Out of Space and Place: Tales of Namibian Uranium through Mineral Objects

This chapter explores the significance of African uranium for visions of land usage and statehood in the history of Namibia. It suggests that the cosmic, radioactive origins of uranium imbued the metal with the promise of magical properties among the land’s colonisers and traditional custodians. These inhabitants ranged from Herero, who associated uranium-rich lands with infertility, to German and Afrikaner settlers, who saw in uranium the power to transcend the hardship of the desert. The trajectory of these ‘geo-cosmologies’ was heavily shaped by German colonialism, British capital, and South African apartheid, leading to the rise of Namibia as a uranium-producing state. In this chapter, I unpack stories about radioactive earth through three mineral objects, including two uranium-bearing minerals stored in Berlin, and a uranium cube in Bonn, originally fabricated by the Nazis.