botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice

(iv) Certain Official Reports
687. The Namibian Memorial (p.81, para. 209) quotes the following passage from the Report
of Captain Eason: 'The natives living at Kasika in German territory are at present growing
crops on it [the island]'. In fact the meaning depends on the context and the relevant passage
reads as follows:
"Two miles above the rapids lies Kissikiri Island. Here I consider that undoubtedly the North
should be claimed as the main channel. At the western end of the island the north channel at
this period of the year is over one hundred feet width and 8 feet deep. The south channel
about forty feet width and four feet deep. The south channel is merely a back water, what
current there is goes round the North. The natives living at Kasika in German territory are at
present growing crops on it." (emphasis supplied) (Botswana Memorial, Vol. III, pp.234-5).
688. The opinion of Captain Eason is that the main channel is the northern channel and the
phrase 'living at Kasika in German territory' must rule out the inference that there was a
village on the island. Moreover, there is no basis for thinking that Captain Eason considered
that the activities of the people of Kasika might have the effect of making his reconnaissance
redundant. And Captain Eason contradicts any suggestion that there was a village on the
island. It is the people 'living at Kasika' who were growing crops, not the people 'living on the
island'.
689. After an irrelevant allusion to an explorer's account, the Namibian Memorial refers to
Major Trollope's 'Report on the Administration of the Eastern Caprivi Zipfel: 1940'
(Namibian Memorial, pp.81-3, paras. 211-12). This reference is difficult to understand. Major
Trollope does not make a single reference to the island. Moreover, in the conclusion to his
substantial Report he states 'that relations with surrounding territories and their
administrations have been of the happiest'. (ibid., pp.32-3). This statement is particularly
significant in view of the fact that he had received the co-operation of the Bechuanaland
Protectorate Government, who had assisted in patrolling a part of the Caprivi Strip.
690. In other respects the Trollope Report confirms the evidence that there was no village on
the island. Thus, the author contradicts the witnesses who suggested that the school was on
the island (ibid., p.25).
691. This part of the Namibian Memorial (pp.83-5, paras. 214-17) then seeks to rely upon the
correspondence between the British and South African authorities in the period 1948 to 1951.
This correspondence will be examined in detail below.
(v) The Payment of Tax at Schuckmannsburg
692. In a very general account of the administration of the Eastern Caprivi in the period 1890
to 1991, the Namibian Government makes one specific assertion:
"The method of indirect administration continued out of necessity. A tribal levy of five
shillings per year per adult male was imposed, although there were many remissions and
exceptions. It was applied mainly for the payment of an annual stipend to the two chiefs in the
area. This was a capitation tax and did not relate to any particular location or activity. But
witnesses who testified to living and farming on Kasikili Island recalled going to