The making, unmaking and adaptation of Mayeyi multispecies entanglements within the Kwando-Linyanti wetlands: eighteenth century to 1990

Abstract

The Kwando-Linyanti wetlands of Namibia are known for their rivers, floodplains and woodlands with abundant wildlife and a diversity of birds and fish. Within these landscapes reside the Mayeyi, a Bantu-speaking people whose culture is closely entangled with the wetlands but whose traditional multispecies relations have been irrevocably unmade by colonialism. This unmaking has resulted in the slow, intergenerational extinction of the traditional Mayeyi way of life and the emergence of new species connections and cultural practices. This article draws on Van Dooren’s notion of entanglements to explore these processes of making, unmaking and adaptation of the Mayeyi multispecies relations within the Kwando-Linyanti wetlands. Drawing from a review of literature and archival material together with oral accounts and interviews, the article describes the emergence of the Mayeyi multispecies entanglements in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the successive alienation from these entanglements as colonial authorities sought to control the tsetse fly and create conservation landscapes. Against the backdrop of contemporary policies that fail to recognise historical injustices and often continue to marginalise communities living within conservation landscapes, the article highlights the unique multispecies relations and associated culture of the Mayeyi and the ongoing impact of the severance of these relations.