SWAPO and Namibia’s victory over colonialism
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History defeats all forms of imperialism, perhaps not immediately but certainly inevitably. For seventy years, the Namibian people suffered under the yoke of South African apartheid imperialism. Prior to that, they had been subjected to the colonial rule of the German Empire.
The South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) was founded to bring the Namibian people out of the long shadow of colonialism and oppression. On the 19th of April 1960, Herman Toivo ja Toivo and others formed SWAPO to advocate for the independence of Namibia, then known by its colonial name, South West Africa.
A century of colonialism and atrocities
During the “Scramble for Africa”, European colonial powers divided the continent of Africa among themselves. In 1885, German South West Africa established its capital in Otimbingwe. For over a century following that, Namibian people suffered atrocities and humiliation at the hands of its colonizers and occupiers.
In what is now Namibia, the Germans perpetrated the Herero and Nama genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century. The Herero and Nama had resisted German colonial rule. The Nama were led by Captain Hendrik Witbooi, while the Herero were led by Samuel Meharero.
In retaliation, German General Lothar von Trotha drove the Herero freedom fighters into the unforgiving desert, where most of them died of dehydration. A similar fate awaited the Nama people. It’s estimated that between 24 000 and 100 000 Hereros died in the genocide, as well as 10 000 Nama. Those who survived were subjected to imprisonment in concentration camps where most of those interned died of disease, exhaustion, and torture.
German military forces crushed it mercilessly, driving the Herero into the Kalahari Desert, where as many as 80 percent of them perished. Military operations continued until 1907. When World War I broke out, South African forces occupied German South West Africa in 1915. Southwest Africa remained under South African control until 1990.
It took almost a century before the United Nations Whitaker Report classified these atrocities as an attempt to exterminate the Nama and the Herero, a purely punitive measure to discipline those who resist colonialism.
It took until 2004 for the German government to recognize and apologize for the genocide and atrocities perpetrated, but it ruled out compensation. Fifteen years later, the German government agreed to pay the sum of €1.1 billion over 30 years to fund projects for the descendants of those impacted by the genocide.
Apartheid South African occupation of Namibia
When World War 1 broke out in 1914, South Africa, then a British colony, agreed to assault German South West Africa. At the conclusion of WW1, the territory was placed under an administrative mandate of the Union of South Africa. this mandate was purportedly to safeguard the interests of indigenous people in Namibia, but this was not true. South Africa extended its apartheid policies to this territory and became a military occupier.
According to South African History Online:
During the period 1922 to 1946 the indigenous peoples were allocated from 10,6% to as little as 3,6% of the budget. Even though about 6000 Germans left the country, grazing lands sequestrated by the German colonial government were not restored. Instead, pastoral chiefdoms and communities were dispossessed and almost half the territory was allocated to some 3 000 White settler ranches that were heavily subsidised. Some of these were given to about three hundred Afrikaners, descendants of Voortrekkers who had previously settled in Angola.
In 1959 riots broke out in Windhoek over the extension of urban apartheid to South West Africa, and the forced removal and resettlement of people from locations near Windhoek to one remote from the city. In November of that year the UN Assembly noted that South Africa was administering the territory in a manner contrary to the mandate, the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice, and earlier resolutions of the UN Assembly itself.
Formation of SWAPO and guerrilla warfare
SWAPO was formed in 1960 as a response to political and social injustices perpetrated by the Apartheid South African regime. Its leaders included Sam Nujoma, Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, and Hifikepunye Pohamba, who would go on to become presidents of independent Namibia.
When South Africa was granted independence in 1961, it continued its colonial practices in South West Africa. Swapo was formed in 1960 by a group of freedom fighters who were opposed to the Apartheid regime and sought to establish a democratic government in Namibia. Initially it engaged in a period of negotiations and lobbying. But given the defiance of the South African government in recognising legitimate international norms and treaties, SWAPO engaged in armed struggle.
The party launched a guerrilla war against South African forces in Namibia in 1966, which lasted until 1988.
READ MORE: REMEMBERING THE BATTLE OF CUITO CUANAVALE
Although SWAPO suffered defeats and losses initially, it garnered support in the region and abroad. They were backed by the ruling party of Angola, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the Soviet Union, the Norwegian government and the African National Congress. Angola provided logistical support, offering that country as a base for guerrilla operations in Namibia. These operations were executed by the SWAPO’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). Beginning in 1978 South Africa made periodic retaliatory land and air strikes into Angola. Herman Toivo ja Toivo, the founder of SWAPO, was imprisoned in South Africa for a 20-year term in 1968 but was released in 1984.
Independence
In 1978 the United Nations recognized SWAPO as the sole representative of the people of Namibia. Both SWAPO and South Africa agreed to a UN plan for a cease-fire. This included the withdrawal of South African troops, and free elections to be guaranteed by UN security forces.
South Africa finally accepted a UN resolution to that effect in December 1988. In 1989 Nujoma was elected president and SWAPO won a majority of the delegates selected by the country’s voters to write a constitution for an independent Namibia. The following year a new constitution was adopted and Nujoma took office and in the same year South Africa completely withdrew unconditionally from Namibia.
