ABSTRACT
People have occupied Namibia, a dry and sparsely populated land, for many thousands of years – its wealth of rock art is testimony to very ancient patterns of settlement and documentation. As the oral history of the various Owambo polities attests, the ancestors of its present-day inhabitants have occupied the area for many generations. When South Africa took over in 1915, resident colonial officials were based in Owambo for the first time. However, the colonial administration of the northern territories was run on a shoestring, with never more than a handful of resident officials, who administered as a unique brand of indirect rule. The construction of the invariably powerless and mute Owambo woman has survived as a commonly-held belief in present-day Namibia, and it is clear from historical evidence and from oral and written literature that women’s experience in Owambo has been shaped by this oppressive gendered construction of their place in society.
