The third chapter deals with the three centuries immediately preceding the colonial annexation of the region. These three decades and especially the 1890s and the early 1900s are characterised by rampant elephant hunting in the region. The onslaught on north-west Namibia's wildlife brings about massive changes of the social ecological system. Elephants are discussed here as primary landscape architects. Once they were eliminated from the system, human settlement and vegetation dynamics changed and paved the way for the repastoralisation of the region. The chapter also depicts how international interest in ivory, ravenous elephant hunters, and deprived local communities concur to prepare for major changes in the environmental infrastructures of the region.

Chapter 5 deals with the establishment of a colonial administration in the region. Whereas the German administration hardly established any enduring administrative structures in the region, the South African government was more ambitious to ensure dominance and administrative effectiveness. Closely connected to (but not controlled by) the advancing colonial administration is the rapid repastoralisation of the population. Within a period of thirty years a community subsisting mainly on foraging and small stock keeping turns itself into a prosperous cattle rearing community.