Paper short abstract:

Using a multispecies perspective, I examine the ways that human, livestock and wildlife belonging in the Namibian landscape are negotiated by actors in Karakul sheep farming, and what farming futures in southern Namibia could look like among processes of deagrarianisation and wildlife conservation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper approaches (re-)wilding practices from the perspective of multispecies relations of humans and Karakul sheep in southern Namibia. Predation and predator control through fencing, herding and hunting have shaped farming practices throughout the region. To farmers and farm workers, knowledge of sheep is entwined with knowledges of specific land and the ecologies of livestock and wildlife inhabiting it.

With the decline of the Karakul industry, several commercial farms have undergone processes of deagrarianisation, turning into guest or game farms. I look at the ways that notions of nature, domestication and wilderness are negotiated among actors in the Karakul industry and in what ways they are entangled with the histories of apartheid and colonialism. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on Karakul farms and at Karakul institutions in Namibia, I argue that we are witnessing a shift in narratives around Karakul farming and multispecies convivialities.

Quick accumulation of wealth through Karakul farming no longer works as it did in the 1960s-1980s. The rise of tourism and the commodification of nature have complicated human-livestock-wildlife interactions. The case of the Karakul industry both blurs and redraws the distinctions of wild/domestic and native/indigenous breeds and species. These tensions are performed and negotiated by different actors through performances of purity, authenticity and belonging. In my analysis, I pay attention to the ways these shifts destabilise or reinforce economic inequalities. I investigate what farming futures in southern Namibia could look like among processes of deagrarianisation and wildlife conservation.