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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Social and Religious Change in Southern Africa: Faithful Daughter, Murdering Mother: Transgression and Social Control in Colonial Namibia |
Author: | McKittrick, Meredith |
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. |