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ABSTRACT. Thriving benthic communities were observed in the oxygen minimum zones along the southwestern African margin. On the Namibian margin, fossil cold-water coral mounds were overgrown by sponges and bryozoans, while the Angolan margin was characterized by cold-water coral mounds covered by a living coral reef. To explore why benthic communities differ in both areas, present-day environmental conditions were assessed, using conductivity–temperature–depth (CTD) transects and bottom landers to investigate spatial and temporal variations of environmental properties. Near-bottom measurements recorded low dissolved oxygen concentrations on the Namibian margin of 0–0.15 mL L−1 (≜0 %–9 % saturation) and on the Angolan margin of 0.5–1.5 mL L−1 (≜7 %–18 % saturation), which were associated with relatively high temperatures (11.8–13.2 ∘C and 6.4–12.6 ∘C, respectively). Semidiurnal barotropic tides were found to interact with the margin topography producing internal waves. These tidal movements deliver water with more suitable characteristics to the benthic communities from below and above the zone of low oxygen. Concurrently, the delivery of a high quantity and quality of organic matter was observed, being an important food source for the benthic fauna. On the Namibian margin, organic matter originated directly from the surface productive zone, whereas on the Angolan margin the geochemical signature of organic matter suggested an additional mechanism of food supply. A nepheloid layer observed above the cold-water corals may constitute a reservoir of organic matter, facilitating a constant supply of food particles by tidal mixing. Our data suggest that the benthic fauna on the Namibian margin, as well as the cold-water coral communities on the Angolan margin, may compensate for unfavorable conditions of low oxygen levels and high temperatures with enhanced availability of food, while anoxic conditions on the Namibian margin are at present a limiting factor for cold-water coral growth. This study provides an example of ...

Heteronormative models of the home have permeated housing policies for decades, only adding to economic and spatial inequalities in a landscape of housing injustices. Half of the urban population in Namibia lives in precarious housing conditions. Cities like Windhoek and Walvis Bay are among the most unequal in the world. Such inequalities translate into significant gaps in housing quality, security, and service provision. These inequalities are acutely felt by LGBTIQ+ populations that already face other forms of exclusion from economic and social life and fundamental human rights. A new National Housing Policy - emphasizing the right to housing - is about to be adopted in Namibia, but would it address the concerns of queer populations? This article asks what it means to engage with Namibia's new National Housing Policy through the lens of queer decolonial thought. It presents an exploratory study of the questions emerging at the margins of the discussion on the National Housing Policy. The objective was to develop an exploratory research agenda for a queer decolonial perspective on housing in Namibia. In the context of enormous housing shortages, a queer decolonial perspective emphasizes radical inclusion as a principle for housing provision. The exploration of shared queer experiences in accessing housing suggests that the themes of belonging, identity, and safety may support the development of such an agenda. Queer decolonial thought has thus three implications for an agenda of research on housing in Namibia. First, it calls for understanding what community and belonging mean for LGBTIQ+ people. Second, queer decolonial thought poses questions about citizenship, particularly given the shift to a view of the state as creating housing opportunities (through land rights and basic services) and support mechanisms for incremental housing. Queer decolonial thought calls for identifying the multiple ways the state misrecognizes individuals who do not conform to prescribed identities and sexual orientations. Third, queer decolonial thought invites reflection on the constitution of safe spaces in aggressive urban environments and the multiple layers of perceived safety constructed through diverse institutions and public spaces.

Namibian spaces have been shaped, transformed, and ordered according to the ideas and practices propagated by the Modern Movement. These ideas were originally transferred from Europe and adapted to the South African context, then subsequently introduced to Namibia via South African institutions, urban practitioners, and architects. However, the modernist design ideas reached the empire's margins in an altered and often contradictory form, and with quite different social, political and economic intentions. Their deployment in support of the colonial/apartheid project in Namibia resulted in a recalcitrant and enduring legacy. Today, more than three decades after the fall of apartheid, space-making practices continue to work in-line with this inherited spatial fabric. This paper unpacks this modern spatial genealogy in Namibia, offering an example of the discursive power of built form.

Germany colonized South West Africa in 1884, then lost the country (present-day Namibia) after World War I. In order to escape the apartheid perpetuated by subsequent occupier South Africa, many black Namibians fled to support the SWAPO liberation movement, based in neighboring Angola. After South Africa bombed a camp that was home to many SWAPO supporters in 1978, SWAPO sent the first of a series of 428 Namibian three-to-five-year-olds to East Germany (a.k.a. the GDR) for protection, education, and socialist training. A decade later, they were unexpectedly "returned" after Namibia's first all-race elections fell the same week as the Berlin Wall. Placing them with surviving relatives in the rural North seldom succeeded for more than a short period because the children no longer spoke their native language competently and frequently felt allegiance primarily to their other returning "siblings." Members of SWAPO and of Namibia's 30,000 ethnic Germans laid claims to these "GDR Kids," but most children who had spent over eight years in Germany were enrolled in Namibia's German-speaking schools. This article concludes that by integrating these and other Namibian German institutions, the GDR Kids altered the margins of what is considered German in this most German of former German colonies.

This volume completes the research project on "Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa" (LiDeSA). It mainly addresses socioeconomic and gender-related issues in contemporary Namibia. Most of the contributors are either Namibian, based in Namibia or have undertaken extensive research in the country. Their interest as scholars and/or civil society activists is guided by a loyalty characterised not by rhetoric but by empathy with the people. They advocate notions of human rights, social equality and related values and norms instead of being driven by an ideologically determined party-political affiliation. Their investigative and analytical endeavours depict a society in transition, a society that is far from being liberated. Not surprisingly, this compilation explores the limits to liberation more than its advances. ; CONTENTS -- Transitions in Namibia – Namibia in Transition. An introductory overview/Henning Melber -- History and the Armed Struggle: From anti-colonial propaganda to 'patriotic history'?/Christopher Saunders -- Commercial Land Reforms in Postcolonial Namibia: What happened to liberation struggle rhetoric?/Phanuel Kaapama -- Between Politics and the Shop Floor: Which way for Namibia's labour movement?/Herbert Jauch -- Liberated Economy? The case of Ramatex Textiles Namibia/Volker Winterfeldt -- Old ties or new shackles? China in Namibia/Gregor Dobler -- Poverty, Politics, Power and Privilege: Namibia's black economic elite formation/ Henning Melber -- Out of Order? The margins of Namibian ex-combatant 'reintegration'/Lalli Metsola -- Imagining Post-Apartheid Society and Culture: Playfulness, officialdom and civility in a youth elite club in northern Namibia/Mattia Fumanti -- Regional Development and Decentralisation/Graham Hopwood -- Caprivi Under Old and New Indirect Rule: Falling off the map or a 19th century dream come true?Wolfgang Zeller / Bennett Kangumu Kangumu -- Ideas About Equality in Namibian Family Law/Dianne Hubbard -- HIV/AIDS in Namibia: Gender, class and feminist theory revisited/Lucy Edwards -- Decolonising Sexuality/Suzanne LaFont

The politics of Palestinian legal reform : judicial independence and accountability under occupation / Tobias Kelly -- Traditional authority and localization of state law : the intricacies of boundary marking in policing rural Mozambique / Helene Maria Kyed -- The vision of the state : audiences, enchantments and policing in South Africa / Steffen Jensen -- Translating human rights in the margins : a police-migrant encounter in Johannesburg / Julia Hornberger -- The special field force and Namibian ex-combatant "reintegration" / Lalli Metsola -- On hangings and the dubious embodiment of statehood in Nigerian prisons / Andrew M. Jefferson -- Taking the snake out of the basket : Indian prison warders' opposition to human rights reform / Tomas Martin -- Community policing programmes as police human rights strategies in Costa Rica / Quirine Eijkman -- Commentary : the piggy-in-the-middle / Mike Brogden.

Preliminary Materials /M. De Bruijn , J.-B. Gewald and R. Van Dijk -- 1 - Social And Historical Trajectories Of Agency In Africa: An Introduction /Rijk Van Dijk , Mirjam De Bruijn and Jan-Bart Gewald -- 2 - Manchester As The Birth Place Of Modern Agency Research: The Manchester School Explained From The Perspective Of Evans-Pritchard's Book The Nuer /Wim Van Binsbergen -- 3 - Dreams And Agency During Angola's War Of Independence /Inge Brinkman -- 4 - Chief Hosea Kutako: A Herero Royal And Namibian Nationalist's Life Against Confinement 1870–1970 /Jan-Bart Gewald -- 5 - Agency In Kapsiki Religion: A Comparative Approach /Wouter Van Beek -- 6 - Les Enveloppes Pour Papa Daniel: La Transformation Des Relations Domestiques Dans Les Ménages Des Congolais De La Diaspora /Julie Ndaya -- 7 - From Individual Act To Social Agency In San Trance Rituals /Thomas Widlok -- 8 - The Dynamics Of Families, Their Work And Provisioning Strategies In The Changing Economies In The Urban Townships Of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe /Otrude N. Moyo -- 9 - Images Of Africa: Agency And Nature Conservation In South Africa /Malcolm Draper , Marja Spierenburg and Harry Wels -- 10 - Solitary Births In Téra, Niger: A Local Quest For Safety /Gertie Janssen -- 11 - Agency In And From The Margins: Street Children And Youth In N'Djaména, Chad /Mirjam De Bruijn -- 12 - Negotiating The Memory Of Fulbe Hierarchy Among Mobile Elite Women /Lotte Pelckmans -- 13 - The Safe And Suffering Body In Transnational Ghanaian Pentecostalism; Towards An Anthropology Of Vulnerable Agency /Rijk Van Dijk -- Epilogue Theorizing Agency In And On Africa: The Questions Are Key /Francis Nyamnjoh -- List Of Authors /M. De Bruijn , J.-B. Gewald and R. Van Dijk.