Presentation short abstract

The wildlife of southern Angola and Namibia’s Caprivi Strip were lively political commodities enrolled into a geopolitical war, serving as active co-producers of conflict. Today, Eastern Caprivi’s political animals are co-producing their lively commodification in the capitalist political economy.

Presentation long abstract

This paper investigates the intimate role wildlife of southern Angola and Caprivi (Zambezi Region), Namibia played in the Namibian War of Independence (South African Border War). The wildlife of this region was simultaneously enrolled into a geopolitical conflict and the capitalist political economy. Previous inquiries into the role of nature in this conflict frames nature/wildlife as inert, utilized to further an objective or subject to over exploitation. However, the role of wildlife in this war as active political actors with agency and influence has not been explored. Theoretically drawing from lively commodity theory, influenced by Marxism and Latourian ANT, and the typology of nature commodification, this paper will present a lively geopolitical ecology of wildlife in Namibia’s War of Independence. It will also demonstrate wildlife’s deep entanglement with the capitalist political economy resulting in a hierarchy of species exploitation. This paper will draw from empirical data collected via semi-structured interviews during my PhD fieldwork in Eastern Zambezi, Namibia (2024), published first-hand accounts, archival official government commission report (1996), and desktop research. The paper will argue that various wildlife species were active political actors and simultaneously lively and fleshy political commodities of a geopolitical war. It will also demonstrate the effects on the region’s wildlife populations caused by this war-wildlife entanglement remains today. This paper will expand on the understanding of nature’s role in the war and how a geopolitical institution, South African Defense Forces, used their power to over exploit the wildlife in a variety of ways.