Crossing Etosha: a history of donkeys in Namibia’s central north

Abstract

Donkeys are a common sight in Namibia’s central north and play an important albeit contested role in rural society and economy. Historically, they were one of the few domesticated animals that were allowed to enter today’s Etosha National Park and to cross the veterinary border (Red Line) between the northern communal lands and the Police Zone in central Namibia. In the first half of the twentieth century, migrant workers brought thousands of donkeys from the south to what was then called “Ovamboland.” Even after the import was regulated more strictly in the 1940s, donkeys could still get permission to be used as transport animals to carry goods through Etosha. We retrace the routes of the domesticated donkey through a conservation landscape of wildlife and explore entanglements between donkeys, other livestock and wildlife in and out of Etosha. We ask how the particular legal position of the donkey — and its close links to migrant labour — impacted multispecies entanglements in past rural societies and how this legal position has changed over time, including in independent Namibia. We provide a nuanced understanding of the contested position of the donkey in northern Namibia, using examples from King Nehale Conservancy north of Etosha.

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