ABSTRACT South Africa's colony, Namibia, served as a crucial testing ground for apartheid: not only was it the scene of the only significant effort to impose 'grand apartheid', but also of its demise. This essay examines the role of social engineering experts in these efforts by focusing on their role in the social construction of Omega base which housed Bushman soldiers. Treating Omega as an extended case study, I trace out the impact of these decisions and how they helped fashion mechanisms of contra-mobilisation used in the internal pacification of anti-apartheid groups like the UDF. The modus operandi of these experts favoured conspiracy theories and their methodology was akin to acts of divination. I argue that they constituted a ‘Potted Factory' in three important ways: Firstly, potted refers to the way facts and ideas were summarised, abbreviated and decontextualised and became part of the symbolic currency of exchange; secondly, they were enclosed ideologically in a closed system or a sealed container; thirdly, ‘potted' refers to being high, which they were in a figurative sense. Of course, my own analysis also makes use of conspiracy theories as I attempt to explore the ‘dark side’ of military intelligence.

中文翻译：

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欧米茄的巫毒民族学家

摘要 南非的殖民地纳米比亚是种族隔离的重要试验场：它不仅是实施“大种族隔离”的唯一重大努力的场所，也是其消亡的场所。本文通过关注社会工程专家在安置布须曼士兵的欧米茄基地的社会建设中的作用，研究了社会工程专家在这些努力中的作用。将欧米茄作为一个扩展案例研究，我追溯了这些决定的影响，以及它们如何帮助形成用于内部安抚反种族隔离组织（如 UDF）的反动员机制。这些专家的作案手法偏爱阴谋论，他们的方法类似于占卜。我认为它们在三个重要方面构成了“盆栽工厂”：首先，盆栽是指对事实和想法进行总结、缩写和去语境化的方式，并成为象征性交换货币的一部分；二是思想上被封闭在一个封闭的系统或密封的容器中；第三，“盆栽”是指高，他们是比喻意义上的。当然，当我试图探索军事情报的“阴暗面”时，我自己的分析也利用了阴谋论。