Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Chiefs, Policing, and Vigilantes: “Cleaning Up” the Caprivi Borderland of Namibia

  • Chapter
State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Scholars examining practices of territorial control and administrative action in sub-Saharan Africa have in recent years drawn attention to the analytical problems of locating their proponents unambiguously within or outside the realm of the state (Lund 2001; Englebert 2002; Nugent 2002; Chabal and Daloz 1999; Bayart et al. 1999). This chapter analyzes situations in which state practices intersect with non-state practices in the sense of the state- (and donor-) sponsored outsourcing of policing functions to chiefs and vigilantes, where chiefs act as lower-tier representatives of state authority. My point of departure is an administrative reform introduced by the Namibian Minister of Home Affairs, Jerry Ekandjo, in August 2002, which took place in the town Bukalo in Namibia’s northeastern Caprivi Region. Bukalo is the residence of the chief of the Subiya people and his khuta (Silozi, council of chiefs and advisors).1

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Abrahams, Ray (1998) Vigilant Citizens. Vigilantism and the State, Oxford: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amnesty International (2001) Annual Report 2001: Namibia, retrieved from http://www.web.amnesty.org/web/ar2001.nsf accessed on May 15, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bayart, Jean-Francois, Steven Ellis, and Béatrice Hibou (1999) The Criminalization of the State in Africa, Oxford: James Currey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brogden, Mike (2004) Commentary: Community Policing: A Panacea from the West, in African Affairs, 103 (413): 635–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buur, Lars and Helene Maria Kyed (2006) Contested Sources of Authority: Re-claiming State Sovereignty by Formalising Traditional Authority in Mozambique, in Development and Change, 37 (4): 847–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buur, Lars and Steffen Jensen (2004) Introduction: Vigilantism and the Policing of Everyday Life in South Africa, in African Studies, 63 (2): 139–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chabal, Patrick and Jean-Pascal Daloz (1999) Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Das, Veena and Deborah Poole (2004) State and Its Margins. Comparative Ethnographies, in Veena Das and Deborah Poole (eds): Anthropology in the Margins of the State, Santa Fe: School of American Research Press and Oxford: James Currey: 3–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Economist (1999) “The Lozi Lost,” 352 (8135): 48.

    Google Scholar 

  • d’Engelbronner-Kolff, F.M. (1996) The People as Law-makers: The Juridical Foundation of the Legislative Power of Namibian Traditional Communities, in F.M. d’Engelbronner-Kolff,.O. Hinz, and J.L. Sindano (eds): Traditional Authority and Democracy in Southern Africa, Windhoek: New Namibia Books: 62–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Englebert, Pierre (2002) Born-again Buganda or the Limits of Traditional Resurgence in Africa, in Journal of Modern African Studies, 40 (3): 345–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisch, Maria (1996) Der Caprivizipfel während der Deutschen Zeit 1890–1914, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (1998) The Secessionist Movement in Caprivi: A Historical Perspective, Windhoek: Namibia Scientific Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flint, Lawrence (2003) State-building in Central Southern Africa: Citizenship and Subjectivity in Barotseland and Caprivi, in International Journal of African Historical Studies, 36 (2): 393–421.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fosse, Leif John (1996) Negotiating the Nation in Local Terms. Ethnicity and Nationalism in Eastern Caprivi, Namibia, Oslo: Unpublished MA thesis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, John T. (2005) Making Politics, Making History: Chiefship and the Post-Apartheid State in Namibia, in Journal of Southern African Studies, 31 (1): 23–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, Jeremy (forthcoming 2007) Chiefs, Politics and State Formation in Zambia’s Third Republic, in Björn Lindgren, and Maria Heimer (eds): Politicising Governance, Uppsala and Stockholm: Uppsala University and Almqvist & Wiksell International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Government Gazette of Namibia (1990) Police Act (No. 19 of 1990), Windhoek: Government Printer.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (1993) Immigration Control Act (No.7 of 1993), Windhoek: Government Printer.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (1997) Council of Traditional Leaders Act (No. 13 of 1997), Windhoek: Government Printer.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (2000) Traditional Authorities Act (No. 25 of 2000), Windhoek: Government Printer.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (2003) Community Courts Act (No. 10 of 2003), Windhoek: Government Printer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Government of Namibia News Archive (2000) Beware! Kavango Residents Warned, retrieved from http://www.grnnet.gov.na/News/Archive/2000/Oct2000/kav_residents.htm accessed on May 10, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (2002) Caprivi and Kavango Residents Urged to Remain Vigilant, retrieved from http://www.grnnet.gov.na/News/Archive/2002/August/Week3/caprivi.htm accessed on May 10, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hills, Alice (2000) Policing Africa. Internal Security and the Limits of Liberalization, Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kangumu, Bennett (2000) A Forgotten Corner of Namibia: Aspects of the History of the Caprivi Strip, 1939–1980, unpublished MA thesis at Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koelble, Thomas (2005) Democracy, Traditional Leadership and the International Economy in South Africa, CSSR Working Paper No. 114, Cape Town: Centre for Social Science Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kreike, Emmanuel (2004) Re-creating Eden. Land Use, Environment and Society in Southern Angola and Northern Namibia, Portsmouth: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kyed, Helene Maria (2007) The Politics of Policing. Recapturing “Zones of Confusion” in Rural Post-War Mozambique, in Lars Buur, Steffen Jensen, and Finn Stepputat (eds): The Security-Development Nexus. Expressions of Sovereignty and Securitization in Southern Africa, Uppsala and Cape Town: Nordic Africa Institute and HSRC Press: 132–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kyed, Helene Maria and Lars Buur (2006) Recognition and Democratisation: “New Roles” for Traditional Leaders in sub-Saharan Africa, Working Paper 2006:11, Copenhagen: Danish Institute for International Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lund, Christian (2001) Precarious Democratization and Local Dynamics in Niger: Micro-Politics in Zinder, in Development and Change, 32 (5): 845–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mamdani, Mahmood (1996) Citizen and Subject—Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Namibian, January 2000 to February 2006, retrieved from http://www.namibian.com.na accessed on January 28, 2000; August 29, 2000; May 9, 2003; October 4, 2004; June 17, 2005; December 13, 2005; February 7, 2006.

  • Namibia Red Cross Society (2000) Angolan Refugees, retrieved from http://www.ifrc.org/cgi/pdf_appeals.pl?99/369905r.pdf accessed on June 1, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nugent, Paul (2002) Smugglers, Secessionists & Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier. The Lie of the Borderlands Since 1914, Oxford: James Currey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyendwa, Mike (2001) Troubled Waters: Whatever Happened to Caprivi? in New African, 395: 36–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oomen, Barbara (2004) Vigilantism or Alternative Citizenship? The Rise of Mapogo a Mathamaga, in African Studies, 63 (2): 153–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruteere, Mutuma and Marie-Emanuelle Pommerole (2003): Democratizing Security or Decentralizing Repression: The Ambiguities of Community Policing in Kenya, in African Affairs, 102: 587–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SADC Today: http://www.sardc.net/editorial/sadctoday/v7-3-8-04/chiefs.htm accessed on May 17, 2005.

  • Scott, James (1998) Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Tailed, New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streitwolf, Kurt (1911) Der Caprivizipfe, Berlin: Süsseroth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeller, Wolfgang (2000) Interests and Socio-economic Development in the Caprivi Region from a Historical Perspective. NEPRU Occasional paper No. 19, Windhoek: Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Wolfgang Zeller
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark

    Lars Buur PhD (Senior Researcher and a Research Associate) & Helene Maria Kyed PhD candidate (Senior Researcher and a Research Associate) & 

  2. Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Lars Buur PhD (Senior Researcher and a Research Associate) (Senior Researcher and a Research Associate)

  3. Roskilde University, Denmark

    Helene Maria Kyed PhD candidate

Copyright information

© 2007 Lars Buur and Helene Maria Kyed

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Zeller, W. (2007). Chiefs, Policing, and Vigilantes: “Cleaning Up” the Caprivi Borderland of Namibia. In: Buur, L., Kyed, H.M. (eds) State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa. Palgrave Studies in Governance, Security, and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230609716_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation