Overview

The Open Access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. This book explores the history, ecology, and society of a seemingly inhospitable stretch of land along the Orange River in southern Namibia. Here, a group of African farmers have succeeded against all odds to stay on their ancestral homeland through decades of colonialism and apartheid. The twenty-first century, however, has brought different people looking to evict them: nature conservationists. These farmers face off against billionaire gemstone mine owners, rhinoceros veterinarians and carbon finance executives, seeking to prove their legal and moral claims to their ancestral lands. This book reveals how we got here and what is at stake if they fail.

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9789004712447

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Reviews

'This powerful book draws back the curtain on the shadowy world of private nature conservation. African farmers along the Orange River have managed, against all odds, to maintain access to their ancestral lands through a century and a half of colonialism, genocide, and apartheid – only to find their access threated by elite conservation projects. Moore and Lenggenhager reveal the long history of human occupation in the very place that capitalist investors now insist must be ‘rewilded’ to save the planet. Space is the Ultimate Luxury challenges the moralizing claims of the men who fly private planes and make millions from ecologically destructive industries but who nevertheless insist that it is African pastoralists who threaten our planet’s future'. Meredith McKittrick, Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University 'This book analyses the complex intersections of capital, conservation, land, and identity in one of Namibia’s most expansive, ecologically and historically rich landscapes. This compelling narrative explores the tensions between individuals seeking large parcels of land for exclusive use, conservationists claiming to protect biodiversity, and local communities fighting to reclaim their ancestral land rights. It provides a thought-provoking analysis of this modern-day clash, and it is an important book for Namibia’s land question and conservation agenda'. Romie Nghitevelekwa, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Namibia 'This is a book of history and anthropology, the past and the present. Effortlessly, the authors draw on academic fields as diverse as geology and biology, moulding reflections on deep-time and corporate green-washing into a single highly readable whole. The absences of diatribes and the cool understated approach of the text makes it all the more powerfully devastating. In fifteen short and succinct chapters the authors draw attention to the true inhabitants of the deep south of Namibia, delivering a volley of sucker-punches which make a mockery of the environmental claims of the mega-rich, be they mining executives, gap-year youth, corporate traders, or hunters'. Jan-Bart Gewald, Professor of History at Leiden University

Author Information

Bernard C. Moore, (PhD), is currently Lecturer of African History at Alma College in Michigan, USA. His research concerns the economic and environmental history of agriculture and land in southern Africa. He has previously taught history at Michigan State University and at the University of Namibia. Luregn Lenggenhager, (PhD), is an environmental historian, currently based at the Global South Studies Centre, University of Cologne. He has published on land, borders, and nature conservation in southern Africa, engaging with multispecies histories and political ecology. He is involved in collaborative research and teaching projects with the University of Basel and the University of Namibia.

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