SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT - ASSESSING THE RESERVE ECONOMY LEGACY OF NAMIBIA

This paper argues that as policy-thinking on rural development in Nami bia has emerged, there has been a tendency to draw on a particular, so mewhat distorted, history of the countryside. More accurate analyses o f different localities ave being generated by Namibianist historians, bur such research ought to be located not only within a country framew ork, but also within a comparative history of Namibia and her southern African neighbours. In initiating this latter task, the paper uses th e issues raised in Beinart's paper 'Soil Erosion, Conservationism and Ideas about Development', Journal of Southern African Studies (1984) t o begin comparing Rhodesia, South Africa and Namibia. It suggests a nu mber of questions for historical research relating to the nature and s trategy of the Namibian colonial state and highlights some aspects of the experience of rural people in Namibia which contrast sharply with Rhodesia and South Africa.