Articles | Volume 16, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-679-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-679-2020
Research article
 | 
06 Apr 2020
Research article |  | 06 Apr 2020

“Everything is scorched by the burning sun”: missionary perspectives and experiences of 19th- and early 20th-century droughts in semi-arid central Namibia

Stefan Grab and Tizian Zumthurm

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Here we describe the unique nature of droughts over semi-arid central Namibia (southern Africa) between 1850 and 1920. We establish temporal shifts in the influence and impact that historical droughts had on society and the environment during this period. The paper demonstrates and argues that human experience and the associated reporting of drought events depend strongly on social, environmental, spatial, and societal developmental situations and perspectives.