Abstract
In the 1970s the land along the Kavango River in Northern Namibia was entirely cleared of its inhabitants. The people of Mangarangandja and Sarasungu, east of the small town of Rundu, were all taken to Kaisosi and Kehemu, two locations that later grew into sprawling communities. Quite a few of those removed were immigrants from southeast Angola in the region collectively known as ‘Nyemba’. This chapter deals with the ways in which Angolan immigrants remember their home country, their former Namibian home near the river, and their assessment of the landscape in their current abode. It is argued that it is impossible to assume landscape as being outside of politics, culture, and history. Instead, it is proposed to view landscape as a feature firmly embedded in the context in which it is spoken about.
Although the forced removals were greatly resented at the time, Angolan immigrants hardly referred to their former abode in Namibia. In the memories of their former homes, they focus on their homeland Angola rather than on Mangarangandja or Sarasungu. Their homeland is recalled as an area of agricultural bounty, a land with fertile soil and many rivers. Invariably they complain about Namibia’s infertile dry soils and compare them negatively to their well-watered fields in Angola. In this nostalgic framework, their former Namibian abode, although situated near the Kavango River hardly features: only Angolan rivers are remembered well.
When speaking about the history of Kaisosi and Kehemu, many immigrants stress that they were the ones who had actually built the locations. It is emphasised that the area was formerly bush and that all the houses were built by Angolan immigrants. Such statements establish the Angolan immigrants as agents in the transformation of a ‘landscape of suffering’ to human settlement and challenge the opposition between immigrants and owners, which the Angolans feel is used against them by Namibian inhabitants of the region.
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‘Will julle in kampte bly wat die Boere vir julle maak? Wil julle julle bessittings verloor soos julle beeste, hulle maak ook kampe vir julle beeste. Hoe noem ons dit as hulle jou in ’n plek sit waar jy nie wil he nie en hy wat dit vir jou gee is nie syne nie. As julle kyk na die BANTOESTAN wat dink julle? Dit is die kampe en dit is Ballingskap, broerders, mans en vrouens kom, die stem roep julle’ [all errors in Afrikaans and in the translation into English are either in the original letter or in Likuwa] Namibia National Archive, Windhoek, Native Affairs Reports 1/1/55, Native Affairs Reports 9, Vol: 13, Swapo letter dated 1-–1-–1970 quoted in: Likuwa, 2005, p. 83.
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Arquivos Nacionais, Torre Do Tombo, Pide/Dgs, Delegação de Angola, P.Inf. 110.00.30, vol. 21, p. 217; Luanda, 12 May 1972 (Zambia Daily Mail, 25 April 1972); idem, vol. 9, pp. 108-–109, 111-–114: Luanda, 12 March 1967; Interview 12; Jonas Savimbi (1934-–2002) was the long-time leader of UNITA, the movement that opposed the MPLA government in Angola since independence.
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Acknowledgements
Research for this chapter was carried out within the framework of the SFB project ACACIA of the University of Cologne, Germany, funded by the DFG. I wish to acknowledge the help of all the people interviewed, Rebecca Kastherody and Dominga Antonio for their work as research assistants, and Michael Bollig, Heike Behrend, Patricia Hayes, Jeremy Silvester, and Robert Ross for their welcome suggestions on the work. It goes without saying, however, that only I can be held responsible for its contents.
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Brinkman, I. (2009). Landscape and Nostalgia. In: Bubenzer, O., Bollig, M. (eds) African Landscapes. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, vol 4. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78682-7_10
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