NAMIBIA Land and landscape in Herero oral culture: Cultural and social aspects of the 1 2005 land question in Namibia 1 Larissa Förster2 February 2005 EDITION 1 Introduction 2 The area around the Waterberg in Herero oral tradition 3 The “oral character” of the Waterberg area 4 Interpretation 4.1 The mountain itself: Fauna, flora and natural resources 4.2 The surrounding landscape: Wells and settlements 4.3 People and cattle: A landscape of pastures 4.4 The living and the dead: Graves and ancestral land 4.5 Venues of the 1904-1908 wars: The political dimension of landscape 5 Conclusion 6 References 1 Published by: An earlier version of this essay was published with a different contextual focus; see Förster (2002). 2 The author was one of the curators of the exhibition entitled “Namibia – Germany: A shared/divided history. Resistance, violence, memory“, held at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne, Germany, from March to October 2004. REFERENCES Alnaes, Kirsten. 1989. “Living with the past: The songs of the Herero in Botswana”. Africa, 59:267–299. Brinkman, Inge & Axel Fleisch (eds.). 1999. Grandmother’s footsteps: Oral tradition and south-east Angolan narratives on the colonial encounter. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. Darian-Smith, Kate, Liz Gunner & Sarah Nuttall (eds.). 1996. Text, theory, space: Land, literature and history in South Africa and Australia. London: Routledge. Erlank, Niels & Samuel VK Haakuria (eds.). 2002. 24 Otjiherero concert songs. Windhoek: New Namibia Books. Förster, Larissa. 2002. ”Erzählte Landschaft”. In Busch, Bernd (ed.). Erde. Schriftenreihe Forum, Vol. 11: Elemente des Naturhaushaltes III. Köln: Wienand, pp 421–437. Förster, Larissa. 2004. “Zwischen Waterberg und Okakarara: Namibische Erinnerungslandschaften”. In Förster, Larissa, Dag Henrichsen & Michael Bollig (eds.). Namibia – Deutschland: Eine geteilte Geschichte. Widerstand, Gewalt, Erinnerung (Ethnologica Neue Folge, Vol. 24), pp 164–179. Henrichsen, Dag. 1994. “ ‘Ehi rOvaherero’: Mündliche Überlieferungen von Herero zu ihrer Geschichte im vorkolonialen Namibia”. WerkstattGeschichte, 9:15–24. Henrichsen, Dag. 1997. “Herrschaft und Identifikation im vorkolonialen Zentralnamibia: Das Herero- und Damaraland im 19. Jahrhundert”. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Hamburg. Henrichsen, Dag. 1999. “Claiming space and power in pre-colonial central Namibia: The relevance of Herero praise songs”. BAB Working Paper, No 1/1999. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien. Heywood, Annemarie, Brigitte Lau & Raimund Ohly (eds.). 1992. Warriors, leaders, sages and outcasts in the Namibian past: Narratives collected from Herero sources for the Michael Scott Oral Records Project 1985–6. Windhoek: John Meinert. Hofmeyr, Isabel. 1993. “We spend our years as a tale that is told”: Oral historical narrative in a South African chiefdom. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. Kavari, Jekura U. 2002. The form and meaning of Otjiherero praises. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. Office of the Surveyor General. 1994. Republic of Namibia: Map. Windhoek: Office of the Surveyor General. Ohly, Rajmund. 1990. The poetics of Herero song. An outline. Windhoek: University of Namibia. Republic of Namibia. 1991. National Conference on Land Reform and the Land Question: Consensus document. Windhoek: Office of the Prime Minister. Secretariat of Kambazembi (compilers). 1998. Onguatjindu fundamentals. Okakarara: Royal House of Ombara Kambazembi. Tjoutuku, A. 1998. “Kaondeka”. In Mukonge, Mburo (ed.). Ourenga weraka. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan Publishers, p 28. Vail, Leroy & Landeg White. 1992. Power and the praise poem: Southern African voices in history. Oxford: James Currey Publishers. Werner, Wolfgang. 1998. “No one will become rich”: Economy and society in the Herero reserves in Namibia, 1915–1946 (Basel Namibia Studies Series, 2). Basel: Schlettwein Publishing Switzerland. 20 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung PO Box 1145, Windhoek, Namibia Tel +264 61 232 156 Fax +264 61 225 678 Published by: Namibia Institute for Democracy PO Box 11956, Klein Windhoek, Namibia Tel +264 61 229 117 Fax +264 61 229 119 1 INTRODUCTION Ownership of and access to land are link up with access to land and are two highly debated issues in Namibia drawn upon by people in constructing today. With its long history of the their cultural and ethnic identity. African population’s dispos-session, Especially when such practices are the country is now striving to work out regarded as having their roots in pre- a framework for the just re-distribution or early colonial times, maintaining of land in order to guarantee equal them can be central to the historic opportunities for economic survival identity of Namibian communities and and prosperity to all members of the their self-definition as part of the contemporary society. contemporary multi-ethnic society. However, land and land use are not One indication of such practices only important because they provide and how people draw upon them Namibian households with a source when constructing their cultural and of income, but also because they form ethnic identity is, for example, the basis of economic stability and when people refer to a particular social peace. Thus, the land question piece of land as ‘ancestral’. In has symbolic aspects as well: the re- central Namibia, many areas are distribution of land signifies the re- known as the ‘original’ settlement empowerment of the previously areas of certain communities like disadvantaged. Solving the land the San, the Damara, the Nama or question means re-establishing social the Herero. When these communities justice. Therefore, the just redistribution were expropriated under German of land can be seen as a symbol of and South African colonial rule, independence and of the objective minimal sections of the areas of national reconciliation. previously occupied by these communities were turned into Thus, on both a national and local ethnic “homelands”; these former level, the land issue touches upon homelands became what is termed symbolic aspects of people’s lives. This communal land after Namibia’s holds true, for example, where independence. Most of the land thus ownership and access to land are claimed by the colonisers was considered vital to the cultural and converted into commercial farmland. social identity of a local community. This entailed that the African The latter applies to most Namibians. communities were henceforth In this context again, land use is not excluded from ownership of and only a matter of economic well-being: access to it. However, an attachment various social and cultural practices to ‘their’ former land was and is still 02 felt by the communities concerned. main commemoration of the colonial The concept of ‘ancestral land rights’ wars of 1904–1908 held in August 2004 was discussed intensively during the by the Herero-speaking community – National Conference on Land Reform represented by the Coordinating and the Land Question in 1991. Committee for the First Official Com- However, claims to ancestral land were memoration of the Ovaherero Gen- ruled out on the grounds that the re- ocide, 100 Years After – in cooperation distribution of land was and continues with the National Preparatory Com- to be considered a national issue mittee for the Commemoration of that should not lead to ethnic de- 1904. One of the main focusses of the bates or competition amongst commemoration was the issue of Namibians (Republic of Namibia genocide, which was also the starting 1991). Never-theless, the notion of point of the court case filed by the ancestral land still exists in many Herero People’s Reparations Cor- parts of Namibian society and, poration against the German Govern- therefore, continues to influence ment and German companies in 2001. discussions and debates on the land question. In order to show that there is still a vivid memory of that particular strip In this discussion, I argue that the of land among the Herero community historic and cultural bonds between of Namibia, and of how it was settled people and ‘their’ (former) land – and used by their ancestors in pre- even if (re-)constructed nowadays colonial and early colonial times, I will within the framework of the modern make use of a piece of Herero oral nation – need to be explored in order tradition. Oral tradition is very rarely to better understand some of the looked at when talking about the social and cultural, symbolic and land question in Namibia. However, emotional aspects of the land 3 oral tradition, oral history and orature question. In illustration, I will focus on have become important sources for the Herero-speaking community of historic, sociological, anthropological central Namibia and an area the and literary research in Southern community regards as its ancestral 4 Africa during the last decade ; they land, namely a zone south of the contain not only information about Waterberg in the north-eastern portion the past, but also a great deal of of central Namibia. interpretative, metaphorical and even controversial comments on The area in question has very recently the past from the perspective of the been the focus of public debates. 5 community concerned . It also served as the venue for the 3 Oral literature 4 For some of the many examples, see Brinkman et al. (1999), Darian-Smith et al. (1996), Hofmeyr (1993), and Vail et al. (1991). 5 Of course, written sources should not be taken as presenting pure, undisputable and undistorted facts and information any more than oral sources should. Both are influenced by their