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...
The state of analysis of the Southern African region: issues raised by South African strategy
The southern African region today is a battleground. In two broad interrelated struggles the mass of the population of the region are ranged against the South African ruling class and its apartheid regime. The first of these is the advancing national liberation struggles inside South Africa and Namibia, led by the ANC and SWAPO. These struggles are assisted in the region by attempts to co‐ordinate the policies of the six African states grouped together as the frontline states.
A Nation in Agony: The Namibian People’s Struggle for Solidarity, Freedom and Justice
We do not believe in a system that sells people. Striking 'Contract' Workers (1971) Namibia's history of the past century is unforgiving ... It is a virtually unrelieved record of theft and violence, blood and iron African blood shed by European iron. From Sudwestafrika to Namibia (1981) We are outcasts in our own country We ask A dwelling place of our own. Chief Hosea Kutako (1970) It must be borne in mind that the Namibian people are shedding blood to liberate each and every inch of the Namibian soil, thus each and every inch of the Namibian land must and will belong to the Namibian people. Sam Nujoma, President of SWAPO (1979)