Books published by Univ. of Namibia Press

Ozongombe mOmbazu ya Kaoko/Cattle Culture of the Kaoko Ovaherero honours indigenous Sanga/Nguni cattle and their cultural and agricultural significance to the Ovaherero and increasingly to other cattle-breeders. The book introduces Otjiherero vernacular names for a wide variety of hide colours and patterns, horn shapes and ear notches in cattle, illustrated with over 300 colour photographs and drawings which give it the practical value of a bilingual field guide.In depth information on the role of cattle in Ovaherero history and society, way of life, rites of passage, omens, taboos, worship, battle, and techniques of husbandry will interest students of agriculture, veterinary science and anthropology. The book also documents cultural concepts and practices inaccessible to the layperson and many urbanized Ovaherero, but which are still current among cattle-keepers in the isolated region of Kaokoland. This timely record preserves not only cultural information but language terms which otherwise could be lost within the coming generation.Even a brief glance through its pages will serve to show the wonderful richness of Ovaherero cattle culture.

Administrative Law: Cases and Materials is an important and comprehensive contribution to the legal literature on Namibian law. It will contribute to the development of Namibia's jurisprudence. Experienced author and judge of the Namibian High Court, Dr Collins Parker discusses key principles of administrative law applicable to Namibia under the common law as developed and broadened by article 18 of the Namibian Constitution. To support propositions of law discussed in the text, he presents carefully selected extracts of judgments delivered in important cases.The book offers a rich source of judicial pronouncements as precedent that are not readily available to many students and teachers of law. The selected cases are from the superior courts in Namibia, South Africa, England, and Canada, all common law countries. There are also footnote references to cases from other common law countries like India, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Practitioners of law at the Bar or on the Bench, law researchers and other professionals in public authorities, including parastatals, private companies and other ord this book useful in the performance of their professional tasks.

The author of this book, Prof. S.K. Amor, is Acting Director of the Justice Training Centre and lecturer at the University of Namibia. The writing of this book was inspired mainly by the fact that, despite Namibia's independence in 1990, Namibian legal practitioners, academics and students lecturing and studying law at the University of Namibia (UNAM) still do not have a truly Namibian reference book. Instead, they rely heavily on legal literature from South Africa and other countries.An Introduction to Namibian Law is an attempt to bridge this gap by introducing law academics, lecturers and students to the most important aspects of Namibian law. It explains the origin of the country's law and looks at the various influences over the years.The book contains material covered in various UNAM courses, such as Jurisprudence, Introduction to Cases, Comparative Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Interpretation of Statutes, and Civil and Criminal Procedure. It also contains various extracts in support of legal arguments, in which legal concepts are illustrated and thoroughly explained, as well as sample legal forms. Full accounts of certain cases are included to give students of Namibian law a depth of understanding of how Namibian law has been applied over the years.

Pursued through poetic pastures of faith, love, and time by an Omuhimba muse who alternately challenges and enchants him, D. Stevenson presents Ancestors and Other Visitors, a poetry anthology that is as sweepingly existential as it is personal and as sagely simple as it is complex.An immigrant, artist and spoken wordsmith observing the world through a traveler soul, Stevenson journeys through time and literary style to pay homage to influence such as e.e. cummings, W.B. Yeats and Robert Hayden in a wonderfully intimate selection of poems.Set primarily in Windhoek, Namibia, Stevenson's home of 37 years, Ancestors is at once a musing on self, surroundings and the local artists who inflame his imagination: a young Namibian painter, a dance troupe that inspired 'Arc magnificent' and 'Unseen', with original ballet, and the assorted upcoming poets who fees his passion and whose stage he shares. Offering up exposition as well as desperate, imagined and curious conversations. Ancestors is a welcome and unprecedented addition to the Namibian poetry landscape.

Writing Namibia: Literature in Transition is a cornucopia of extraordinary and fascinating material which will be a rich resource for students, teachers and readers interested in Namibia. The text is wide ranging, defining literature in its broadest terms. In its multifaceted approach, the book covers many genres traditionally outside academic literary discourse and debate. The 22 chapters cover literature of all categories in Namibia since independence: written and performance poetry, praise poetry, Oshiwambo orature, drama, novels, autobiography, women's writing, subaltern studies, literature in German, Ju|'hoansi and Otjiherero, children's literature, Afrikaans fiction, story-telling through film, publishing, and the interface between literature and society. The inclusive approach is the book's strength as it allows a wide range of subjects to be addressed, including those around gender, race and orature which have been conventionally silenced.

Otuzo twOvaherero provides valuable information on Ovaherero patriclans and records folklore and praise poems in Otjiherero. Previously, these did not exist in written form. The book attempts to preserve these oral traditions before they disappear. It aims to restore pride to the Ovaherero, particularly in patrilineages that were displaced by the Ovaherero-German war of 1904-1907.Otuzo twOvaherero is structured around the Ovaherero patrilineal descent system (otuzo) which is the basis of the Ovaherero religion Oupwee. The surnames and homesteads that belong to the same patrilineage are grouped together under each patriclan to help the reader to easily trace the homesteads that belong to one patriclan (and thus have a common ancestry). The distinct features of each patriclan are specified in terms of totems, taboos, patriclans which collaborate, and praise poems of homesteads.All the patriclans and praise poems in this book were collected from Ovaherero communities living in Namibia. The author uses the term 'Ovaherero' to include the various groups which speak the common language Otjiherero and which include the Ovahimba, Ovaherero, Ovatjimba and Ovambanderu.This book has the potential to promote unity within the Ovaherero community by showing how families are connected in lineages which trace back centuries.

In Oshiwambo, the elephant is likened to the most challenging situation that people can face. If an elephant appears in the morning, all planned activities are put on hold and the villagers join forces to deal with it. For Tshiwa Trudie Amulungu, the elephant showed up on many mornings and she had no choice but to tame it. Growing up in a traditional household in northern Namibia, and moving to a Catholic school, Amulungu's life started within a very ordered framework. Then one night in 1977 she crossed the border into Angola with her schoolmates and joined the liberation movement. Four months later she was studying at the UN Institute for Namibia in Lusaka Zambia, later going on to study in France. Amulungu recounts the cultural shocks and huge discoveries she made along her journey with honesty, emotion and humour. She draws the reader into her experiences through a close portrayal of life, friends and community in the different places where she lived and studied in exile. This is a compelling story of survival, longing for home, fear of the return, and overcoming adversity in strange environments. It is also a love story that brought two families and cultures together.

Re-Viewing Resistance in Namibian History brings together the work of experienced academics and a new wave of young Namibian historians - architects of the past - who are working on a range of public history and heritage projects, from late nineteenth century resistance to the use of songs, from the role of gender in SWAPO's camps to memorialisation, and from international solidarity to aspects of the history of Kavango and Caprivi. In a culturally and politically diverse democracy such as Namibia, there are bound to be different perspectives on the past, and history will be as plural as the history-tellers. The chapters in this book reflect this diversity, and combine to create a remarkable collection of divergent voices, providing alternative perspectives on the past. Re-Viewing Resistance in Namibian History writes 'forgotten' people into history; provides a reading of the past that reflects the tensions and competing identities that pervaded 'the struggle'; and deals with 'heritage that hurts'.