Jan-Bart Gewald
Biographic Data
| ID | 148775 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jan-Bart Gewald |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jan-Bart |
| FAMILY NAME | Gewald |
| SIGNATURE | GEWALD J |
| AFFILIATIONS | African Studies Centre |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2399-9852 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 141 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 5 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Practice of War: Production, Reproduction and Communication of Armed Violence
The fact is that war comes in many guises and its effects continue to be felt long after peace is proclaimed. This challenges the anthropologists who write of war as participant observers. Participant observation inevitably deals with the here and now, with the highly specific. It is only over the long view that one can begin to see the commonalities that emerge from the different forms of conflict and can begin to generalize. [From the Introduct…
Nature Conservation in Southern Africa: Morality and Marginality: Towards Sentient Conservation?
Nature conservation in southern Africa has always been characterised by an interplay between Capital, specific understandings of Morality, and forms of Militarism, that are all dependent upon the shared subservience and marginalization of animals and certain groups of people in society. Although the subjectivity of people has been rendered visible in earlier publications on histories of conservation in southern Africa, the subjectivity of animals…
African Roads to Prosperity: People en Route to Socio-Cultural and Economic Transformations
African Roads to Prosperity: People En Route to Socio-Cultural and Economic Transformations
This volume is the result of a joint collaborative research project undertaken at the African Studies Centre with colleagues in Africa that was entitled 'Roads to Prosperity and Their Social Zones of Transit' . The project sought to gain an understanding of the emergence and transformation of certain places in Africa that became marked as spaces of transit for people in search of better socioeconomic prospects. When people travelled long distance…
Wenela, Katima Mulilo, a Zone of Transit in Barotseland: The Development of a Holding Zone for Migrants on the Extreme Frontier of the South African Empire
My favourite source is the landscape.” An interview with Robert Ross
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Transforming Innovations in Africa: Explorative Studies on Appropriation in African Societies
Africa abounds with examples of material and immaterial innovations that were envisaged, developed and designed elsewhere yet came to be innovatively and sometimes unexpectedly transformed in Africa. The authors in this volume explore how external innovations (products, technologies, services, institutions and processes) have been appropriated in African societies in order to be acceptable and relevant to local conditions, expectations and demand…
Living the End of Empire: Politics and Society in Late Colonial Zambia
Living the End of Empire: Politics and Society in Late Colonial Zambia
Building on the foundational work of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, the essays contained in Living the End of Empire offer a nuanced and complex picture of the late-colonial period in Zambia. The present volume, based on untapped archival material and sources that have emerged in recent years, throws new light on some of the historical trajectories that the teleological gaze of nationalist scholars tended to ignore or belittle. By bringing to …
On Becoming a Chief in the Kaokoveld, Colonial Namibia, 1916–25
In 1916 a warlord named Oorlog – ‘war’, in Afrikaans – moved into the Kaokoveld in the far north-west of what is now Namibia, and drove off the original inhabitants. Shortly after, Oorlog was formally recognized as a chief by the newly established South African administration and elevated to the highest position of power in the Kaokoveld. This article, through investigating how Oorlog came to be elevated to this position of power, explores issues…
Speed of Change: Motor Vehicles and People in Africa, 1890-2000
Motor Vehicles And People In Africa: An Introduction
This chapter focuses on different effects the motor vehicle has had upon the economies, politics, societies and cultures of Africa. Motor vehicles have had a tremendous impact on politics in Africa, transforming the state as well as the way politics have come to be conducted. The colonial state relied heavily on motor vehicles for the extension and enforcement of its control at a symbolic and functional level. The chapter shows how the use of mot…
People, Mines And Cars: Towards A Revision Of Zambian History, 1890-1930
This chapter introduces the different forms of human muscle-powered transport that existed prior to the introduction of mechanized transport. It discusses the implications of the introduction of motor vehicles for these African societies. The chapter shows that Zambian rural impoverishment in the 1920s and 1930s was a consequence of a change in modes of transport and the collapse in long-distance trading networks based on human labour power. The …
Rumours of Mau Mau in Northern Rhodesia, 1950 – 1960
In 1950s Northern Rhodesia, present day Zambia, rumours abounded amongst the African population intimating that the white settlers and administration were extensively involved in witchcraft, cannibalism and blood-sucking. In turn, members of the white settler community believed very much the same with regard to the African population of the territory. The development of nationalist politics and the increasing unionization of African workers in co…
Mbadamassi of Lagos: A Soldier for King and Kaiser, and a Deportee to German South West Africa
In 1915 troops of the South African Union Defence Force invaded German South West Africa, present day Namibia. In the north of the territory the South African forces captured an African soldier serving in the German army named Mbadamassi. Upon his capture Mbadamassi demanded to be released and claimed that he was a British national from Nigeria. In addition, he stated that he had served in the West African Frontier Force, and that he had been sha…
The speed of change: Motor vehicles and people in Africa, 1890-2000
n\tIn the early 1900s the motor-vehicle (car, bus, lorry or motorcycle) was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially the plaything and symbol of colonial domination, the motor-vehicle transformed the economic and social life of the continent. Indeed, the motor-vehicle is arguably the single most important factor for change in Africa in the twentieth century. A factor for change that thus far has been neglected in research and literature. Yet i…
One Zambia, Many Histories: Towards a History of Post-colonial Zambia
In contrast to the rich tradition of academic analysis and understanding of the pre-colonial and colonial history of Zambia, the country's post-colonial trajectory has been all but ignored by historians. The assumptions of developmentalism, the cultural hegemony of the United National Independence Party's orthodoxy and its conflation with national interests, and a narrow focus on Zambia's diplomatic role in Southern African affairs, have all cont…
One Zambia, Many Histories: Towards a History of Post-colonial Zambia
Rumours of Mau Mau in Northern Rhodesia, 1950-1960
In 1950s Northern Rhodesia, present day Zambia, rumours abounded amongst the African population intimating that the white settlers and administration were extensively involved in witchcraft, cannibalism and blood-sucking. In turn, members of the white settler community believed very much the same with regard to the African population of the territory. The development of nationalist politics and the increasing unionization of African workers in co…
Colonial Warfare: Hehe and World War I, the Wars Besides Maji Maji in South-Western Tanzania
In the early 1920s the British colonial mandate authorities argued that the Iringa Highlands of south-western Tanzania were being underutilised, and thus recommended that the area be settled by Europeans. This article indicates that there are specific historical reasons why the highlands were underpopulated and appeared to be underutilised when British mandate authorities first surveyed the area. In particular the article draws attention to the i…
One Zambia, Many Histories: Towards a History of Post-Colonial Zambia
This book takes an impartial look at the postcolonial history of Zambia, examining political unity and dissent, the public role of religion (Roman Catholicism, the Charismatic churches, and Islam), the economy and the State, and new and old forms of politics in the Third Republic. It is the outcome of a conference organized by the network for Historical Research in Zambia, in Lusaka August 2005. There are contributions by Jan-Bart Gewald, Marja H…
Strength beyond Structure: Social and Historical Trajectories of Agency in Africa
This book explores the notion of agency in a range of empirical situations in Africa. Agency directs our quest for an understanding of the dynamics and social transformations of African situations to the domains of creativity, inventiveness and reflexivity. It emphasizes the possibilities individuals and social groups perceive when faced with the constraints that tend to mark African social life. The case studies provide an alternative view of pe…
Nachituti's Gift: Economy, society, and environment in Central Africa, by David M. Gordon
‘... a fishery is more than a theoretical economic model; it is a site of settlement, production, and exchange permeated with history, memory, and culture.’ (p. 199) This succinct book begins with a legend worthy of Greek mythology. This sets the scene for a thorough history of a fishery in central Africa, a history that situates and delineates access to resources and details their exploitation over 150 years. For over 600 km, before it flows int…
Researching and Writing in the Twilight of an Imagined Conquest: Anthropology in Northern Rhodesia 1930-1960
The rich corpus of material produced by the anthropologists of the Rhodes Livingstone Institute (RLI) has come to dominate our understanding of Zambian societies and Zambia's past. The RLI was primarily concerned with the socio-cultural effects of migrant labour. The paper argues that the anthropologists of the RLI worked from within a paradigm that was dominated by the experience of colonial conquest in South Africa. RLI anthropologists transfer…
On the Fringes of History: A Memoir (review)
Reviewed by: On the Fringes of History: A Memoir Jan-Bart Gewald Curtin, Philip D. 2005. On the Fringes of History: A Memoir. Athens: Ohio University Press. 216 pp. $24.95 (cloth). Following the autobiographies of Jan Vansina and Roland Oliver, Philip Curtin has now published an account of his life in association with African and world history. Naturally, having been preceded by two colossi, Curtin set himself a hard task to follow; unfortunately…
The speed of change: Motor vehicles and people in Africa, 1890-2000
n\tIn the early 1900s the motor-vehicle (car, bus, lorry or motorcycle) was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially the plaything and symbol of colonial domination, the motor-vehicle transformed the economic and social life of the continent. Indeed, the motor-vehicle is arguably the single most important factor for change in Africa in the twentieth century. A factor for change that thus far has been neglected in research and literature. Yet i…
Violence and Memory: One Hundred Years in the "Dark Forests" of Matabeleland
Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923
Jan-Bart Gewald, Herero Heroes: a socio-political history of the Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923. Oxford: James Currey, 1999, 320 pp., £40.00, ISBN 0 85255 754 X (hard covers), £14.95, ISBN 0 85255 749 3 (paperback). - Volume 71 Issue 4
Words Cannot Be Found: German Colonial Rule in Namibia: An Annotated Reprint of the 1918 Blue Book
The 1918 “Blue Book” Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and Their Treatment by Germany, is based on the voluntary statements taken under oath of no less than 50 African witnesses. This testimony was combined with numerous German colonial documents to produce, not only a stinging indictment of German colonial policy in German South West Africa, but also the first detailed eyewitness accounts of the first genocide of the twentieth century. …
Near Death in the Streets of Karibib: Famine, Migrant Labour and the Coming of Ovambo to Central Namibia
Namibian politics and society are today dominated by people who trace their descent from the settlements and homesteads of Ovamboland in southern Angola and northern Namibia. Yet, prior to 1915, and the defeat by South Africa of the German colonial army in German South-West Africa, very few Ovambo had settled in areas to the south of the Etosha Pan. In 1915, a Portuguese expeditionary army defeated Kwanyama forces in southern Angola, and unleashe…
Strength beyond Structure: Social and Historical Trajectories of Agency in Africa
This book explores the notion of agency in a range of empirical situations in Africa. Agency directs our quest for an understanding of the dynamics and social transformations of African situations to the domains of creativity, inventiveness and reflexivity. It emphasizes the possibilities individuals and social groups perceive when faced with the constraints that tend to mark African social life. The case studies provide an alternative view of pe…
Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923
Transforming Innovations in Africa: Explorative Studies on Appropriation in African Societies
Africa abounds with examples of material and immaterial innovations that were envisaged, developed and designed elsewhere yet came to be innovatively and sometimes unexpectedly transformed in Africa. The authors in this volume explore how external innovations (products, technologies, services, institutions and processes) have been appropriated in African societies in order to be acceptable and relevant to local conditions, expectations and demand…
On Becoming a Chief in the Kaokoveld, Colonial Namibia, 1916–25
In 1916 a warlord named Oorlog – ‘war’, in Afrikaans – moved into the Kaokoveld in the far north-west of what is now Namibia, and drove off the original inhabitants. Shortly after, Oorlog was formally recognized as a chief by the newly established South African administration and elevated to the highest position of power in the Kaokoveld. This article, through investigating how Oorlog came to be elevated to this position of power, explores issues…
Researching and Writing in the Twilight of an Imagined Conquest: Anthropology in Northern Rhodesia 1930-1960
The rich corpus of material produced by the anthropologists of the Rhodes Livingstone Institute (RLI) has come to dominate our understanding of Zambian societies and Zambia's past. The RLI was primarily concerned with the socio-cultural effects of migrant labour. The paper argues that the anthropologists of the RLI worked from within a paradigm that was dominated by the experience of colonial conquest in South Africa. RLI anthropologists transfer…
I Was Afraid of Samuel, Therefore I Came to Sekgoma’: Herero Refugees and Patronage Politics in Ngamiland, Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1890–1914
Writers dealing with the Herero of Botswana have tended mostly to deal with them as a single homogeneous whole. Concentrating on Ngamiland, this article outlines and discusses the arrival, at different times and for different reasons, of various groups of Herero into the territory. The article indicates that prior to the Herero–German war of 1904, the majority of Herero moved into Ngamiland on account of the activities of German colonizers and th…
Living the End of Empire: Politics and Society in Late Colonial Zambia
Building on the foundational work of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, the essays contained in Living the End of Empire offer a nuanced and complex picture of the late-colonial period in Zambia. The present volume, based on untapped archival material and sources that have emerged in recent years, throws new light on some of the historical trajectories that the teleological gaze of nationalist scholars tended to ignore or belittle. By bringing to …
Colonial Warfare: Hehe and World War I, the Wars Besides Maji Maji in South-Western Tanzania
In the early 1920s the British colonial mandate authorities argued that the Iringa Highlands of south-western Tanzania were being underutilised, and thus recommended that the area be settled by Europeans. This article indicates that there are specific historical reasons why the highlands were underpopulated and appeared to be underutilised when British mandate authorities first surveyed the area. In particular the article draws attention to the i…
Who killed Clemens Kapuuo
On Easter Monday 1978, Clemens Kapuuo, the paramount chief of the Ovaherero and leader of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance of Namibia, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in Windhoek. Although it never claimed credit for the assassination, the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was blamed for the killing. Shortly thereafter, on Ascension Day, the largest military operation undertaken by South Africa since the Second World Wa…
Missionaries, Hereros, and Motorcars: Mobility and the Impact of Motor Vehicles in Namibia before 1940
Jan-Bart Gewald, Missionaries, Hereros, and Motorcars: Mobility and the Impact of Motor Vehicles in Namibia before 1940, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2/3 (2002), pp. 257-285
We Thought We Would Be Free: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Herero History in Namibia, 1915-1940
El Negro, El Niño, Witchcraft and the Absence of Rain in Botswana
Journal Article EL NEGRO, EL NIÑO, WITCHCRAFT AND THE ABSENCE OF RAIN IN BOTSWANA Get access Jan‐Bart Gewald Jan‐Bart Gewald Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 100, Issue 401, 1 October 2001, Pages 555–580, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/100.401.555 Published: 01 October 2001
Making Tribes: Social Engineering in the Western Province of British-Administered Eritrea, 1941-1952
Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History - Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2000
Flags, funerals and fanfares: Herero and missionary contestations of the acceptable, 1900-1940
The article describes the contested relationship that existed between Herero people and German missionaries in Namibia between 1900 and 1940. It is argued that Herero converted to mission Christianity with specific aims and intentions, which were not necessarily the same as those envisaged or intended by German missionaries. The article highlights leisure time, commemorative activities and funerals, and indicates that Herero acquired specific for…
The Road of the Man Called Love and the Sack of Sero: The Herero–german War and the Export of Herero Labour to the South African Rand
ON the morning of 12 January 1904, shooting started in Okahandja, a small town in German South West Africa, present-day Namibia. When the Herero–German war finally ended four years later, Herero society, as it had existed prior to 1904, had been completely destroyed. In the genocidal war which developed, the Herero were either killed in battle, lynched, shot or beaten to death upon capture, or driven to death in the waterless wastes that make up …
The Issue of Forced Labour in the Onjembo: German South West Africa 1904–1908
Visitors to the sea-side resort of Swakopmund on the Namibian coast will have often stood on the northern banks of the Swakop river and marvelled at the sea of sand dunes that commences on the opposite side of the river. Very few of them will ever have realised that they were standing upon, and wandering amongst, the mass graves of Herero and Nama prisoners of war, who between 1904 and 1908 were employed as forced labourers. As I write the mass-g…
Towards Redemption: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia between 1890 and 1923
The Road of the Man Called Love and the Sack of Sero: The Herero–german War and the Export of Herero Labour to the South African Rand
ON the morning of 12 January 1904, shooting started in Okahandja, a small town in German South West Africa, present-day Namibia. When the Herero–German war finally ended four years later, Herero society, as it had existed prior to 1904, had been completely destroyed. In the genocidal war which developed, the Herero were either killed in battle, lynched, shot or beaten to death upon capture, or driven to death in the waterless wastes that make up …
Towards Redemption: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia between 1890 and 1923
Making Tribes: Social Engineering in the Western Province of British-Administered Eritrea, 1941-1952
Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History - Volume 1, Number 2, Winter 2000
Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia 1890-1923
Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923
We Thought We Would Be Free: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Herero History in Namibia
Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923
Jan-Bart Gewald, Herero Heroes: a socio-political history of the Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923. Oxford: James Currey, 1999, 320 pp., £40.00, ISBN 0 85255 754 X (hard covers), £14.95, ISBN 0 85255 749 3 (paperback). - Volume 71 Issue 4
El Negro, El Niño, Witchcraft and the Absence of Rain in Botswana
Journal Article EL NEGRO, EL NIÑO, WITCHCRAFT AND THE ABSENCE OF RAIN IN BOTSWANA Get access Jan‐Bart Gewald Jan‐Bart Gewald Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 100, Issue 401, 1 October 2001, Pages 555–580, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/100.401.555 Published: 01 October 2001
Violence and Memory: One Hundred Years in the "Dark Forests" of Matabeleland
I Was Afraid of Samuel, Therefore I Came to Sekgoma’: Herero Refugees and Patronage Politics in Ngamiland, Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1890–1914
Writers dealing with the Herero of Botswana have tended mostly to deal with them as a single homogeneous whole. Concentrating on Ngamiland, this article outlines and discusses the arrival, at different times and for different reasons, of various groups of Herero into the territory. The article indicates that prior to the Herero–German war of 1904, the majority of Herero moved into Ngamiland on account of the activities of German colonizers and th…
Missionaries, Hereros, and Motorcars: Mobility and the Impact of Motor Vehicles in Namibia before 1940
Jan-Bart Gewald, Missionaries, Hereros, and Motorcars: Mobility and the Impact of Motor Vehicles in Namibia before 1940, The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2/3 (2002), pp. 257-285
We Thought We Would Be Free: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Herero History in Namibia, 1915-1940
Flags, funerals and fanfares: Herero and missionary contestations of the acceptable, 1900-1940
The article describes the contested relationship that existed between Herero people and German missionaries in Namibia between 1900 and 1940. It is argued that Herero converted to mission Christianity with specific aims and intentions, which were not necessarily the same as those envisaged or intended by German missionaries. The article highlights leisure time, commemorative activities and funerals, and indicates that Herero acquired specific for…
Words Cannot Be Found: German Colonial Rule in Namibia: An Annotated Reprint of the 1918 Blue Book
The 1918 “Blue Book” Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and Their Treatment by Germany, is based on the voluntary statements taken under oath of no less than 50 African witnesses. This testimony was combined with numerous German colonial documents to produce, not only a stinging indictment of German colonial policy in German South West Africa, but also the first detailed eyewitness accounts of the first genocide of the twentieth century. …
Near Death in the Streets of Karibib: Famine, Migrant Labour and the Coming of Ovambo to Central Namibia
Namibian politics and society are today dominated by people who trace their descent from the settlements and homesteads of Ovamboland in southern Angola and northern Namibia. Yet, prior to 1915, and the defeat by South Africa of the German colonial army in German South-West Africa, very few Ovambo had settled in areas to the south of the Etosha Pan. In 1915, a Portuguese expeditionary army defeated Kwanyama forces in southern Angola, and unleashe…
Global Media and Violence in Africa: The Case of Somalia
It has been argited that Africa has been sidelined in the global ICT revolution and that African societies appear to be cut off from global flows of Information. Nevertheless, the manner in which war was waged in Somalia between 1991 and 1994 indicates that this global revolution has affected the manner in which war has come to be waged in Africa. African societies may indeed be cut off from owning and controlling the streams of images that refle…
Words Cannot Be Found. German Colonial Rule in Namibia: An Annotated Report of the 1918 Blue Book
Who killed Clemens Kapuuo
On Easter Monday 1978, Clemens Kapuuo, the paramount chief of the Ovaherero and leader of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance of Namibia, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in Windhoek. Although it never claimed credit for the assassination, the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was blamed for the killing. Shortly thereafter, on Ascension Day, the largest military operation undertaken by South Africa since the Second World Wa…
On the Fringes of History: A Memoir (review)
Reviewed by: On the Fringes of History: A Memoir Jan-Bart Gewald Curtin, Philip D. 2005. On the Fringes of History: A Memoir. Athens: Ohio University Press. 216 pp. $24.95 (cloth). Following the autobiographies of Jan Vansina and Roland Oliver, Philip Curtin has now published an account of his life in association with African and world history. Naturally, having been preceded by two colossi, Curtin set himself a hard task to follow; unfortunately…
Strength beyond Structure: Social and Historical Trajectories of Agency in Africa
This book explores the notion of agency in a range of empirical situations in Africa. Agency directs our quest for an understanding of the dynamics and social transformations of African situations to the domains of creativity, inventiveness and reflexivity. It emphasizes the possibilities individuals and social groups perceive when faced with the constraints that tend to mark African social life. The case studies provide an alternative view of pe…
Nachituti's Gift: Economy, society, and environment in Central Africa, by David M. Gordon
‘... a fishery is more than a theoretical economic model; it is a site of settlement, production, and exchange permeated with history, memory, and culture.’ (p. 199) This succinct book begins with a legend worthy of Greek mythology. This sets the scene for a thorough history of a fishery in central Africa, a history that situates and delineates access to resources and details their exploitation over 150 years. For over 600 km, before it flows int…
Researching and Writing in the Twilight of an Imagined Conquest: Anthropology in Northern Rhodesia 1930-1960
The rich corpus of material produced by the anthropologists of the Rhodes Livingstone Institute (RLI) has come to dominate our understanding of Zambian societies and Zambia's past. The RLI was primarily concerned with the socio-cultural effects of migrant labour. The paper argues that the anthropologists of the RLI worked from within a paradigm that was dominated by the experience of colonial conquest in South Africa. RLI anthropologists transfer…
One Zambia, Many Histories: Towards a History of Post-colonial Zambia
In contrast to the rich tradition of academic analysis and understanding of the pre-colonial and colonial history of Zambia, the country's post-colonial trajectory has been all but ignored by historians. The assumptions of developmentalism, the cultural hegemony of the United National Independence Party's orthodoxy and its conflation with national interests, and a narrow focus on Zambia's diplomatic role in Southern African affairs, have all cont…
History (34 works) · Political science (32 works) · Law (26 works) · Geography (21 works) · African history and culture studies (20 works) · History (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Ethnology (19 works) · Colonialism (17 works) · Politics (16 works)