Namibian War of Independence

At issue: Majority black rule in South Africa, independence for Namibia

Date: 1960–1990

Location: South Africa, Namibia

Combatants: Minority white government of South Africa forces vs. forces of African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe, Pan-Africanist Congress, and Southwest African People’s Organization

Principal commander: African National Congress, Nelson Mandela (1918- )

Principal battle: Sharpeville (1960)

Result: Minority white rule ended in both South Africa and Namibia; Namibia gained independence from South Africa

Background

White settlers throughout southern Africa had a long history of practicing racial discrimination, beginning during the period of Dutch settlement at Cape Town in the early seventeenth century. Discriminatory policies were continued after reconciliation between British and Boer factions, after the Boer War led to creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. During World War I, South Africa seized neighboring German South West Africa (later known as Namibia), extending white rule. In 1919, South Africa was granted control of the former German protectorate as part of a mandate to be administered under the auspices of the League of Nations. The Mandates Commission of the League frequently cited South African abuses of the system, including exploitation of black labor and an absence of social programs. When South Africa sought formal recognition of the incorporation of South West Africa from the United Nations, the request was refused. Defying international law, the South African government administered South West Africa as a fifth province of the state, extending discriminatory legislation there.

In 1948, the National Party came to power and immediately began to formalize the economic and social segregation that had existed since the foundation of the republic. The key measures of apartheid (separateness) included the Population Registration Act (1950), which classified all people according to race; the Group Areas Act (1950), which determined where each race could live; and the Native Labour Act (1953), which prohibited strikes and discouraged unionization. These measures, along with numerous other measures and decrees, forced black Africans to remain in low-paying jobs and to live in the most inhospitable areas of the country and, at the same time, cut off all peaceful means of resisting such discrimination.

This systematically racist legislation led to widespread resistance. In 1952, the African National Congress (ANC) organized a Defiance Campaign, which led to thousands of arrests. In 1955, the ANC and other racial and tribal groups proposed a nonracist, socialist blueprint for a new South African government. The white ministry played upon Cold War fears, suggesting that such reforms were being directed by the Soviet Union. Harsher laws were enacted in order to quash political opposition. By 1960, when most countries in sub-Saharan African had either become independent or were on the verge of becoming independent of European colonial powers, black Africans in South Africa and South West Africa were more tightly controlled than ever before.

Action

The era of relatively peaceful protest ended in 1960. In South Africa, police brutally suppressed a demonstration at Sharpeville, south of Johannesburg, killing 69 and wounding 180 unarmed demonstrators. Riots in the aftermath of Sharpeville were handled with similar brutality, while the ANC and Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) were banned, and thousands of their members arrested. This led to a growing international condemnation of the system of apartheid and withdrawal of South Africa from the British Commonwealth, in 1961. The ANC reluctantly adopted a plan of armed resistance, forming the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK, “Spear of the Nation”), which became closely associated with the South African Communist Party. A series of sabotage attacks in 1963 led to the arrest of their high command, including Nelson Mandela, who was sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 1960, the Southwest African People’s Organization (SWAPO) was founded for the purpose of gaining independence, with a military wing known as the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). Early insurgency was ineffective, and young rebels were sent to China, Algeria, Tanzania, and North Korea for training. By the early 1970’s, PLAN’s use of Soviet mines was becoming more effective, and in 1974, the South African government had to shift South West African operations from the police to the military.

When Angola and Mozambique gained their independence from Portugal in 1974, South Africa had to be concerned with both the spread of revolutionary ideas along the northern frontier and the creation of safe havens for SWAPO rebels in Angola. The South African military launched several armed invasions of Angola between 1975 and 1988, striking SWAPO bases and supporting Jonas Savimbi’s União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), which in turn was resisting the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) and its Cuban allies. The United States discreetly supported both UNITA and South Africa as a part of its ongoing Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union.

In South Africa itself, the antiapartheid struggle escalated in the wake of the Soweto uprising in 1976, in which more than 400 people were killed in three weeks of fighting between rioters and police. The South African Defense Force raided ANC headquarters in Maputo, Mozambique, in 1981, and Maseru, Lesotho, in 1982. The following year saw the beginning of a car-bomb campaign by the MK. When a new apartheid constitution was being considered in 1983, the grassroots United Democratic Front (UDF) was created to coordinate the activities of more than 600 antiapartheid organizations. In 1984, Bishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize, fixing the world’s attention on the antiapartheid struggle and finally forcing the South African government to begin negotiations for a settlement.

As some of the harshest elements of apartheid were relaxed after 1984, continuing opposition violence made it clear that no half measures were likely to be successful. With the growing inability to maintain order in black townships, security forces were given extraordinary powers, which led to U.S. economic sanctions. When F. W. de Klerk succeeded P. W. Botha as president and leader of the Nationalist Party in 1989, he recognized the futility of further resistance, and during the next two years repealed apartheid legislation, legalized the ANC and other opposition parties, and released Mandela from prison. South African Defense Forces countered Cuban involvement in Angola but found it increasingly difficult to defend the border. In December, 1988, a peace agreement was signed between Angola, South Africa, and Cuba, leading to withdrawal of Cuban troops in 1989 and to independence for Namibia in 1990.

Aftermath

Once black opposition parties were legalized, it was just a matter of time and negotiation until majority rule would prevail. It was also a bloody period, as every faction, black and white, vied for position in the new governing structure. The most extensive conflict was between the UDF and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) of Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, which sought to protect Zulu ethnic rights in the new South African state. The Inkatha War began in 1986 but remained localized until it became clear that a majority government was on the horizon. Between February, 1990, and July, 1992, more than 7,000 were killed in township violence. Violence declined in the wake of South Africa’s first all-race elections, in April of 1994, but continued to flare, particularly in KwaZulu province, through the end of the century.

Bibliography

Clayton Anthony. Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa Since 1950. London: UCL Press, 1999.

Cowell, Alan. Killing the Wizards: Wars of Power and Freedom from Zaire to South Africa. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Katjavivi, Peter. A History of Resistance in Namibia. London: J. Curry, 1988.

Leys, Colin T., and John S. Saul. Namibia’s Liberation Struggle: The Two-Edged Sword. London: J. Curry, 1994.

Lodge, Tom. Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945. London: Longmans, 1983.

Steenkamp, Willem. South Africa’s Border War. Gibraltar: Ashanti Publications, 1989.

Thompson, Leonard. A History of South Africa. Rev. ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001.

Worden, Nigel. The Making of Modern South Africa. 2d ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1995.