On 12 April 2007 at 16h00 the Legal Assistance Centre (4 Körner Str) will present the Launch of Ute Dieck-mann’s book “Hai//om in the Etosha Region”. This is a comprehensive book about colonial settlement, Ethnicity and Nature Conservation”.
Basler Afrika Bibliographien  pub-lished the book of 398 pages (with illustrations, maps, tables and index).
Speakers on this occasion are: Norman Tjombe (Director of LAC) and Ute Dieckmann (University of Cologne).
The Etosha Region, comprising the famous Etosha National Park and its adjacent communal and commercial farm lands, has been a contested region since the advent of colonial settlement. The centenary of the Eto-sha Park in 2007 provides an opportune moment for critical reflection on its history, a much-needed appraisal achieved by this book through its multiple perspectives.
At the centre of this book are the Hai//om San and their long history of dispossession and discrimination. Ute Dieckmann analyses with care the historical transformations. These were linked not only to the creation of one of the largest nature conservation areas in Africa but also to the estab-lishment of a settler state and society.
The manifold ways in which the Hai//om strive today to improve their living conditions are central to her insightful study. Ute Dieckmann has  been working with the multi-disciplinary research centre ACACIA at the Institute for Social Anthro-pology at the University of Cologne since 1998.
The book is distributed in Namibia by Demasius Publications (demasius@iway.na., Tel. 061-236938 or Fax 061-226187).