Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home Africana Periodical Literature Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Order Out of Chaos: Mandume Ya Ndemufayo and Oral History
Author:Hayes, PatriciaISNI
Year:1993
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:19
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:89-113
Language:English
Geographic term:Namibia
Subjects:Kwanyama
anticolonialism
traditional rulers
oral history
nationalism
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
About person:Mandume (d. 1917)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636959
Abstract:Oral historical sources from northern Namibia offer new insights into the history of the Kwanyama under their last king, Mandume ya Ndemufayo. A forceful leader in both his drive for social renovation and in his resistance to colonial occupation, he stands out as one of the most compelling figures in Namibian history. After defending Oukwanyama, the largest Ovambo polity on the Cuvelai flood plain in northern South West Africa (Namibia), against Portuguese invasion in 1915, he was forced into a 'protection' agreement with South African officials administering southern Ovamboland. This article deals with the period before 1915. After an outline of the historical context in which Mandume came to power, it traces the actual reforms initiated by him during the period 1911-1915. This period is deeply suggestive of the crises facing the Kwanyama kingship prior to colonialism. Against a backdrop of increasingly frequent drought and scarcity, plus incorporation into the mercantile and mining capitalist economies, Mandume launched a drive for renovation aimed fundamentally at rolling back powerful headmen who had undermined central royal power. Sources used in this study are both written and oral. The oral evidence is based on the 'Kaulinge tradition', accounts of Vilho Kaulinge, recorded in Ovamboland in 1989. Notes, ref., sum.
Views
Cover