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.
Advance praise for Space is the Ultimate Luxury:
‘This powerful book draws back the curtain on the shadowy world of private nature conservation. African farmers along the Orange River have managed, against all odds, to maintain access to their ancestral lands through a century and a half of colonialism, genocide, and apartheid – only to find their access threated by elite conservation projects. Moore and Lenggenhager reveal the long history of human occupation in the very place that capitalist investors now insist must be ‘rewilded’ to save the planet. Space is the Ultimate Luxury challenges the moralizing claims of the men who fly private planes and make millions from ecologically destructive industries but who nevertheless insist that it is African pastoralists who threaten our planet’s future’.
Meredith McKittrick, Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University
‘This book analyses the complex intersections of capital, conservation, land, and identity in one of Namibia’s most expansive, ecologically and historically rich landscapes. This compelling narrative explores the tensions between individuals seeking large parcels of land for exclusive use, conservationists claiming to protect biodiversity, and local communities fighting to reclaim their ancestral land rights. It provides a thought-provoking analysis of this modern-day clash, and it is an important book for Namibia’s land question and conservation agenda’.
Romie Nghitevelekwa, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Namibia
‘This is a book of history and anthropology, the past and the present. Effortlessly, the authors draw on academic fields as diverse as geology and biology, moulding reflections on deep-time and corporate green-washing into a single highly readable whole. The absences of diatribes and the cool understated approach of the text makes it all the more powerfully devastating. In fifteen short and succinct chapters the authors draw attention to the true inhabitants of the deep south of Namibia, delivering a volley of sucker-punches which make a mockery of the environmental claims of the mega-rich, be they mining executives, gap-year youth, corporate traders, or hunters’.
Jan-Bart Gewald, Professor of History at Leiden University
About the Author
Bernard C. Moore
Bernie works as a History Lecturer at Alma College in Michigan, USA. He teaches a wide range of classes, with a focus on economic history, environmental history, and especially African history.
He received his PhD in African History from Michigan State University, where he also holds a MA degree in African American & African Studies. He began his journeys to Namibia while working towards his BA degree at Fordham University in his native New York.
Beyond Space is the Ultimate Luxury, he has published various articles and volumes in the field of economic & labour history, zooming in on agriculture and land in southern Africa. From September 2025, Bernie will take up a postdoctoral fellowship with the CEDEL project at the Centre for African Studies, University of Basel.
When he is not traversing Namibia’s breathtaking landscapes and meeting wonderful people along the way, Bernie enjoys long-distance running and watching track & field.
Bernie can be reached at: bernardcmoore@gmail.com
About the Author
Luregn Lenggenhager
Luregn is a historian and geographer with a focus on Namibian and southern African history. His research and writing focuses on the history of militarisation and conservation, transfrontier conservation, human-animal relations, and border & land issues in southern Africa.
He holds a PhD from the University of Zürich, and he has held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Basel and the University of Cologne. He has regularly led academic exchange programmes between Switzerland and Namibia, and he is also an affiliated researcher at universities in southern Africa.
From September 2025, he will return to the University of Basel, where he will lead the SNSF-funded research project ‘Curated Escapes and Derelict Landscapes in Times of Climate Change’ [CEDEL], headquartered in the Centre for African Studies.
When he is not busy researching and writing, Luregn enjoys exploring his native Switzerland via train – and hiking with his own two feet.
Luregn can be reached at: luregn.lenggenhager@unibas.ch
Interested in reviewing Space is the Ultimate Luxury?
Write to Bernie [bernardcmoore@gmail.com] and we can get you a complimentary copy!