Paper short abstract:

This paper examies the implementation of the official livestock registration in Namibia in order to show how veterinary policy was embedded in techniques of colonial control and to shed further light on institutional continuities of colonial rule in Namibia.

Paper long abstract:

In Namibia, just like in other settler colonies of sub-Saharan Africa, the European colonial system was literally built on the backs of horses, cattle, and sheep. Horses were used largely for personal transport and military purposes. Providing meat, milk and wool, cattle and sheep formed the backbone of commercial as well as subsistence economies. Furthermore, the whole colonial transport system relied on ox-wagons. Due to this central role of livestock, animal diseases formed a major threat for the colonial rule in southern Africa.

Until today quarantine measures and vaccination campaigns form the key elements to combat animal diseases. To carry out these measures veterinarians must be able to determine the origin and ownership of animals.

In Namibia both settler and black livestock owners had marked their animals with branding irons to indicate ownership at least since the 1850s. As these marks followed no standardized procedure this system allowed neither a reliable identification of ownership nor an effective supervision of veterinary control measures. To solve this complex set of problems the German and South African colonial administration issued three Cattle Brand Acts between 1912 and 1923.

This paper examies the implementation of the official livestock registration in Namibia in order to show how veterinary policy was embedded in techniques of colonial control and to shed further light on institutional continuities of colonial rule in Namibia.