Namibia’s Red Line: On the History of a Fence in Southern Africa

A massive fence, more than two metres high, stretching over a thousand kilometres from East to West effectively separates the southwest African region into two parts. The fence, generally known as the Red Line, is a persistent legacy of South Africa’s colonial occupation of Namibia. Its construction in the 1960s marked the end of a long border building process, which had its beginning in the late 19th century and was linked to the establishment of colonial control in Namibia.
Through its long history this colonial border was always both, imagined and real and it was only with the erection of the fence that the border became a tangible physical reality. The study of the Red Line reveals that this internal border, conceived as a veterinarian medicine and settlement development, was far more determinative of the governmentality and socio-economic structure of the country than its external borders.

The Red Line was crucial for the establishment of a settler society in Namibia. As a pivotal device of the South African empire, the border functioned conceptually and ideologically as a ‘barbarian border’ drawn against the dangers of inner Africa, physically marking the limits of ‘white’ South Africa.

The presentation gives an introduction to the history of an internal African border. It will highlight some of the key-elements of the making of this border, point to the border’s inherent paradoxes between impermeability and vibrant border traffic, and sketch elements of its long-lasting legacy. The presentation will also address challenges in the work with various textual, visual, and oral sources, and critically reflect on the colonial archive’s narration of the Red Line.

Dr. Giorgio Miescher is Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Centre for African Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland.

This talk is co-sponsored by the African Studies Research Focus Group and the Ancient Borderlands Research Focus Group. For more information on these groups, visit the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center web site.

jwil 01.ix.2013