Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2018 Ruling nature, controlling people: nature conservation, development and war in North-Eastern Namibia since the 1920s Lenggenhager, Luregn Abstract: Recent nature conservation initiatives in Southern Africa such as communal conservancies and peace parks are often embedded in narratives of economic development and ecological research. They are also increasingly marked by militarisation and violence. In Ruling Nature, Controlling People, Luregn Lenggenhager shows that these features were also characteristic of South African rule over the Caprivi Strip region in North-Eastern Namibia, especially in the fields of forestry, fisheries and, ulti- mately, wildlife conservation. In the process, the increasingly internationalised war in the region from the late 1960s until Namibia’s independence in 1990 became intricately interlinked with contemporary nature conservation, ecology and economic development projects. By retracing such interdependencies, Lenggenhager provides a novel perspective from which to examine the history of a region which has until now barely entered the focus of historical research. He thereby highlights the enduring relevance of the supposedly peripheral Caprivi and its military, scientific and environmental histories for efforts to develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which apartheid South Africa exerted state power. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-150287 Monograph Published Version Originally published at: Lenggenhager, Luregn (2018). Ruling nature, controlling people: nature conservation, development and war in North-Eastern Namibia since the 1920s. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien. Luregn Lenggenhager Ruling Nature, Controlling People Caprivi Strip region in North-Eastern Namibia, especially in the fields of forestry, fisheries and, ultimately, wildlife conservation. In the process, the increasingly Nature Conservation, Development and War in North-Eastern Namibia since the 1920s Foreword by Maano Ramutsindela evance of the supposedly peripheral Caprivi and its military, scientific and envi Basel Namibia Studies Series 19 ronmental histories for efforts to develop a deeper understanding of the ways in has conducted extensive archival and field research in Na Basler Afrika Bibliographien 2018 Ruling Nature, Controlling People LUREGN LENGGENHAGER Ruling Nature, Controlling People Nature Conservation, Development and War in North-Eastern Namibia since the 1920s Basel Namibia Studies Series 19 Basler Afrika Bibliographien 2018 This work was accepted as a PhD thesis by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Zu- rich in the spring semester 2017 on the recommendation of the Doctoral Committee: Prof Dr Gesine Krüger, University of Zurich (main supervisor) and Prof Dr Michael Bollig, University of Cologne. ©2018 The authors ©2018 The photographers ©2018 Basler Afrika Bibliographien Basler Afrika Bibliographien Namibia Resource Centre & Southern Africa Library Klosterberg 23 P O Box 4051 Basel Switzerland www.baslerafrika.ch All rights reserved. Efforts were made to trace the copyright holders of illustrations and maps used in this publication. We apologise for any incomplete or incorrect acknowledgements. Cover image: Former Buffallo Base in the Bwabwata National Park Photographer: Sabine Hiller eISBN 978-3-906927-01-5 eISSN 2297-458X Contents Foreword by Maano Ramutsindela VII Acknowledgements X 1 Introduction 1 Historiographical Landscapes 4 Constituting an Archive of the Caprivi 22 Structure of the Book 31 2 Nature and Development before 1965 32 Creating an Image of Abundant Nature and Peace 36 What to Do with the Caprivi? 1915–1939 43 Leslie Trollope and the Caprivi’s ‘Distinctiveness’, 1939–1952 56 Putting Caprivi on South Africa’s Map, 1945–1966 63 Odendaal Commission, 1962–1964 73 The Caprivi in the Aftermath of the Odendaal Commission 81 Summarising Early South African Rule 86 3 Nature and War (1965–1980s) 88 Geographies of Science, Nature and War 89 Living and Working in the Caprivi 98 Protecting Rivers and Forests 111 Summarising Environmental Interventions in the Context of War 126 4 Wildlife and War (1975–1990) 128 The Diminishing Wildlife Populations in the Caprivi 129 Saving Wildlife? 137 The Proclamation of National Parks in the 1980s 158 Towards Post-colonial Wildlife Conservation 170 5 Nature and Peace? 173 The Caprivi after Independence 175 Narratives of Development 188 Mapping and Bordering in Conservancies and Peace Parks 203 Nature and Violence 217 Summarizing Narratives of Violence and Development 223 6 Conclusion 225 Abbreviations 233 Sources 234 Bibliography 237 List of Figures and Maps 256 Maps 256 Index 259 Foreword The 21st century is witnessing the revival of war talk in nature conservation. This talk comes from different sources, including the nature conservation lobby group and the -secu rity establishment. The conservation lobby group made up of ecologists, conservationists, government agencies, donors, philanthropists and so on are concerned with the high rate of biodiversity loss. Accordingly, they have declared war for conservation, which means wag- ing war on anything and anybody who threatens biodiversity or contributes to its decline. In this war talk, war has amongst others been declared on alien species that threaten, say, indigenous forests and sources of freshwater. Nowhere is this war talk more pronounced than in the decline in wildlife, especially elephants and rhinos. While concerns with the decline in biodiversity arose from the need to ensure the integrity of ecosystems and the health of the planet, there has been a shift towards seeing the loss of biodiversity as a threat to national and global security. At the end of the Cold War, the security establishment in powerful countries such as the United States began to draw the links between the deterioration of the environment and national security.1 The reasoning is as follows: environmental degradation leads to scarcity of resources that in turn become a recipe for conflict over scarce resources. Such conflict -re sults in mass migration that destabilizes nation-states, and therefore posing a risk to nation- al security. In this context national security has been redefined to include environmentally- induced risks to nation states. According to a similar logic, the decline in wildlife impacts on national as well as global security. The security establishment argues that wildlife becomes a security issue because illicit wildlife trade threatens national economies but also would fi- nance global terrorist organizations. Thus, the war on poaching is not limited to curbing the loss of wildlife but is also integral to the war on terror. This war by conservation as Duffy2 calls it is ‘a proactive, interventionist militarized response that is spatially amorphous and extends well beyond protected areas and into the land and communities surrounding them’. Indeed, conservation areas around the world are becoming highly militarized. In South Af- rica’s Kruger National Park, which is a core of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP), both the concentration of rhinos and the rampant rhino poaching have resulted in the GLTP becoming highly militarized. The GLTP is a premier peace park project, which has become a war zone due to the violence that has ensued as a result of militarization3. The militarization 1 Dably, S. (2009), Security and environmental change. Cambridge: Polity. 2 Duffy, R. (2016), War, by conservation. Geoforum, 69(2): 238–248. 3 Büscher, B. and M. Ramutsindela (2016), Green Violence, Rhino Poaching and the War to Save Southern Africa’s Peace Parks. African Affairs, 115(458): 1–22 VII of protected areas involves the recruitment and training of locals as the paramilitary but also as informants for intelligence networks involved in anti-poaching campaigns. Luregn Lenggenhager’s book, Ruling Nature, Controlling People: Nature Conservation, Development and War in North-Eastern Namibia since the 1920s reminds us that the conser- vation-security nexus, which is currently receiving growing scholarly attention, and that is also crucial to the conservation lobby group and the security apparatus, has a much longer history in Southern Africa. The book shows that this nexus should be understood as a sig- nificant part of the unfolding political drama. It confirms that nature conservation does not take place in a political vacuum: ideas and practices of conservation derive their potency from prevailing ideologies and socio-political struggles. As the case study of the Caprivi shows, the quest for the control of nature and local people has spatial imprints that connect various places towards an ideologically and militarily determined future. The Caprivi is an isolated and remote region but its environmental, political and military history can only be fully understood within the broader South African sphere of influence. Expressed differ- ently, the Caprivi should be conceptualized within the wider historiographies of Southern Africa. It was an important geopolitical site for South Africa’s occupation of Namibia and for its battle against liberation movements in the region. The Caprivi region provided a platform on which apartheid South Africa exerted its power through the military, environmental science and the narratives of local economic de- velopment. These earlier narratives have been carried