“When War came the Cattle slept”

Himba Oral Traditions

Author: Michael Bollig. Series edited by: Michael Bollig, Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig †.

Series: HSA History, Cultural Traditions and Innovations in Southern Africa Volume 1

1997
8 pp. Roman, 337 pp.
14 b/w photos, 2 maps
Text language(s): English
E-book
€ 49.80

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Namibian historiography is a very young discipline. It was only after independence that the search for the new nation’s history started. The idea of collecting and editing oral traditions from amongst the Herero speaking peoples of north-western Namibia and south-western Angola was conceived while carrying out anthropological fieldwork in the vast Kunene province. There were the people themselves who thought that their history ought to be written down. Six years after independence and four years after a successful restructuring of regional boundaries, people sought an identity in history.

The 12 texts which resulted from interviews with older people from Kaokoland are edited without comments in order to retain their character as personal statements.

Under these links you will find further descriptions of the Himba/Herero language, culture and history:

Accompanying material:

• “We Thought we would be Free ...” (ISBN 978-3-89645-057-9)
• „For the Power and Glory“ (ISBN 978-3-89645-451-5)
• „Widerstand und Gottesfurcht“ (ISBN 978-3-89645-059-3)
• A Grammatical Sketch of Herero (Otjiherero) (ISBN 978-3-89645-044-9)
• Afrikaner schreiben zurück (ISBN 978-3-89645-053-1)
• Bridging the Language Gap (ISBN 978-3-89645-890-2)
• Die Witbooi in Südwestafrika während des 19. Jahrhunderts (ISBN 978-3-89645-447-8)
• Hendrik Witbooi – ein Leben für die Freiheit (ISBN 978-3-89645-315-0)
• People, Cattle and Land (ISBN 978-3-89645-363-1)
• Reference Grammar of Herero (Otjiherero) (ISBN 978-3-89645-602-1)
• The Form and Meaning of Otjiherero Praises (ISBN 978-3-89645-269-6)

Cross-reference:

• Catalogue of the Khoisan Folktales of Southern Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-870-4)
• Directionality in Grammar and Discourse (ISBN 978-3-89645-899-5)
• Frühe Kolonialgeschichte Namibias, 1880–1930 (ISBN 978-3-89645-058-6)
• Herrschaft, Macht und Einfluß (ISBN 978-3-89645-359-4)
• Manasse Tjiseseta, Chief of Omaruru, 1884–1898, Namibia (ISBN 978-3-89645-055-5)
• Narrations of the Kavango (ISBN 978-3-89645-279-5)
• San and the State (ISBN 978-3-89645-357-0)
• The Kavango Peoples in the Past (ISBN 978-3-89645-353-2)

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