Drought, disaster, and identity in north-western Namibia in times of global climate change

Abstract

The paper argues that the mastery over drought in the north-western Namibia pastoral context has been instrumental not only for the resilience of local livelihoods but also for the shaping of personal and communal identities. The expertise and determination to survive drought, safeguard the cattle, and – if necessary – renew depopulated herds after a drought is constitutive for personhood, sociality, and worldview. Local practices and presentations relating to drought are nowadays confronted with dystopian visions of climate change and national and international agendas to adapt to it. Since the early 2000s, north-western Namibia has been projected to suffer severely from global climate change. Referring to the drought that started in the early 2010s, governmental planners and scientists today diagnose the local pastoral community with a lack of capacity to react to the changing climate. They advocate education for climate change awareness, coordinated management of natural resources, and large-scale infrastructure interventions. Erstwhile masters of the drought response are discursively framed as prime victims of climate change. Against these government-led adaptation scenarios, two optimistic visions are articulated, one envisioning a patchy working conservation landscape, the other emphasising local autonomy and traditional drought response strategies.