The Elephant Shooting
Colonial Law and Indirect Rule in Kaoko, Northwestern Namibia, in the 1920s and 1930s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8980431 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lorena Rizzo (University of Basel, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 245-266 |
| Publication date | 2007-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021853707002745 |
| OpenAlex | W2124542639 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 10 |
The law as a means of sociopolitical control in colonial states has gained significance as an issue in the recent historiography of Africa. This article discusses the making of a criminal case in colonial Kaoko, northwestern Namibia in the 1920s and 30s. It focuses on the problem of African voice and narrative and the ways in which they have been transformed into written evidence in the course of legal investigation. It demonstrates that the archival documents which emerged from this case require careful methodological scrutiny if they are to be used for the reconstruction of the region's past. It goes beyond colonial law as constituting a particular discourse to conceive colonial law as a space for intervention and agency for both colonized and colonizers. The central argument raised in the article is that while the South African administration in northwestern Namibia allegedly aimed at prosecuting culprits and securing evidence for their transgressions, men and women in Kaoko used colonial law as an arena for the negotiation of social and political issues. Concerned with the case's impact on the configuration of gender, the article shows how colonial law became both a site of male representation and power, and a space for female contestation of male claims to sociopolitical mastery
Agency (philosophy · Colonialism · Criminal law · Historiography · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Representation (politics · Scrutiny · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · German Colonialism and Identity Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · South African History and Culture
Bibliography of Books and Articles Published in English on Colonialism and Imperialism in 2007
Shaping the African Savannah
Enforcing the “Unnatural Offence”
Between the Book and the Lamp – Interiors of Bureaucracy and the Materiality of Colonial Power
Forum
The political ecology of hunting in Namibia’s Kaokoveld
On Becoming a Chief in the Kaokoveld, Colonial Namibia, 1916–25
Shades of Empire
A Glance into the Camera
The Use of Court Records as Sources for African History
A Murder in the Colonial Gold Coast
Faithful Daughter, Murdering Mother
Text and Testimony in the Tribunal de Première Instance , Dakar, During the Early Twentieth Century
Making Politics, Making History
The Maintenance of Law and Order in British Colonial Africa
In Cold Blood
Legal Language
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,44 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2026 (19) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |