Dwelling practices and the reproduction of marginality among the Mbanderu of Ngamiland, Botswana

The Mbanderu of Botswana are a people closely related to the Herero, both communities having been displaced by German colonial aggression in Namibia in 1896/7 and 1904/5. However, little ethnographic attention has been paid thus far to this marginalised pastoralist community in Botswana. The paper outlines Mbanderu dwelling practices around Lake Ngami, examining concepts such as cooperation within their established grazing lands (ekondua rimue), the relation between dry and wet season dwelling sites, and their associated material practices, as well as the way in which burial, homestead abandonment and rebuilding are intimately connected in the landscape. Finally, the situation of Ovambanderu living in the town of Maun is considered, and the argument made that perceptions of socio-political marginalisation within Botswana, and suspicion of state attitudes towards them, on the part of Mbanderu are reproduced through the material practices of dwelling in the town, where a state of “permanent temporariness” is recreated over time through dwelling activities.