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:Social and Religious Change in Southern Africa: Faithful Daughter, Murdering Mother: Transgression and Social Control in Colonial Namibia
Author:McKittrick, MeredithISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:The Journal of African History
Volume:40
Issue:2
Period:July
Pages:265-283
Language:English
Geographic terms:Namibia
South Africa
Subjects:Ovambo
colonialism
illegitimate children
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Religion and Witchcraft
Historical/Biographical
Cultural Roles
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/183549
Abstract:In 1941, an uninitiated and unwed girl named Nangombe killed her illegitimate child in Ovamboland, northern Namibia, at her mother's insistence. She was tried for murder in the Supreme Court in Windhoek, where she was judged insane. Examining the progression of this case from a village far from colonial administrators to the distant capital illuminates both the dramatic social changes taking place in rural Ovambo society and the impact that an arbitrary and contradictory colonialism could have on its subjects. While Nangombe's action was grounded in the context of Ovambo beliefs about the dangers of illegitimate children, it occurred at a time when the practice of killing such children was under attack by missionaries and their Christian converts. Ultimately, Nangombe was part of a process through which the meaning of illegitimacy in Ovamboland was redefined. Notes, ref., sum.
Views
Cover