Bernard C. Moore
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Centre for African Studies,
University of Basel
Economic & Environmental History of Southern Africa and Beyond
About Me
I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Basel’s Centre for African Studies.
My research and scholarly publications consider wide aspects of African economic and environmental history, and all revolve in some way around the changing political economy of rural areas during the twentieth century. Most of my work deals with the history of Namibia, South Africa, Angola, and their wider place in global affairs.
I received my PhD from Michigan State University. Before coming to the University of Basel, I worked as a history lecturer at Alma College (USA), and before that at the University of Namibia.
PhD, Michigan State University
Universität Basel
Research Focus
History of Agriculture
Investigating how commercial and subsistence agriculture have transformed over the past two hundred years.
Namibian History
Conducting foundational studies into the history of the Republic of Namibia and the lived experiences of its people.
Political Ecology of Conservation
Critically examining the history, economy, and ecology of ‘conservation’ across the Global South and how it relates to land access.
Selected Publications
Some peer-reviewed work of mine
The Night Harvests: From Royal Game to Property Rights in Namibian Wildlife Policy
Realising Nature(s) in Germany and Namibia with Protected Areas: Contestations, Complexities and Contradictions of Conservation in Two National Contexts (Basel, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, forthcoming 2025).
B.C. Moore
This study examines how wildlife became a form of private property in southern Africa, particularly Namibia. It asks what this means for the land question moving foward.
Space is the Ultimate Luxury: Capitalists, Conservationists, and Ancestral Land in Namibia
Leiden, Brill 2025
B.C. Moore & L. Lenggenhager
This book explores the history, ecology, and society of a seemingly inhospitable stretch of land along the Orange River in southern Namibia. Here, a group of African farmers have succeeded against all odds to stay on their ancestral homeland through decades of colonialism and apartheid. The twenty-first century, however, has brought different people looking to evict them: nature conservationists. These farmers face off against billionaire gemstone mine owners, rhinoceros veterinarians and carbon finance executives, seeking to prove their legal and moral claims to their ancestral lands. This book reveals how we got here and what is at stake if they fail.
Swimming Upstream: From “Poor-Whites” to “Coloureds” along South Africa’s Lower Orange River
The Lower !Garib/Orange River: Pasts and Presents of a Southern African Border Region (Bielefeld, Transcript Verlag, 2023)
B.C. Moore
This article explores how the south bank of the Orange River changed over the twentieth century. It considers questions of land settlement, irrigated agriculture, race relations, and neoliberalism.
Paper, Pixels, or Plane Tickets? Multi-archival Perspectives on the Decolonisation of Namibia
Journal of Namibian Studies, 2022
T.A. van der Hoog & B.C. Moore
There is a global paper trail of documentation concerning the Namibian liberation struggle. Accessing such records can be difficult, time consuming, and expensive – especially for Namibia-based researchers. This article surveys this archival landscape, and it asks important methodological and ethical questions about what this global paper trail means for our ability to understand decolonisation.
Namibian Labour History
Special Issue in the Journal of Southern African Studies, 2021
B.C. Moore, S. Quinn, W. Lyon, K.F. Herzog
This special issue of JSAS reconsiders key issues in southern African economic history, based on new archival data from Namibia and new oral history materials.
Smuggled Sheep, Smuggled Shepherds: Farm Labour Transformations in Namibia and the Question of Southern Angola, 1933-1975
Journal of Southern African Studies, 2021
B.C. Moore
This article explores how the karakul sheep farming sector changed over the mid-twentieth century in response to labour recruitment crises, ecological constraints, and global market demands. It reveals how this obscure kind of sheep farming conditioned rural Namibia for decades to come.
Balancing the Scales: Re-Centring Labour and Labourers in Namibian History
Journal of Southern African Studies, 2021
B.C. Moore, S. Quinn, W. Lyon, K.F. Herzog
This introduction to our special issue of JSAS introduces readers to Namibian economic history, as well as how these case studies from Namibia can help us understand foundational questions in southern African economic history, such as labour recruitment and concepts like the ‘Articulation of Modes of Production’.
Complicating Histories of Carnivores in Namibia: Past to Present
Journal of Namibian Studies, 2018
R.J. Gordon, J. Swanepoel & B.C. Moore
This short article is a response to an incredibly controversial article by Niki Rust & Nik Taylor in Anthrozoos on predator control in Namibia. This jointly-authored response shows the limits of poor research methods and ahistorical analysis in undrestanding human-animal relations in southern Africa.
Get In Touch
I’m always interested in discussing research collaborations, student opportunities, or media inquiries.
Contact Information
bernardcmoore@gmail.com
Office
Centre for African Studies
University of Basel
Rheinsprung 21
Basel 4051, Switzerland
Phone
+264 81 227 3469