This dissertation explores the history of land, labour, and livestock in southern Namibia, revealing how this arid, peripheral area became drawn into global networks of meat production (the protein frontier) and fur farming (the skin frontier), as well as regional networks relating to the expansion of the South African Empire. Drawing from a vast assemblage of underutilised archival records from Namibia, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Angola, this study reconstructs the political economy of rural southern Namibia from the outbreak of the First World War up through the end of the 1960s, when the implementation of new apartheid legislation would change fundamental aspects of land tenure and agricultural production. Through close attention to long-term statistical trends and short-term local contingency, the study examines (1) transformations in land tenure amidst the most rapid settler colonial experiment in world history, noting the political, economic, ecological, and ideological foundations upon which the system was built, as well as the effects experienced by indigenous Namibians. In addition to questions of land tenure, a distinct focus is placed upon (2) examining labour relations in rural southern Namibia, considering how the system of farm labour fundamentally changed during these years, eventually pulling in migrant workers from more than a thousand kilometres away in Angola. The dissertation also closely reconstructs (3) the history of the very livestock kept on these farms, reminding the reader of the contentious political, economic, and ecological debates over which breeds of sheep and cattle were most useful for the colonial project to capture, transform, and profit from grass. This study shows the importance of karakul sheep in shaping the trajectory of colonial agriculture, labour relations, and race relations, distinguishing Namibia from other colonised arid lands globally. Ultimately this dissertation shows that the history of karakul sheep, of the workers who shepherded them, and of the arid lands upon which they walked all illuminate broader regional and global trends regarding settler colonialism and rural capitalism.
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