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Title: | People and the Environment in Colonial Namibia |
Author: | Botha, Chris |
Year: | 2005 |
Periodical: | South African Historical Journal |
Issue: | 52 |
Pages: | 170-190 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Namibia |
Subjects: | environmental history environmental policy environmental management colonial period Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) colonialism History and Exploration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology Ethnic and Race Relations |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582470509464869 |
Abstract: | The point of departure for understanding Namibia's environmental history during the colonial period is to appreciate that it was pervaded by European perceptions of toil to tame a hostile landscape. Virtually absent was an awareness of the 'indigenous impacts' and signs of 'non-European occupation'. A second feature of this history is that Namibia largely lacked the environmental activism and growing expertise encountered in British overseas territories, including South Africa. Furthermore, the environmental history of colonial Namibia is less about study of the natural environment and appropriate responses than about political management. Following brief sections on 19th-century Namibia, the German period (1884-1915), and the South African era (1920-1950), the bulk of this article addresses the modern era (1950-1990). For this period, it discusses the failure of soil conservation schemes; the 'uneasy marriage' between game conservation, tourism and parks; the absence of government interventionist policies with respect to black farming communities and African reserves; the exclusion of Africans from game reserves and their wildlife resources; and explanations for the failure of colonial environmental policies. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |