Preventing the Vacuum: Determinants of the Namibia Settlement
This paper examines the political, military and economic factors behind the diplomatic agreements which led to the withdrawal of South Africa's colonial occupation of Namibia in 1989–90, and it identifies some of the major constraints which Pretoria placed upon the independence of the new Namibian state. The view that the South African government withdrew from Namibia — but not Walvis Bay — because of military defeats in Angola during 1988 is rejected. It is argued that explanations for the settlement given by US diplomats, Chester Crocker and Charles Freeman, do not take into account key variables such as the underlying economic imperatives, South Africa's state and party building strategy in Namibia, and the political actions of the Namibian people themselves. Such determinants have also been ignored or obscured by most of the radical literature on South Africa's destabilisation of the sub‐region. It is argued here that Pretoria's attempts to consolidate stable conditions for a semi‐colonial state on it...
'Somewhere on the Border - of credibility' : the cultural construction and contestation of 'the Border' in white South African society
South Africa’s Border War had profound implications for the social and political organisation of white society. Indeed, maintaining the credibility of South Africa’s presence in Namibia and the prosecution of the Border War was an important political project for the National Party (NP) government. The discourse of ‘the border’ became a powerful cultural sign in white society and underpinned a mythology that sustained and intensified South Africa’s militarisation. As a cultural mythology, ‘the border’ was not a complete fabrication of reality (there was indeed a war conducted on and close to the Namibian border), but white society attached political and social meanings to ‘the border’ that appeared to be ‘common sense’ and self-evident and yet were partial and contingent on the existence of a number of socially constructed discourses. It seemed, however, self-evident to the majority of white people that the border between Namibia and Angola had to be militarily defended if the Republic and all that was familiar were to survive. It is, therefore, unsurprising that dissent or criticism of the Border War emanating from within the community was met with rhetorical vitriol from NP and military leaders and punitive legal sanctions. This chapter will focus on the cultural construction of ‘the border’ and its contestation by a small group of white men who refused to serve as conscripts and their supporters in the End Conscription Campaign (ECC). The analysis reveals that gender norms were central to the operation of ‘the border’ as a cultural sign in white society and the most effective means for critiquing ‘the border’ were also gendered. Changing political and military circumstances, the realities of the effects (both psychological and physical) on white men returning from ‘the border’ and the discursive spaces opened by anti-conscription activists in South Africa, all challenged the credibility of the Border War and helped to hasten the end of the conflict in 1988.
Achievements and contradictions of the Peruvian agrarian reform
Different paths of transition to capitalist agriculture, as well as different types of agrarian reform, can be distinguished. The Peruvian agrarian reform is analysed within this context and evaluated in terms of its contribution to rural development. The Peruvian case underlines the importance of understanding the rationality of the pre‐existent agrarian system for a successful restructuring of the agrarian economy and society. The contradictions which arose between the State's model and the peasants’ model of agrarian reform, as well as those between different types of peasants, are discussed. Peru's experience is also a reminder that a land reform is not a sufficient condition for rural development unless accompanied by proper price, marketing, credit and investment policies.