Editors: J. Henschel, R. Dausab, P. Moser, J. Fallen
ISBN: 99916-40-33-9 (Namibia)
ISBN: 3-936858-70-5 (Germany)
Publisher: Namibia Scientific Society
Windhoek, 2004
Soft cover, 15x21cm, 168 pages, 22 colour photos

Introduction:

The !nara* (Acanthosicyos horridus) is a leafless, spiny bush that is found only in the Namib Desert.

Its melon-like fruit has, for Centimes, been an inseparable part of the culture of the local Topnaar people (also called +Aonin), who live along the ephemeral !Khuiseb River as subsistence farmers.

Recent changes both in the socio-economic conditions of the Topnaar and in fruit production of !nara prompted the initiation of the NARA programme (Natural Resource management by the +Aonin), jointly coordinated by the Topnaar Community Foundation and the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia.

NARA has focused on questions concerning !nara plant productivity, sustainability, management, and utilisation, both as a food commodity and cash crop.

Recent ecological studies described in the text show that access of the roots to groundwater underlying the sandy desert environment is the most decisive requirement for !naras, and that the plants have surprisingly low efficiency of water use.

Jackals and gerbils serve as crucial vectors of seed dispersal, while solitary bees and blister beetles are the most important pollinators.

Large herbivores, especially domestic donkeys, often cause considerable damage to !naras by feeding on flowers, immature fruit and seedlings. A socio-economic study examines the current market and economic importance of !nara, and identifies factors that may enable current Topnaar suppliers of !nara products to become self-sufficient small-scale marketers.

The community envisions that this can be achieved by working together to form a !nara co-operative and diversifying !nara products and markets. Recommendations in this book, derived from discussions and workshops with scientists and Topnaar community members, aim to improve the economic self-sufficiency of rural !Khuiseb Topnaar.

This could be achieved with !nara, a traditional commodity that builds on their existing experience, strengthens their cultural image, and suits their natural, arid environment.

Foreword by Chief Seth Kooitjie:

When I was elected as Chief twenty years ago, I voted to uphold and promote the livelihood ofmy people, the Topnaar. Given the circumstances I inherited, there was no doubt in my mind about the difficult struggle ahead of me to address the difficulties within the traditional area of my community, as part of the community are living in the Namib-Naukluft Park. One of the most important issues I had to face was the one-sided policy prohibiting us from practising our traditional rights within our traditional territory. In so doing my community lost a great part of their culture and traditional way of life.

However, one part of our culture remained attached to my people as it has been and still is and will be their way of life for Centimes to come. We have been given the opportunity to protect, conserve, and to promote the only remaining natural resource we can claim without any fear of contradiction: the !NARA PLANT. Over the years, we met hundreds of researchers and people who wrote about the importance of the !nara plant and its cultural and traditional value in the lives of the Topnaar people. Indeed these articles and literature contributed to the exposure of the unique endemic plant. As the traditional authority, we realised that much more is needed to conserve and to secure the future of this important plant, at the same time, to ensure sustainable use of the plant through education programmes for the users of this Natural Resource.

I appeal to all Namibians and interested international parties throughout the world to play an active role in protecting these unique plants, by contributing towards the efforts of the leaders of the community to ensure the survival of the !nara plants. This can only be achieved by joining hands in the efforts to understand the process of how this plant ensures its survival in the desert. Also, equally important, are the factors contributing to the deterioration and decline of production by the plants.

Being a responsible leader, I would like to see this project fulfilling set objectives: - to ensure the protection and survival of the !nara plant - to ensure sustainable utilisation - to ensure the successful cultivation of the !nara plant through research. To this end I pledge all my support and would like to share with you the praise of the !Nara by the Elders of our community:

You round food with many thorns,
Foster mother of the Topnaar children,
Even when I'm far away I shall think of you,
You food of my ancestors,
I will never forget you,
There is no breast-feeding woman like you.

With these few words, I thank everyone who contributed to the realisation of the first ever document initiated by the community and produced by the hard working researchers and students of the DRFN. I hope that this document will contribute towards promotion and sustainable utilisation of indigenous plants. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my profound appreciation towards our government for recognising the need to assist the Topnaar Community to realise their dream by taking the initiative in providing funds for the first ever community-owned !nara project. May God bless all your hard work. I thank you.
The Chief, S.M. Kooitjie, Topnaar Community

From Chapter 2:

!Nara in Topnaar history by Nina Gruntkowski and Joh Henschel

Evidence of the oldest use of !nara seeds dates back approximately 8000 years from Mirabib, an inselberg on the gravel plains of the central Namib Desert (Sandelowsky 1974). Although it is not proven that today's Topnaar descended from the people who lived in the Mirabib shelter, it is considered likely. Sandelowsky (1977) assumes that the most successful subsistence strategy was the exploitation of resources in a few surrounding areas. For the people in this area, who were probably hunter-gatherers, these could have been the coast, the river banks (with !nara fields) and areas with higher rainfall further inland. However, the absence of pottery in these early records makes stewing and storage of !nara unlikely (Kinahan 2001), and the utilisation of !nara may have been confined to the temporary availability of ripe fruit.

It is generally acknowledged that nomadic Khoe pastoralists introduced a subsistence economy to southern Africa, clearly distinct from the agropastoralism of Bantu people, about 2000 years ago. Archaeological finds, including ones from the !Khuiseb area, include the appearance of pottery, particularly narrow mouthed storage vessels without soot (Kinahan 2001). The nomadic Khoe pastoralists spread their "new technological development" (Deacon in Kinahan 2001: 10) wherever conditions were suitable in the westem and southem areas of Africa. Pottery, in particular the presence of large, wide mouthed vessels since 800BP, (Sydow 1967, 1973;Rudner 1968; Sandelowsky & Pendleton 1976; Sandelowsky 1977; Shackley 1985; Kinahan 2001) have been interpreted as indicative of !nara preparation, storage and transport (Kinahan 2001). The consistent association of such pottery with bone knives reinforces this interpretation (Kinahan pers. comm.).

The utilisation of !nara by Khoekhoe was first recorded in 1677 by Captain Womba from the Dutch East India Company. He landed with the "Boode" on the West Coast and noted: "These (Hottentots) had left in flight and had left behind... a pot... with kernels ... from something similar to a pawpaw" (Womba 1918: 51). Womba furthermore mentions evidence of cattle herding, as the "Hottentots" quickly complied to the request for cattle by the ship's crew. Current mainstays of the rural economy of !Khuiseb Topnaar were thus already in place at least 300 years ago, and possibly have been for as long as 2000 years. Most subsequent reports of travellers and missionaries describing the inhabitants of this part of the West Coast mention !nara consumption and herding (Dentlinger 1983; Moritz 1992; Kinahan 2000). Marine resources were also exploited. They were first recorded in 1793 (Van Reenen 1915), whereas the dating of shell middens in the coastal dunes dates back much further.

The term "Topnaar" is regarded as a Dutch-Afrikaans translation of the name +Aoni, but is used by the people themselves. The Nama noun +aos means something like "extremity" as in "far away places and margmal areas of territory ". From the perspective ofother Khoekhoe groups, the +Aonin inhabited the far distant northwesterly border of Namaland. The term Naranin or "!nara people" is also used mostly by other Khoekhoe to describe their dependency on and ownership of !nara, thereby distinguishing the Topnaar from other Khoekhoe (Budack 1977). In contrast to other natural resources, the !nara has been utilised continuously by the Topnaar community. The largest !nara fields are located in the Kuiseb Delta, although smaller !nara fields occur along the river and south ofit in the dunes up to Homeb. It has been a long tradition for people to move to the Delta during the !nara harvesting season (December to May).

The traditional reliance by the Topnaar on a specific wild plant is unusual for Nama groups. Another exception was the practice of private ownership over inherited family !nara plots (described by Chapman (1864) in 1855; see chapter 10). This is in contrast to communal property rights amongst other Nama groups, where every tribesman is allowed to move around freely with his stock.

However these family property rights of the Topnaar "are vested in these bushes, and not in the land..." (Budack 1983:4). According to Chief Seth Kooitjie pers. comm.), the British, after their annexation of Walvis Bay in 1878, recognised the Protection of Property Rights of !Nara by the Topnaar in Article 5, Clause 7:

"The chief is the guardian of the !Nara fields on behalf of the community. Damage, theft or any unknown trading in !Nara products are punishable". In 1888, documents state the agitation of the Topnaar, "who monopolised the narras", when there was unauthorised harvesting of !nara by people who were not Topnaar. In 1905, the Deutsch-Südwestafrikanische Zeitung wrote about the Topnaar:

"They are said to have strong respect for the property rights attached to every single plant" (Budack 1983:5).
The Topnaar economy has never solely depended on !nara. Kinahan (2000) believes that the Topnaar were involved in trade with foreigners from the late eighteenth Century, and probably before. At this time the pastoralists, relying on pastures but also on !nara and marine resources, had extensive links to the interior. These resources and the availability of water and Vegetation in the Kuiseb riverbed allowed semi-permanent homesteads at Walvis Bay, which "were part of an established regional trade network that extended to the north and to the central highlands of Namibia with indirect links to the east coast" (Kinahan 2000: 93).

By 1770, American whalers had discovered the whaling grounds close to Walvis Bay and trade with the inhabitants at the coast began. These whalers exchanged trade goods such as tobacco, pipes, rum, tin ware, wire, cloth, soap, muskets and gunpowder for water, wood and fresh provisions to replenish their supplies. When the number of whale ships decreased, merchants continued this profitable trade. Logbooks from this time mention trading livestock with pastoralists on the Namib coast (Kinahan 2000).

By the early nineteenth Century, another Khoekhoe group, known as Oorlam, had migrated into Namibia from the Cape frontier. By means of technological superiority, Jonker Afrikaner, their leader, established dominance over the other Nama groups and the Herero further north, settled in /Ae//gams (today's Windhoek) and built a road along the Kuiseb River for the transport of trade goods to Walvis Bay. This accelerated the transportation of fragile goods, but also enhanced the contact between the Oorlam in the centre of the country and the Topnaar. The contact with the Oorlam "who acquired a Westernish lifestyle far beyond the other Nama-speaking groups, and the development of Walvis Bay into a notable port had created a basis of Western commerce in which the Topnaar would become increasingly involved as their own resources disappeared or became inaccessible" (Dentlinger 1983: 17/18).

Jonker Afrikaner controlled the activities of traders and missionaries and carried out cattle-raiding forays, some of which were directed against the +Aonin community. In 1844, the +Aonin community was again raided by Wilhelm Swartbooi, an ally of Jonker Afrikaner. By the end of the nineteenth Century the decline of pastoralism in the lower Kuiseb had become irreversible. A variety of reasons, such as restrictions of movements, cattle raids, drought, and commodity exchange, contributed to the collapse of the self-sustaining herding economy. The number of animals throughout the pastoral network had probably fallen, and finally the Topnaar were forced to attach themselves to European merchants and settlers for wage labour. From the middle of the 19th Century until today, the people along the Kuiseb have only been able to survive because some of them have worked in urban centres and helped to support their families in the Kuiseb Valley (Dentlinger 1983; Kinahan 2001; Chapter 11).

However, the 19th-century Topnaar still had access to !nara, marine resources and game, and still owned herds of small stock. Therefore they did not become completely dependent on wage labour or charity for subsistence. The beach with its rich marine resources offered good conditions for impoverished pastoralists and it is likely that, after they lost their cattle, many people moved to the sea. Kinahan (2001) views the differentiation into Khuisenin ("!Khuiseb people") and Hurinin ("sea people") (Budack 1977) as a more recent social phenomenon to distinguish the rich from the poor respectively, rather than as distinct ethnic entities. Finally, with the development of Walvis Bay into an urban centre and port, the marine resources became largely inaccessible to Topnaars except through employment in fisheries.

In 1884, Germany proclaimed a protectorate over the area ranging from south of Lüderitz to north of Cape Frio. Imperial Commissioners purchased land and mineral rights from chiefs. Piet //Eibib of Walvis Bay also signed a treaty with Dr. Nachtigal, the German Imperial Commissioner. For 20 pounds Sterling, he ceded the coastline and 100-200 km of its adjoining land from 26° to 22° S, excluding Walvis Bay, which had already been ceded to the British (Hesse 1905; Esterhuyse 1968)12.

In 1907 the Namib Game Reserve was proclaimed by the Germans. It was extended to become the Namib-Naukluft Game Park in 1975, under the South African Mandate. Park regulations were formulated by South West Africa's Department of Nature Conservation, some of which were in direct conflict with Topnaar traditional land use practices. For example, game hunting and trapping of predators were prohibited, so that the Topnaar custom of !arnis (seasonal hunting) was prevented (Botelle & Kowalski 1995). Regulations also prohibited some established practices of !nara rnanagement, such as burning dry parts of bushes (Rudolf Dausab, pers. comm.). Furthermore, park regulations did not recognise the residents' rights of place. In 1992, a socio-ecological report pointed out that "the most important issue for the Topnaar people is the need for government recognition of their rights on the land they occupy" (Jones 1992: 3)13.

More and more, the Topnaar adopted a sedentary lifestyle as a consequence of the park regulations restricting their movement and development. "The continuous cyclical wanderings of the Khoi herders were reduced to an annual migration between semi-permanent settlements, and the crop" (Budack 1983: 6). In the late 1970s the government began sinking boreholes along the river, which contributed to the establishment of permanent settlements in proximity to the water points. This was a response to the lowering of the water table caused by overuse of the aquifer, which is said to have also contributed to the decrease of !nara productivity.

During the latter part of its mandate of South West Africa, the South African government paid pensions to the !Khuiseb Topnaar who were registered in Walvis Bay. Payment of pensions by South Africa to the Topnaar continued even after South Africa handed Walvis Bay over to Namibia in 1994. This is significant, because the South African pension is higher than the Namibian. Today, pension is an important income for !Khuiseb households.

In 1962 a flood barrier was constructed in the Kuiseb Delta to protect Walvis Bay from flooding. The barrier was built on granite bedrock and it blocks the surface flow of the river, thus reducing groundwater replenishment. Consequently, the productivity of the !nara fields along the Delta's northwesterly arm decreased from the 1970s onwards. This evidently led to the discontinuation of private ownership of !nara plots when harvesters from the northern Delta began sharing with harvesters in other areas (Botelle & Kowalski 1995). However, many Topnaar harvesters today still know the owners of the different! nara plots, although it has become common to harvest wherever the fruit are ripe (Rudolf Dausab, pers. obs.; see Chapter 11).

Moreover, the Kuiseb Delta is subject to constant change. Firstly, the !nara plant itself creates new dunes by accumulating sand blown against it. Secondly, the river can do a lot of damage when its water reaches the delta after heavy rains in the inferior, and can wash !nara plants away. This happened during the floods of 1934, 1963 and 2000. The loss of !nara plants has been considered disastrous (Kohler 1969) as it could have a significant effect on individual Topnaar harvesters operating in the eroded area. However, flooding promotes recruitment and accelerated growth and productivity (see Chapter 8) .

Budack (1977) stated that the dependency on !nara has decreased under the influence of modern circumstances. He nevertheless described that some individuals and even whole families spend the period from November until April in the Kuiseb Delta harvesting !nara for their own supply and for the sale of the pips17. Botelle & Kowalski (1995: 39) found that "virtually all Topnaar families have abandoned the seasonal practice of moving to the delta to harvest the !nara".

A new pattern has emerged where individuals, mostly men, travel to the delta for some weeks during each season to harvest the !nara and to get some income from selling the pips. In addition, most families harvest the !nara locally on a much smaller scale (Botelle & Kowalski 1995). The baseline study presented in Chapter 11 indicates that today at least 19% of the !Khuiseb Topnaar are professional harvesters, to whom !nara harvesting is of high economic significance, bringing in over a quarter of their household income. Nearly all members of the rural population do, however, continue to harvest !nara occasionally, either for food or additional cash. Most of these people still consider !nara to be important .

This brief sketch of Topnaar history shows that they have a long association with !nara (Table 2. l). Against a trend of decreasing access to various natural resources by the Topnaar community, access to !nara has been continuous, showing its superiority to all the drastic changes that have occurred during Topnaar history. The !nara is not only economically important, but it also has cultural value, contributing to the self-identification of the Topnaar Community. !Nara is still central to the daily life of the !Khuiseb Topnaar, as it has been for many centuries.

Content:

List of contributors
Foreword by Chief Kooitjie
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Summary
Part I: Background
Chapter 1: !Nara: culture, nature and nurture
(DRFN & TCF)
Chapter 2: !Nara in Topnaar history
(Gruntkowski & Henschel)
Chapter3: !Nara use by people
(Moser & Henschel)
Part II: Ecology
Chapter 4: !Nara ecology - an introduction
(Henschel & Moser)
Chapter 5: !Nara phenology and fruit production
(Berry)
Chapter 6: Pollination ecology of! nara
(Mayer)
Chapter+: Seed dispersal ecology of the !nara melon (Müller)
Chapter 8: Root and shoot development of !nara seedlings (Moser)
Chapter 9: Water, photosynthesis and transpiration of !nara (Hebeler, Botha & van Bel)
Part III: !Nara Resource Management
Chapter 10: !Nara property relations
(Widlok)
Chapter 11: Community-based resource management of !nara: a baseline study (DRFN & TCF)
Part IV: Future Outlook
Chapter 12: NARA: Which way forward+
(TCF & DRFN)
Part V: Literature & Appendices
Chapter 13: Literature Citations and Bibliography on !Nara and Topnaar
(Henschel, Henschel & Moser)
Glossary
Appendix A: Questions during interviews of Topnaars during the baseline study
Appendix B: Present and future marketing situation of the Topnaar
Appendix C: Answers to workshop questions