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FACULTY OF ECONOMIC &
MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL STUDIES

CANDIDATE: AMUPANDA Job Shipululo

CURRICULUM VITAE

Job Shipululo Amupanda was born on 28 August 1987 in Omaalala village where he
schooled before attending secondary school at Iipumbu Secondary School in Oshakati.
His qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies and History (University of
Namibia); Bachelor of Arts Honours in Political Science (University of Stellenbosch, South
Africa); Bachelor of Arts Honours in History (University of South Africa, South Africa); and a Masters of Arts in Political Science
(University of Stellenbosch). He worked as an Administrative Assistant in the Postgraduate and International Office at the
University of Stellenbosch and as a Quality Assurance Officer at the Center for Quality Assurance and Management at the
University of Namibia. He served in several boards of national institutions such as the Namibia Qualification Authority, National
Heritage Council and the Namibia Youth Credit Scheme. He is a youth and social justice activist particularly involved in
access to land, housing and anti-corruption efforts. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the department of Political and
Administrative Studies and also a Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of
Namibia. He is part of various international initiatives on democracy and social justice. He has been Namibia Country expert
for the Varieties of Democracy Survey, one of the largest international social science data collection efforts, coordinated by
the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. In 2016, he was selected for the African Election Fellowship
run by the American Council for Young Political Leaders. The fellowship included the observation of the 2016 US Presidential
Elections and a study of the US political system. He has published 15 academic papers and articles in local and international
peer-reviewed journals. His research engages with African politics, comparative politics, African political history, African
development, developmental states, and decoloniality.

CANDIDATE’S DISSERTATION

THE CONSOLIDATED DIAMOND MINES AND THE NATIVES IN COLONIAL NAMIBIA: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF
ILLEGAL DIAMONDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF OWAMBOLAND (1908 - 1990)

The doctoral study was undertaken and completed under the supervision of Professor Lesley Blaauw of the University of
Namibia as Main-Supervisor and Professor André du Pisani from the University of Namibia as Co-Supervisor.

The candidate studied the relationship between the Aawambo workers in the employment of one of the oldest diamond
mines in colonial Namibia, the Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM), and the former’s involvement in illicit diamond trade
that flowered into a particular case of development of Owamboland. The study problematized and critiqued the ‘natural
resource curse’ theory that privileges the economics explanations of the Dutch Disease and Revenue Volatility over the
political economy explanation. The theory is problematized for its argument of a somewhat ‘original sin’ that natural resources
endowment inevitably results into a ‘curse’ in terms of economic development. The study aligned and pursued the political
economy approach to the ‘natural resource curse’ research and provides further explanations from a decolonial perspective.
Because of the political conditions in colonial Namibia, the political economy explanations such as rent-seeking, agency
and moral cosmopolitanism are insufficient in explaining the relationship between the natives and CDM in colonial Namibia
in general and the role of illegal diamonds in the development of Owamboland in particular. As such, decolonial insights
informed by an alternative epistemology, and concepts such as indigenous resurgence and alternative conceptualizations
of development are harnessed to provide an understanding of the political economy of illegal diamonds in the former
Owamboland. Using a mixed method, the study was exposed to a rich set of data ranging from interviews, archival records,
court records and secondary data. This allowed for cross pollination and verification of the data, thus improving the validity and
reliability of the data and findings. The study found, across all four data sets, compelling evidence confirming illegal diamonds
operations at CDM involving the Aawambo workers and their Portuguese masterminds. According to the findings of this study,
there is a correlation between illegal diamonds and development of Owamboland in colonial Namibia. The study also found
that prominent business personalities credited for the development of Owamboland, referred to in the study as the ‘Diamond
Princes’ were involved in the underground diamond economy in Owamboland. Illegal diamonds led to increased purchasing
power, significant mercantilism and provided several economic opportunities for the natives in the then Owamboland
including the transformation of the rural economy. The evidence further suggests that Namibia’s liberation movement and
present day ruling party, SWAPO, was a direct and indirect beneficiary of illegal diamond economy rents during its fight against
Apartheid colonialism. CDM, which maintained a symbiotic relationship with the colonial state and implemented its policies,
stands accused of and associated with the death and disappearance of CDM workers who remain unaccounted for to date.
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