naturais da Metrópole, 1920–1974 (Porto, Edições Afrontamento, 2007), p. 322.

79 Pereira, O que pode valer, p. 15.

80 Ibid.

81 In this way, my work departs sharply from Tiago Saraiva’s understandings of the development of Angolan karakul; his is the only other currently existing scholarly treatment of the experiment. Though it is not the primary focus of this article, I show that Caraculo was in more ways an extension of the ‘South African Empire’ than of metropolitan Portugal or Lusotropicalism. See T. Saraiva, ‘Mimetismo colonial e reprodução animal: carneiros caracul no Sudoeste angolano’, Etnográfica, 18, 1 (2014), pp. 209–27. T. Saraiva, Fascist Pigs: Technoscientific Organisms and the History of Fascism (Cambridge, MIT Press, 2016), pp. 192–231. Concerning the South African Empire, see D. Henrichsen, G. Miescher, C. Rassool and L. Rizzo, ‘Rethinking Empire in Southern Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 41, 3 (2015), pp. 431–5.

82 M. dos Santos Pereira, Plano de fomento do Karakul de Angola (Lisbon, Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1953), p. 12.

83 See map, Figure 1 in the Editorial of this special issue.

84 NAN SWAA 1102 File A.140/4/36: Gesantskap van S.A., Lissabon to Minister van Buitelandse Sake, Pretoria ‘Karakoelboerdery in Angola’ – 13 July 1949.

85 Pereira, O que pode valer, p. 10.

86 Ibid.

87 National Archives of the United Kingdom (NAUK) Foreign Office (FO) File 371/80853: British Consulate Luanda to Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, London ‘Angolan Karakul, or Persian Lamb’ – 27 October 1950.

88 Gaspar Madeira, interviewed by the author, Moçâmedes, July 2019.

89 Manuel Pedro, interviewed by the author, Caraculo, July 2019.

90 João Sambengi, interviewed by the author, Caraculo, July 2019.

91 ANTT SCCIA liv. 187 ref. 007/0002: Estudos sobre Populações: Grupo Étnico Ambó (Luanda, SCCIA, 1973).

92 NAN SWAA 1102 File A.140/4/36: Secretary for Agriculture, Pretoria to Secretary for External Affairs, Pretoria ‘Proposed Establishment of Karakul Industry in Angola’ – 12 August 1949.

93 NAN AGR 415 File 54/2 (v. 1): Director of Agriculture to Secretary for SWA, ‘Export of Livestock to Angola’ – 2 November 1951.

94 C.A. Neves Ferrão, ‘A Hidrogeologia e o Problema do Abastecimento de Água à Reserva Pastoril do Caraculo’, Boletim dos Serviços de Geologia e Minas de Angola (Luanda, 1962), pp. 5–34. M. Kuder, Angola: eine geographische, soziale und wirtschaftliche Landeskunde (Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1971), p. 222.

95 M. dos Santos Pereira, Situação do Caracul de Angola (Lisbon, Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1959), Chart 6.

96 Ibid., pp. 65–6. NAN AGR 605 File 76/5: Director of Agriculture, Memorandum ‘Uitvoer van Karakoelskape na Angola’ – 2 June 1958.

97 NAN AGR 415 File 54/2 (v. 3): Direkteur van Landbou to Bestuurder, FCU ‘Uitvoer van Dorper Skape na Angola’ – 13 March 1963.

98 Pereira, Situacão do Caracul, p. 19.

99 NASA Argiewe van die Sekretaris van die Tesourie (TES) 5808 File 33/841: Reis van Suidwes-Afrika-Kommissie na Angola – 3–7 December 1962.

100 Kuder, Angola, p. 192.

101 M. dos Santos Pereira, O Caracul (Lisbon, Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1959), p. 16.

102 E.R. Scherz, ‘Karakulzucht in Angola’, Yearbook of the SWA Karakul Breeders’ Association (1962), pp. 41–5.

103 Ibid., p. 45.

104 NAN AGR 605 File 76/5: Governor-General of Angola to Secretary for SWA – 8 April 1958.

105 NAN AGR 605 File 76/5: Director of Agriculture, Memorandum ‘Uitvoer van Karakoelskape na Angola’ – 2 June 1958. The SWA Karakul Breeders’ Association (KTV) passed two resolutions concerning the question of exporting karakuls to Angola. First, they stated categorically their resistance to the lifting of existing legislation. Second, if the Administration were to choose to ‘gift’ sheep to veterinary stations in Angola or Botswana, the KTV demanded rights to (1) limit the number of rams, (2) inspect these foreign agricultural stations when desired, and (3) mandate that Angola and Botswana restrict the further export of karakul sheep or semen beyond their borders. See KBN, General Correspondence, 1954–65: Besluit van die Raad van die Karakoeltelersvereniging van SWA – 30 March 1965.

106 Kuder, Angola, p. 99.

107 Banco de Angola, Economic and Financial Survey of Angola, 1969 (Luanda, Banco de Angola, 1969), p. 27.

108 Kuder, Angola, p. 99. KBN, International Karakul Symposium, 1967: M. dos Santos Pereira, ‘Karakulzucht in Angola’, Europäische Vereinigung für Tierzucht, Kommission für Schaf- und Ziegenproduktion: Internationales Karakulsymposium, Wien (September 1967).

109 J.E. Holloway, Economic Review of Angola (London, Standard Bank Group, 1972), pp. 4–5.

110 NAN AGR 415 File 54/2 (v. 3): Senior Vakkundige Beampte ‘Verslag oor my Verblyf in Angola’ – August 1963.

111 NAN AGR 415 File 54/2 (v. 3): Direkteur van Landbou to Sekretaris van SWA ‘Karakoelskape vir Angola’ – 18 September 1964. NAN AGR 415 File 54/2 (v. 4): Sekretaris van SWA to Sekretaris van die Eerste Minister, Kaapstad ‘Uitvoer van Karakoelskape na Angola en Betsjoeanaland’ – 4 June 1965

112 NAN AGR 415 File 54/2 (v. 4): Secretary for SWA to Secretário Provincial de Fomento Rural, Luanda – 3 September 1965.

113 NAN AGR 416 File 54/2 (v. 5): Direkteur, Swangola Beleggings: ‘Uitvoer van Karakoelstamboekdiere na Angola’ – 30 August 1966. NAN AGR 416 File 54/2 (v. 5): Director, Portugal/SWA Trading Co. to Director of Agriculture – 15 February 1968. NAN AGR 416 File 54/2 (v. 5): Antonio Pereira Lucas Martins, Luanda to Director of Agriculture, Windhoek – 4 May 1970.

114 Kuder, Angola, pp. 233–5. Banco de Angola, Economic and Financial Survey of Angola, 1960–1965 (Luanda, Banco de Angola, 1965), p. 20. M. Bandeira Jerónimo and A. Costa Pinto, ‘A Modernizing Empire? Politics, Culture, and Economy in Portuguese Late Colonialism’, in Bandeira Jerónimo and Costa Pinto (eds), The Ends of European Colonial Empires: Cases and Comparisons (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. 62–3.

115 G.J. Bender, Angola under the Portuguese: The Myth and the Reality (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1978), p. 109.

116 NAN SWAA 2429 File A.521/26/4: Societies of Employers of Recruited Natives Ordinance, 1952.

117 NAN SWAA 2429 File A.521/26/4: Kennisgewing: SWA Vereniging van Boerewerkgewers van Kontrak-Inboorlinge – 25 September 1953.

118 NAN A.0370 Box 1: Minutes, 15–16 November 1956.

119 NAN A.0370 Box 12: H.L.P. Eedes, Sekretaris, ‘Plaasarbeid Toestand, Suidwes-Afrika, 1957: Opsomming’ – 8 February 1958.

120 As shortage was self-reported, farmers often over-reported shortages. Nevertheless, overall trends can be observed.

121 See B.C. Moore, ‘“Dogs Were Our Defenders!” Canines, Carnivores, and Colonialism in Namibia’, AHA Today (American Historical Association), 16 June 2017, available at https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/summer-2017/dogs-were-our-defenders-canines-carnivores-and-colonialism-in-namibia, retrieved 28 September 2020. I discuss shepherding in more detail in my forthcoming thesis, provisionally titled ‘Protecting the Flock: Breeding and Building Apartheid in Southern Namibia, 1915–1990’.

122 NAN SWAA 1071 File A.138/25 (v. 2): Promotion of Farming Interests Ordinance, 1952.

123 NAN Argiewe van die Boerderybelangeraad (RBB) 5 File BB.84/53: S.W.J. van der Merwe: Rusticana No. 77 – Rehoboth District. NAN RBB 6 File BB.97/53: D.D. Bassingthwaighte: Uhlenhorst no. 114 (rem.) – Rehoboth district. According to Pfeifer’s investigation for the Karakul Breeders’ Association (KTV), the construction of jackal-proof fencing was a means to alleviate the labour shortages throughout southern Namibia to the extent that farmers would not need to convert to cattle production, as was sometimes occurring in areas with mixed farming potential (such as western Windhoek and eastern Mariental districts), cementing the region as karakul territory. See KBN, Board Meetings, 1952–54: SWA Karakoeltelersvereniging, Jaarverslag, 1952.

124 NAN AP 5/7/8: Verslag van Kommissie van Ondersoek: Wenslikheid van Verpligte Jakkalsproefomheining (1956). J.G.H. van der Wath, Johannes van der Wath van Suidwes-Afrika: Outobiografie (Windhoek, Auas Uitgewers, 1983), pp. 131–2.

125 NAN AGR 500 File 68/6/1/1/1 (v. 1): Kommissie van Ondersoek: Jakkalsproefomheining, 1956 – all meetings.

126 NAN Argiewe van die Afdeling van Waterwese (WWA) 128 File WW.11/6: Direkteur van Landbou ‘Memorandum: Jakkalsdraad in Beesareas’ (with map) – 4 January 1968.

127 NAN AGR 859 File 110/1 (v1): Vermin Extermination Ordinance, 1964.

128 See J. Swanepoel, ‘Habits of the Hunters: The Biopolitics of Combatting Predation among Small-Stock Farmers in Southern Namibia’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 34, 1 (2016), pp. 129–46

129 NAN PA/0346: W. Knoesen, ‘Fisiese Ontwikkeling van Plase in die Helmeringhausen Omgewing’, in Helmeringhausen Boerevereniging, 1925–1975 (Windhoek, John Meinert, 1975), pp. 40–42. For more on jackal-proofing and shepherding, see J. Bähr, Kulturgeographische Wandlungen in der Farmzone Südwestafrikas (Bonn, Bonner Geographische Abhandlungen, 1968), pp. 73–82; NAN BB/0368: R. Eisler, ‘Der Zaun als Mittel zur Intensivierung der Karakulzucht durch Verbesserung der Einzäunungssysteme in Südwestafrika’ (Diplomarbeit, Universität Hohenheim, 1983), p. 47.

130 See R.J. Gordon, J. Swanepoel and B.C. Moore, ‘Complicating Histories of Carnivores in Namibia: Past to Present’, Journal of Namibian Studies, 24 (2018), pp. 131–46. In other contexts, see F. Lilja, The Golden Fleece of the Cape: Capitalist Expansion and Labour Relations in the Periphery of Transnational Wool Production, c. 1860–1950 (Uppsala, Studiea Historica Upsaliensia, 2013), pp. 141, 153.

131 NAN BAC 88 File HN.3/16/2/1: SWANLA Annual Report for Year Ending 30 June 1959.

132 NAN BAC 88 File HN.3/16/2/1: SWANLA Annual Report for Year Ending 30 June 1961. Black Angolans were regularly conscripted into the Portuguese colonial forces during the liberation war. See S.L. Weigert, Angola: A Modern Military History, 1961–2002 (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 46–51.

133 NAN Argiewe van die Afdeling van Natuurbewaring (NTB) 2/111 File N.22/2/1 (vol. 3): Departement van Bantoe-Administrasie en -Ontwikkeling ‘Owambo: Verslag en Aanbevelings van die Beplanningskomitee’ – 1971.

134 NAN LMA 3/3/3 File N.3/11/2: Hoofbantoesakekommissaris, Windhoek to Magistraat, Maltahöhe ‘Verdere Indienshouding van Angolese Werkers’ – 17 November 1975.

135 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), p. 146.

136 Unfortunately, the history of Namibia’s homelands is woefully neglected in the historiography of apartheid. I engage in a more sustained discussion in my forthcoming PhD dissertation, ‘Protecting the Flock’.

137 NASA TES 5808 File 33/841: Sekretaris van die Eerste Minister, Pretoria to Sekretaris van die Tesourie, Pretoria ‘Kommissie van Ondersoek na Aangeleenthede van Suidwes-Afrika’ – 22 September 1962. On the intellectual heritage of the Odendaal Commission, see M. McCullers, ‘Lines in the Sand: The Global Politics of Local Development in Apartheid-era Namibia, 1950–1980’, (PhD thesis, Emory University, 2012), pp. 128–65.

138 NAN AP 4/1/13: Report of the Commission of Enquiry into South West African Affairs, 1962–1963 (1964), pp. 59, 81 [hereafter cited as Odendaal Report].

139 J.W. de Villiers, ‘Die Lewe van F.H. Odendaal, 1898–1966’, (PhD thesis, UNISA, 1992), pp. 296–9. Indeed, South Africanists are increasingly analysing the homeland project within the context of African decolonisation. L. Evans, ‘South African Bantustans and the Dynamics of “Decolonisation”: Reflections on Writing Histories of Homelands’, South African Historical Journal, 64, 1 (2012), pp. 117–37. C. Marx, ‘Verwoerdian Apartheid and African Political Elites in South Africa, 1950–1968’, in J. Dülffer and M. Frey (eds), Elites and Decolonisation in the Twentieth Century (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 138–56.

140 See, C. Botha, ‘Constraints on the Development of Liberal Ideas and Practices in Colonial Namibia’, Journal of Namibian Studies, 13 (2013), pp. 7–31.

141 NAN SWAS 439 File AS.65/5/1: Reservation of State Lands for Natives Amendment Ordinance, 1974.

142 Odendaal Report, p. 107.

143 Wits Historical Papers Research Archive (WHPRA), Digital Collection ref. ZA-HPRA-A1906: Summary of the Report for the Socio-Economic Development of the Bantu Areas within the Union of South Africa (Pretoria, Government Printer, 1955), pp. 143–4, 180–83.

144 M. Legassick and H. Wolpe, ‘The Bantustans and Capital Accumulation in South Africa’, Review of African Political Economy, 3, 7 (1976), pp. 87–107.

145 NASA KC SWA 72/35: Odendaal Commission: Minutes of Public Hearings – Karasburg: Testimony of J.A. van Wyk (Karasburg Boerevereniging) – 19 March 1963.

146 NASA KC SWA 72/35: Odendaal Commission: Minutes of Public Hearings – Karasburg: Testimony of J. van der Merwe (Afrikaanse Sakekamer van SWA) – 19 March 1963.

147 NAN BB/0537: Departement van Kleurlingbetrekkinge en Rehoboth-aangeleenthede (KbRa), ‘Landboukundige Beplanningsverslag: Krantzplatz’ – September 1971.

148 For a brief engagement with this conflict, see R. Kössler, In Search of Survival and Dignity: Two Traditional Communities in Southern Namibia under South African Rule (Windhoek, Gamsberg Macmillan, 2005), pp. 86–105.

149 NAN Archives of the Department of Coloured, Rehoboth, and Nama Relations (CRN) 104 File 26/2/1/3 (vol. 1): Streekverteenwoordiger, KbRa to Sekretaris, KbRa ‘Oortreders in die Ou Bondelsreservaat’ – 23 March 1973.

150 NAN Argiewe van die Kantoor van die Administrateur-Generaal (AGA) File AG.18/1 (vol. 12): Eerste Nasionale Ontwikkelingskorporasie van SWA, ‘’n Streekstudie van Namaland en Aangrensende Gebiede’ – November 1979.

151 NAN Argiewe van die Administrasie vir Namas (ANA) 64 File 7/15/2/1: Notule van die Stamvergadering te Berseba – 8 March 1973.

152 See, as a start, NASA KC SWA 72/35: Odendaal Commission: Minutes of Public Hearings – Karasburg: Testimony of Johannes Frederick (Bondelswarts Raadslid for Warmbad) – 18 March 1963. NAN BAC 80 File HN.3/11/2: Landdros Karasburg to Hoofbantoesakekommissaris, Windhoek ‘Organisasie van Skeerspanne: Bondels en Warmbad Reservate’ – 1 August 1963. NAN CRN 106 File 32/2: Bethanie Distrik Landbou-Unie, ‘Skeerreglement’ – 1 July 1969.

153 As an example, NAN ANA 65 File 7/15/3: Bylaag: Miscellaneous Labour Bureaux contracts between Kwagga Boerevereniging and Nama shearers, 1978.

154 NAN ANA 65 File 7/15/3 (vol. 2): Miscellaneous camp-building contracts, Bethanie district, 1978–79.

155 NAN AP 20/1/1 (v. 2): Fourth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Nama Representative Authority, Keetmanshoop (23–30 March 1982), p. 144.

156 C. Meillassoux, Maidens, Meal, and Money: Capitalism and the Domestic Community (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981 [1975]), pp. 100–102, 133–42.

157 Marx, Capital, vol. 1, pp. 874–5.

158 See D. Harvey, The Limits to Capital (London, Verso, 1999 [1982]), pp. 436–9; see also J.W. Moore, Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital (New York, Verso, 2015), p. 98.

159 E. Mandel, Late Capitalism (London, New Left Books, 1975 [1972]), pp. 181–2.

160 M. van der Linden, Transnational Labour History: Explorations (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2003), p. 201.

161 H. Wolpe, ‘Capitalism and Cheap Labour Power in South Africa: From Segregation to Apartheid’, Economy and Society, 1, 4 (1972), pp. 425–56. J. McCulloch, South Africa’s Gold Mines and the Politics of Silicosis (Oxford, James Currey, 2012).

162 Kreike, Re-Creating Eden, pp. 82–4, 90–93. P. Hayes, ‘A History of the Ovambo of Namibia c.1880–1935’, (PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 1992), p. 333. T. Emmett, Popular Resistance and the Roots of Nationalism in Namibia, 1915–1966 (Basel, P. Schlettwein, 1999), pp. 171–95.