The area of the Etosha National Park in Namibia has been inhabited for many centuries by Haiǁom, ... more The area of the Etosha National Park in Namibia has been inhabited for many centuries by Haiǁom, a group of (now former) hunter-gatherers. In 1907, Etosha was proclaimed as a game reserve, although Haiǁom were still allowed to live in the area until they were expelled in the 1950s due to then-dominant ideas of fortress conservation. In recent years, Haiǁom have been provided with several resettlement farms by the Namibian government as a reaction to the colonial land dispossession. In this article, I explore the onto-epistemology of Haiǁom (i.e. their being in and knowing the Etosha area), focusing on their relations with the land and with human and beyond-the-human beings before their eviction. I argue that the eviction implies not only economic marginalization but also social deprivation, which is inadequately addressed with resettlement. I suggest that thinking with relations, illustrated with the Haiǁom case, would call for other solutions in the context of measures taken for past land dispossessions and would open new paths for Namibia's nature conservation initiatives.
Journal article by Ute Dieckmann; Nomadic Peoples, 2001
... by Ute Dieckmann. ... reform of policy and legislation with implementation at community level... more ... by Ute Dieckmann. ... reform of policy and legislation with implementation at community level' (Jones 1999: 2). Similar developments towards involving local people in natural resource management can be observed in other countries of southern Africa (Hohmann 2000:13). ...
In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different ways of looking at the same environment,... more In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different ways of looking at the same environment, that is, the Etosha National Park in north-central Namibia. I portray the view of the western tourists visiting the area and on the other hand the perspective of the Hai||om, a San group which up to the 1950s resided within the park area and lived predominantly from hunting and gathering. It is argued that the perspectives – the spectator’s view and, following Ingold’s terminology (Ingold, 2000 , p. 189), the ‘dweller’s perspective’ – are influenced by long-established cultural concepts and by the mode in which space is experienced and engaged. Both factors, the conceptualisation of and the engagement with space, are closely intertwined and have to be contextualised politically and historically in order to arrive at meaningful explanations of landscape visions and comprehension. The tourists’ view is shaped by the Western aesthetical perspective of landscapes and a broad idea of how Afr...
On behalf of a Danish organisation (Charapa Consult), in 2012 the Legal Assistance Centre in Wind... more On behalf of a Danish organisation (Charapa Consult), in 2012 the Legal Assistance Centre in Windhoek undertook a research study on climate change and indigenous people in Namibia. Charapa Consult had itself been commissioned by the World Bank Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development to undertake a regional research project in Africa, and parallel studies for Asia and Latin America had also been commissioned. As a researcher involved in the Namibia study, in this essay I critically assess its methodological challenges and dilemmas in relation to the global framework within which it was conducted. I place special emphasis on the predicament of short-term 'participatory' research with indigenous communities on climate change. I also outline the challenges arising from the necessity of squeezing indigenous environmental knowledge and experience into internationally acknowledged scientific frameworks, an approach which implies a subordination of indigenous peoples' ontologies to western ontologies. The compartmentalising necessitated by such a methodology risks
... National Park, Namibia Ute Dieckmann In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different... more ... National Park, Namibia Ute Dieckmann In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different ways of looking at the same environment, that is, the Etosha National Park in north-central Namibia. ... Figure 13.1. Photo Pan (Ute Dieckmann, 2007) (See also Color Plates) ...
... by Ute Dieckmann. ... reform of policy and legislation with implementation at community level... more ... by Ute Dieckmann. ... reform of policy and legislation with implementation at community level' (Jones 1999: 2). Similar developments towards involving local people in natural resource management can be observed in other countries of southern Africa (Hohmann 2000:13). ...
ABSTRACT The eviction of the Hai||om from their ancestral homesteads in the Etosha Game Reserve i... more ABSTRACT The eviction of the Hai||om from their ancestral homesteads in the Etosha Game Reserve in 1954 marked de facto the end of their traditional way of living in a landscape that remains unique and fascinating to this day. Five decades after this decision, which was made by the South West Africa Administration, a project was initiated to document the remaining traditional knowledge about wildlife and its role in the subsistence of the San that once inhabited the southeastern Etosha. The respected elders Hans Haneb, Willem Dauxab, Kadisen ||Khumub and Jakob |Uibeb shared their knowledge about game animals and their exploitation for food with us. Oral history also focussed on the hunters’ equipment, hunting methods, game dressing, and meat distribution, preparation and consumption including the taboos associated with these activities. Information on the use of raw materials of animal origin for manufacturing commodities and in folk medicine has been compiled as well. A small-scale excavation at the site of ‡Homob was carried out parallel to this ethnohistorical approach to test whether certain aspects of the socio-cultural behaviour of the Hai||om had left identifi able remnants in the archaeological record of the Etosha. This indeed proved to be the case. A cross-cultural comparison of the data generated in the frame of this project with those from 20th century San peoples living in the Kalahari revealed many parallels as well as some marked differences. This comparison not only illustrates the adaptiveness and behavioural diversity of the hunter-gatherer-societies formerly inhabiting arid southern Africa, but also underscores the uniqueness of the Hai||om culture of the Etosha, embedded in a contradictory context of a traditional mode of life and colonial policy developments
The eviction of the Hai||om from their ancestral homesteads in the Etosha Game Reserve in 1954 ma... more The eviction of the Hai||om from their ancestral homesteads in the Etosha Game Reserve in 1954 marked de facto the end of their traditional way of living in a landscape that remains unique and fascinating to this day. Five decades after this decision, which was made by the South West Africa Administration, a project was initiated to document the remaining traditional knowledge about wildlife and its role in the subsistence of the San that once inhabited the southeastern Etosha. The respected elders Hans Haneb, Willem Dauxab, Kadisen ||Khumub and Jakob |Uibeb shared their knowledge about game animals and their exploitation for food with us. Oral history also focussed on the hunters’ equipment, hunting methods, game dressing, and meat distribution, preparation and consumption including the taboos associated with these activities. Information on the use of raw materials of animal origin for manufacturing commodities and in folk medicine has been compiled as well. A small-scale excavati...
The area of the Etosha National Park in Namibia has been inhabited for many centuries by Haiǁom, ... more The area of the Etosha National Park in Namibia has been inhabited for many centuries by Haiǁom, a group of (now former) hunter-gatherers. In 1907, Etosha was proclaimed as a game reserve, although Haiǁom were still allowed to live in the area until they were expelled in the 1950s due to then-dominant ideas of fortress conservation. In recent years, Haiǁom have been provided with several resettlement farms by the Namibian government as a reaction to the colonial land dispossession. In this article, I explore the onto-epistemology of Haiǁom (i.e. their being in and knowing the Etosha area), focusing on their relations with the land and with human and beyond-the-human beings before their eviction. I argue that the eviction implies not only economic marginalization but also social deprivation, which is inadequately addressed with resettlement. I suggest that thinking with relations, illustrated with the Haiǁom case, would call for other solutions in the context of measures taken for past land dispossessions and would open new paths for Namibia's nature conservation initiatives.
Journal article by Ute Dieckmann; Nomadic Peoples, 2001
... by Ute Dieckmann. ... reform of policy and legislation with implementation at community level... more ... by Ute Dieckmann. ... reform of policy and legislation with implementation at community level' (Jones 1999: 2). Similar developments towards involving local people in natural resource management can be observed in other countries of southern Africa (Hohmann 2000:13). ...
In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different ways of looking at the same environment,... more In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different ways of looking at the same environment, that is, the Etosha National Park in north-central Namibia. I portray the view of the western tourists visiting the area and on the other hand the perspective of the Hai||om, a San group which up to the 1950s resided within the park area and lived predominantly from hunting and gathering. It is argued that the perspectives – the spectator’s view and, following Ingold’s terminology (Ingold, 2000 , p. 189), the ‘dweller’s perspective’ – are influenced by long-established cultural concepts and by the mode in which space is experienced and engaged. Both factors, the conceptualisation of and the engagement with space, are closely intertwined and have to be contextualised politically and historically in order to arrive at meaningful explanations of landscape visions and comprehension. The tourists’ view is shaped by the Western aesthetical perspective of landscapes and a broad idea of how Afr...
On behalf of a Danish organisation (Charapa Consult), in 2012 the Legal Assistance Centre in Wind... more On behalf of a Danish organisation (Charapa Consult), in 2012 the Legal Assistance Centre in Windhoek undertook a research study on climate change and indigenous people in Namibia. Charapa Consult had itself been commissioned by the World Bank Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development to undertake a regional research project in Africa, and parallel studies for Asia and Latin America had also been commissioned. As a researcher involved in the Namibia study, in this essay I critically assess its methodological challenges and dilemmas in relation to the global framework within which it was conducted. I place special emphasis on the predicament of short-term 'participatory' research with indigenous communities on climate change. I also outline the challenges arising from the necessity of squeezing indigenous environmental knowledge and experience into internationally acknowledged scientific frameworks, an approach which implies a subordination of indigenous peoples' ontologies to western ontologies. The compartmentalising necessitated by such a methodology risks
... National Park, Namibia Ute Dieckmann In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different... more ... National Park, Namibia Ute Dieckmann In this contribution I exemplarily analyse two different ways of looking at the same environment, that is, the Etosha National Park in north-central Namibia. ... Figure 13.1. Photo Pan (Ute Dieckmann, 2007) (See also Color Plates) ...
... by Ute Dieckmann. ... reform of policy and legislation with implementation at community level... more ... by Ute Dieckmann. ... reform of policy and legislation with implementation at community level' (Jones 1999: 2). Similar developments towards involving local people in natural resource management can be observed in other countries of southern Africa (Hohmann 2000:13). ...
ABSTRACT The eviction of the Hai||om from their ancestral homesteads in the Etosha Game Reserve i... more ABSTRACT The eviction of the Hai||om from their ancestral homesteads in the Etosha Game Reserve in 1954 marked de facto the end of their traditional way of living in a landscape that remains unique and fascinating to this day. Five decades after this decision, which was made by the South West Africa Administration, a project was initiated to document the remaining traditional knowledge about wildlife and its role in the subsistence of the San that once inhabited the southeastern Etosha. The respected elders Hans Haneb, Willem Dauxab, Kadisen ||Khumub and Jakob |Uibeb shared their knowledge about game animals and their exploitation for food with us. Oral history also focussed on the hunters’ equipment, hunting methods, game dressing, and meat distribution, preparation and consumption including the taboos associated with these activities. Information on the use of raw materials of animal origin for manufacturing commodities and in folk medicine has been compiled as well. A small-scale excavation at the site of ‡Homob was carried out parallel to this ethnohistorical approach to test whether certain aspects of the socio-cultural behaviour of the Hai||om had left identifi able remnants in the archaeological record of the Etosha. This indeed proved to be the case. A cross-cultural comparison of the data generated in the frame of this project with those from 20th century San peoples living in the Kalahari revealed many parallels as well as some marked differences. This comparison not only illustrates the adaptiveness and behavioural diversity of the hunter-gatherer-societies formerly inhabiting arid southern Africa, but also underscores the uniqueness of the Hai||om culture of the Etosha, embedded in a contradictory context of a traditional mode of life and colonial policy developments
The eviction of the Hai||om from their ancestral homesteads in the Etosha Game Reserve in 1954 ma... more The eviction of the Hai||om from their ancestral homesteads in the Etosha Game Reserve in 1954 marked de facto the end of their traditional way of living in a landscape that remains unique and fascinating to this day. Five decades after this decision, which was made by the South West Africa Administration, a project was initiated to document the remaining traditional knowledge about wildlife and its role in the subsistence of the San that once inhabited the southeastern Etosha. The respected elders Hans Haneb, Willem Dauxab, Kadisen ||Khumub and Jakob |Uibeb shared their knowledge about game animals and their exploitation for food with us. Oral history also focussed on the hunters’ equipment, hunting methods, game dressing, and meat distribution, preparation and consumption including the taboos associated with these activities. Information on the use of raw materials of animal origin for manufacturing commodities and in folk medicine has been compiled as well. A small-scale excavati...
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