Abstract
This chapter allows insight into the intricate relation between landscape and memory. The om i stan d u – this is the Otjiherero term for these praises – are part of Ovaherero, Ovahimba, and Ovatjimba oral traditions. They are highly valued among the pastoral people of Kaokoland in northwestern Namibia for their aesthetic as well as for their historical and political content (see Figure 18.1). Otjiherero praises allude to the collective memory of the community and enshrine what the community has estimated is of importance to remember. As such they constitute an essential part of oral history. They refer to historic events and persons and link these to specific places and landscape features. They further condense information on genealogies and resources and although on the surface they address relations between people and land, the praises have strong political connotations through their reference to the past tenure system. Last but not least they provide insight into the perceptions and the aesthetic sense of a pastoral people. With a special focus on praises of places this chapter aims, in the first instance to illuminate the special structure of the om i stan d u and to highlight their content. A second aim is to draw upon the representation of landscape features as well as on the poetry in such praises. How are landscape and other features remembered and represented by Kaokoland’s pastoralists? Furthermore, the ways in which memory is linked with places and landscape features are discussed. How far is the recited collective memory spatialised and in which way is the reference to spatialised collective memory of importance for recent debates in the Otjiherero speaking community of Kaokoland?
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- 1.
The term ‘Kaokoland’ became commonly used during South African rule when it referred to the homeland ‘Kaokoland’ stretching over an area that nowadays comprises the northern administrative unit of the Kunene Region, divided up into different constituencies (Epupa, Opuwo, and Sesfontein). As the inhabitants of the Northern Kunene Region refer to themselves as ‘Kaokolanders’, as inhabitants of ‘Kaokoland’, or simply ’‘Kaoko’ this article will chapter likewise refers to this self-chosen label (see Friedman, 2004).
- 2.
The prefix ‘omu-‘ determines the singular form of the first class in Otjiherero while whereas ‘ova-‘ is prefixed to express the plural form of this class that mostly encompasses human beings. ‘Otji-‘ belongs to the 7th seventh class and determinates mainly things.
- 3.
Translated from French (‘lieux de mémoire’) into English (‘memory-place’) (Flores, 1998).
- 4.
When differentiating the two terms ‘place’ and ‘space’, the latter is mostly defined according to the Cartesian concept as ‘infinite’ and ‘empty’ bearing meaningful ‘places’ which are thus ‘concrete’ and ‘filled’. There are, however, other approaches which define the terms in another way and thus ‘place’ as ‘general’ from which ‘space’ is derived. The article chapter makes use of ‘place’ as ‘meaningful’ and ‘concrete’ as treated in the here- mentioned theoretical approaches and to which the article chapter refers to. Although it has to be mentioned that the term ‘spatialization’ spatialisation’ is not best chosen and ‘placializsation’ ‘ keeps to the point better. For discussions on the differentiation of ‘place’ and ‘space’ see, for instance, Feld & Basso (1996) or Low & Lawrence-Zúñiga (2003).
- 5.
The term ‘Ovatjimba’ is allegedly derived from the Otjiherero noun ‘ondjimbandjimba’ ‘ (‘antbear’), because the Ovatjimba were said to dig their food from the soil like the antbear does. For early sources about this labelling see, for example, van Warmelo (1962).
- 6.
- 7.
Möhlig (2000) gives linguistic evidence for this migration of Otjiherero pastoralists.
- 8.
In Yolngu ontogeny Morhpy (1995) states a similar precedence of place over time which was created ‘through the transformation of ancestral beings into place, the place being for ever the mnemonic device of the event’.
- 9.
Traditionally, the Otjiherero- speaking pastoralists named different time periods according to important events such as droughts, raids, or the death of important personalities. This ‘calendar’ thus can be considered as a conceptual time frame which beside in addition to genealogical sources serves as a point of reference. Thanks to the work of Gibson (1977) and van Warmelo (1962) who set up a chronology of the ‘named years’ and accorded them to the Western time frame, it can sometimes be figured out when somebody lived or something happened.
- 10.
This absorption of time into space is a special characteristic of the om i stan d u although it is also noticeable in the way that the people talk about the past in other contexts when past events are summed up under ‘rukuru rukuru’ (‘long long ago’).
- 11.
As shown in the next chapter section <AU: OK? > there are some expressions that are very common in om i stan d u and whose meaning can be ‘decoded’ in a proper sense. Apart from these there is no proper ‘code’ that can be decoded although a deep understanding of Kaokoland’s pastoralists’s tradition and the informants’ explanations are necessary to get a grip on the content.
- 12.
One author is a native speaker of Otjiherero and long accustomed with the local tradition as he was born and bred in Kaokofeld. He started the systematic collection and analysis of om i stan d u in 1998 during a three3three month fieldwork, a process that is still continuing today. The other author conducted anthropological fieldwork from September to -December 2005 and March-– to June 2007 and also still continues to collect and analyze om i stan d u.
- 13.
Ohandungu is a village that is to be found 40 km northeast of Opuwo.
- 14.
In the ancestral belief of the Ovaherero, Ovahimba, and Ovatjimba, respectively, graves play an important role in various rites and ceremonies (Bollig, 1997b,; 1998,; 2001,; this volume; Kavari, 2004; Van Wolputte, 1998). The distribution of graves on the ancestral land can further have implications for belonging and land ownership (see Bollig, this volume).
- 15.
The Ovaherero, Ovahimba, and Ovatjimba practice a double descent that divides into patriclan (oruzo) and matriclan (eanda).Whereas the inheritance of possessions is mostly operated along the matrilineage, religious duties and posts are inherited by the patrilineage. In this most of the cattle is inherited from the mother’s brother. The brothers of a father are though addressed as ‘father’ and the sisters of a mother as ‘mother’. For further information concerning the double descent see Van Wolputte (1998). Kavari (2002b) and Bollig (2004, this volume) give extensive insights into inheritance in Ovaherero and Ovahimba tradition.
- 16.
For an exhaustive examination of the symbolic meaning of butterfat and bodily praxis among the Ovahimba see Van Wolputte (1998).
- 17.
- 18.
A conservancy is a non-profit organization that is community- based and aims to preserve the natural resources that are collectively managed in the registered area (RO0N, 1996).
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Kavari, J., Bleckmann, L.E. (2009). Otjiherero Praises of Places. 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_18
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