Namibia: Late Iron Age (c1400 - 1800 CE)

Updated July 2009

The origins of the Damara (or Dama) are obscure (Kiljunen 1981b, 28). They are genetically related to the Herero in particular and to south western Bantu in general, but speak the same Khoekhoe language as the Nama (Soodyall & Jenkins 1993, 477; Nurse et al 1987, 5). It has been variously conjectured that they arrived along with other Bantu speaking people of Namibia, perhaps in the vanguard, or that they arrived with the Nama as their subjects (Kiljunen 1981a, 87; Kiljunen 1981b, 28). A third possibility is that they are the autochthonic descendents of Late Stone Age peoples of the north that gradually adopted a small-stock pastoral lifestyle after 2000 CE (see Stone Age to the Early Iron Age (c160 000 BP - c1400 CE)). Their adoption of the Nama language is the result, it is supposed, of a long period of political and economic subordination to the Nama (Kiljunen 1981a, 87; Kiljunen 1981b, 28). They were nomadic pastoralists who acquired cattle to add to their small stock, were skilled hunters and, like the Nama, learned to work iron and copper (Katjavivi 1988, 1; Katjavivi 1988, 2, 3).

The Great Nama first came to Namibia from the Northern Cape and settled in Namaqualand in Namibia (Kiljunen 1981a, 87; Barnard 1992, 176). They practiced a nomadic pastoral lifestyle and, if cattle had not already been introduced by then, the Nama certainly introduced them at this point, and they also acquired metal working technology (Barnard, A 1992, 179). Archaeological evidence shows the existence of copper and iron smelting sites on the interior plateau dated between the 15th and 19th centuries CE where a unique smelting technology using stone furnaces had been developed despite a sound knowledge of the use of ceramics (Miller et al 2005, 344, 345). Political power was decentralised and organised around several clans, each having rights over specific grazing areas and water holes, and conflict between the clans revolved around stock raids and the abduction of women rather than over land and territory (Katjavivi 1988, 1).

The Bantu speaking peoples of Namibia entered from the north from the sixteenth century onwards absorbing the small populations of Bantu speakers that had preceded them (Sandelowsky 1979, 60; Kose 2005). Archaeological work around Rundu in Kavangoland indicates the presence of the Kavango people near the southern bank of the Kavango River from the 16th century onwards at Vungu-Vungu, which became the site of the Kavango royal residence (Kose 2005; Sandelowsky 1979, 61). Though cattle were kept, hunting of large game such as elephants, hippos and rhinos and fishing played a major role in food procurement, while agriculture was not practiced (Kose 2005; Shackley 1986, 79; Katjavivi 1988, 1, 2). An extensive trade network linked them to the people of Angola in the north, the southern Kalahari and the Namib in the south as far as Lüderitz and Walvis Bay on the coast in the west, from whence European made goods arrived from the late eighteenth century onwards (Kose 2005). The diverse people of the Caprivi, related to the populations of southern Zambia and south east Angola, arrived in their area at the same time and practiced the same subsistence strategies, but did not develop centralised political institutions (Kiljunen, ML 1981b, 28; Katjavivi 1988, 1, 2).

The Ovambo people, closely related to the Kavangos, arrived in Ovamboland at much the same time and settled on both sides of the Cunene River during the course of the sixteenth century, but lacking the abundance of the Kavango River, they exploited the well watered and fertile soils of the area and supplemented stock keeping with agriculture, growing millet, beans and squashes (Davies 1994, 2; Katjavivi 1988, 1, 3). Like the Kavangos the Ovambos developed monarchical governance institutions, but several rather than one kingdom emerged that each strove to attain control of the trade routes that bound the region together (Kiljunen, ML 1981a, 87). The kings played a crucial religious role in Ovambo society, for the economic well-being of the people was bound up with that of the king through his ability to summon rain, but kings that failed to respect the rights of their subjects could be, and were, overthrown by rivals who invarably justified their actions by alleging that the deposed king had failled to provide rain (Davies 1994, 7; Clarence-Smith & Moorsom 1975, 369). The lack of clear succession canons made the kingdoms unstable an liable to fission whenever succession was disputed (Clarence-Smith & Moorsom 1975, 368).

The Hereros and Ovambos share a common mythology of their origins, believe that they are descendants of a common ancestor and venerate a tree in eastern Ovamboland that marks the place where they parted company in the 16th century, with the Hereos moving eastward into Koakoland (Davies 1994, 2). Genetic studies have come to contradictory conclusions about the relationship between the two groups, for an early study concluded that "unusual alleles suggest an affinity with the Herero which confirms oral traditions of a common origin" while a later study found that the "Ambo have different origins from the Herero and Dama; they appear to be more closely related to southeastern Bantu-speakers than to southwestern Bantu-speakers" (Nurse et al 1987, 5; Soodyall & Jenkins 1993, 477). Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of the Herero there from at least the early 1700s and stone fortified hill tops have been identified (Vogelsang 2000, 25, 26). The Hereros, unlike the Ovambos, maintained a nomadic pastoral economic life, supplemented with horticulture and hunter-gathering, and continued a decentralised clan based political organisation as a result, so that if a clan head failed to meet his followers' aspirations then they would simply defect to another clan (Gewald 1998, 13, 14; Katjavivi 1988, 3). In the eighteenth century some of the Herero moved southwards into the central plateau, intruding on the territory of the Damara, and their descendants bear the name 'Herero' today, while those who remained behind are termed 'Himba' (Katjavivi 1988, 3).

During the period under review the aridity of the Namib Desert along the coast and the lack of suitable sheltered anchorage protected the people of Namibia from European incursions (Kienetz 1977, 555, 556). Thus, though Portuguese explorers planted crosses on the coast in the 1840s, not until the late 1700s did whalers and sealers begin to use the few harbours available as operational bases, where they bartered with locals for livestock (Kienetz 1977, 556).

References

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