Deforestation and reforestation in Namibia: the global consequences of local contradictions Kreike, E. Citation Kreike, E. (2010). Deforestation and reforestation in Namibia: the global consequences of local contradictions. Leiden: Brill. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/18538 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) License: Leiden University Non-exclusive license Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/18538 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). Deforestation and Reforestation in Namibia INSERT SERIES INFORMATION Deforestation and Reforestation in Namibia The global consequences of local contradictions Emmanuel Kreike Leiden 2009 Cover photo: Palisaded homestead in Ovamboland c. 1935 (National Archives of Namibia, Hahn Collection) INSERT COLOFON Contents Maps vii Photos vii Acknowledgments viii Abbreviations xi 1 Approaches to environmental change 1 Models of environmental change 3 The modernization paradigm 7 The declinist paradigm 9 The inclinist paradigm 13 Paradoxes of environmental change 15 2 Tree castles and population bombs 21 Tree castles and insecurity on the eve of colonial conquest 23 Portuguese violence and population fight into Ovamboland 27 Internal migration in South Africa’s Ovamboland 28 Tree castles and deforestation in the 1920s to 1940s 33 Colonial concerns about overpopulation and deforestation in the 1950s 35 Population growth in Ovamboland 37 Woody vegetation resources by the close of the twentieth century 40 3 Conquest of Nature: Imperial political ecologies 44 The political ecology of insecurity 47 Indirect environmental rule 49 The colonial conquest of Nature: Direct environmental rule 60 4 Fierce species: Biological imperialism 74 Invading microbes and virgin soil epizootics 75 Invading microbes and virgin soil epidemics 78 A plague of donkeys: Fierce invading equines 82 Fierce indigenous creatures on the rampage 90 5 Guns, hoes and steel: Techno-environmental determinism 101 Guns 102 Steel tools 108 Steel plows 113 Guns and steel in north-central Namibia 122 v 6 Naturalizing cattle culture: Colonialism as a deglobalizing and decommodifying force 124 The cattle complex and environmental degradation 126 Ovambo cattle as global commodities 128 Cattle, culture and nature 129 Overstocking and biological time bombs 133 Colonial barriers: Conservation and fences 137 Grazing pressure and desertification 139 Livestock and deforestation 141 Commodification, deglobalization and deforestation 142 7 The Palenque paradox: Beyond Nature-to-Culture 144 Bush cities and the bush 145 ‘Bushmen’ and the bush 151 8 The Ovambo paradox and environmental pluralism 159 Deforestation in Ovamboland 164 Reforestation in Ovamboland 167 Environmental pluralism: Multiprocessual asynchronous environmental change 170 Bibliography 177 Index 197 vi Maps 1 The Ovambo floodplain 17 2 Expansion into wilderness areas, 1910s-1960s 26 3 Settlement expansion into Eastern Ovamboland 29 4 Wildlife migration corridors 91 Photos 1 Mwanyangapa’s Baobab Castle, Ombalantu 1917 24 2 The Ombalantu Baobab, 1993 24 3 New homestead, c. 1928 165 4 Mature homestead and fields, 1993 168 vii Acknowledgments This book is the outcome of a long journey that began in 1990 at the Depart- ment of Forestry at Wageningen University under the guidance of Adriaan van Maaren, Marius Wessel, and Freerk Wiersum. It also owes much to my mentors at Yale University, especially Robert Harms, James Scott, and the late Robin Winks. I was fortunate to receive valuable feedback at a variety of wonderful venues where I presented drafts of the work, including meetings of the African Studies Association; the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University; the Davies Center of the History Department and the Princeton Environmental Institute, both at Princeton University; the Dutch CERES Research School for Resource Studies for Development; and the European Environmental History Association. The research in Namibia that informs the book was an intense and rewarding collaborative project. It was made possible by a doctoral dissertation fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, New York. Thanks to the linguistic, social, and geo-spatial skills of Jackson Hamatwi, a former teacher at St. Mary’s High School at Odibo, I was able to meet with many highly knowledgeable inhabitants in north-central Namibia who shared their experiences with and insights about environmental change with me. They include Julius Abraham, Kaulipondwa Tuyenikalao Augustaf, Abisai Dula, Philippus Haidima, Kulau- moni Haifeke, Helaliah Hailonda, Nahango Hailonga, Mwulifundja Linekela Haiyaka, Alpheus Hamundja, Hendrik Hamunime, Helemiah Hamutenya, Kanime Hamyela, Shangeshapwako Rachela Hauladi, Juliah Hauwuulu, Israel Hendjala, Francisca Herman, Monika Hidengwa, Petrus Shanika Hipetwa, Matias Kafita, Moses Kakoto, Malita Kalomo, Joseph Kambangula, Gabriel Kautwima, Mathias Malaula, Magdalena Malonde, Islael Mbuba, Petrus Mbubi, Kaulikalelwa Oshitina Muhonghwo, Moses Mundjele, Helivi Mungandjela, Joshua Mutilifa, Kalolina Naholo, Helena Nailonga, Timotheus Nakale, Ester Nande, Paulus Nandenga, Matteus Nangobe, Emilia Nusiku Nangolo, Elisabeth Ndemutela, Werner Nghionanye, Joseph Nghudika, Louisa Palanga, Pauline, Lea Paulus, Marcus Paulus, Vittoria Petrus, Lydia Polopolo, Twemuna Shifidi, Erastus Shilongo, Johannes Shipunda, Joseph Shuya, Selma Tobias, Salome Tushimbeni, Paulus Wanakashimba, and Maria Weyulu. Many in Namibia in addition to the elders who were interviewed welcomed me into their homes and shared their ideas with me. I would especially like to viii thank Dr. Peter and Jane Katjavivi, Bishop and Sally Kauluma, the late Michael Hishikushitja, and Joseph Hailwa, the Director of the Department of Forestry. At Ogongo Agricultural College in Namibia, Haveeshe Nekongo, Arne Lars- sen, Carlos Salinas, and their colleagues and students contributed greatly to the project, not in the least through assisting in developing and administering the Ovamboland Multi-Purpose Investigation for Tree-use Improvement (OMITI) household survey. The support of the Namibian Directorate of Forestry, the Dutch Embassy in Namibia, and IBIS-Denmark made the OMITI survey finan- cially and logistically possible. Various archives, including the Historical Archive of Angola in Luanda, the Archive for Overseas History in Lisbon, the Archive of the Missionary Holy Ghost Congregation in Paris, the United Evangelical Mission in Wuppertal- Barmen, and especially the National Archives of Namibia in Windhoek pro- vided rich data on the environmental past of the Ovambo floodplain and the surrounding region. The late Brigitte Lau and Werner Hillebrecht, respectively the former and the current director of the National Archives of Namibia, were immensely helpful. I would also like to thank my colleagues at Princeton University, including Robert Tignor, Peter Brown, William Jordan, Angela Creager, as well as those beyond the Orange tower, including William Beinart, Peter Boomgaard, Steve Feierman, Peter Geschiere, K.E. Giller, P. Hebinck, Susanna Hecht, Andrew Isenberg, Robert Papstein, Petra van Dam, J.W.M. van Dijk, and Louis Warren, whose moral and intellectual support has been very important. I am also grateful to Dick Foeken and Jan-Bart Gewald of the African Studies Centre (Afrika- Studiecentrum), Leiden; to two anonymous readers commissioned by the ASC and Brill; as well as to Gavin Lewis, Carol L. Martin, Joed Elich from Brill, and Markus Wiener from Markus Wiener Publishers for their invaluable advice in turning the manuscript into a book. Tsering Wangyal Shawa, GIS Librarian at the Geosciences Library, Princeton University, helped me with the maps. Sections of earlier versions of chapters 1, 7, and 8 appeared as “The Nature- Culture Trap: A Critique of Late 20th Century Global Paradigms of Environ- mental Change,” in Global Environment: A Journal of History and Natural Sciences 1 (2008): 114-145. A part of chapter 6 appeared as “De-Globalisation and Deforestation in Colonial Africa: Closed Markets, the Cattle Complex, and Environmental Change in North-Central Namibia, 1890-1990,” in Journal of Southern African Studies 35(1) (2009): 81-98. An earlier version of chapter 7 appeared as “The Palenque Paradox: Bush Cities, Bushmen, and the Bush,” in A.C. Isenberg (ed.), The Nature of Cities: Culture, Landscape, and Urban Space, Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton Univer- sity, Studies in Comparative History (Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 2006), pp. 159-174. ix Light is critical to creating and sustaining physical and intellectual life. I am grateful to my parents Hermanus Kreike and Grace Kreike-Tak, my teachers, and my fellow students for instilling me with a love for study and to my grand- parents Paulus and Adriana Tak for instilling in me a love for the land. My spouse, Dr. Carol Lynn Martin, and our children Hermanus Clay and Eleanora Grace, are my suns and my moons. It is to Carol that I dedicate this study. x Abbreviations A233 Accessions: Chapman Collection A450 Accessions: Carl Hugo Linsingen Hahn Papers AGCSSp Archives Générales de la Congrégation du Saint-Esprit (Central Archives of the Holy Spirit Congregation, Paris) AGR South West Africa Administration: Directorate of Agriculture AHU Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Archive for Overseas History, Lisbon) ANC Assistant Native Affairs Commissioner ANCO Assistant Native Affairs Commissioner Ovamboland AVEM Archiv der Vereinigten Evangelischen Mission (Archives of the