After World War I, the League of Nations assigned management of the German colony of Namibia to Britain, which passed control to South Africa as a "trophy" for the country's support during the war. The League mandated that South Africa prepare the country for independence, but South Africa showed no sign of working toward that goal. The clash over interpretation of the League's mandate led to 70 years of complicated diplomacy to solve the dispute. This incisive volume offers an in-depth analysis of the political and diplomatic efforts undertaken by representatives of the United Nations, Namibia, and South Africa--with the assistance of the international community, the Organization of African Unity, and Western powers--during the struggle for self-rule in Namibia from 1920 to 1990. This classic example of conflict resolution technique in global and African studies provides a useful template for conflict negotiation around the world.

It took 23 years of armed struggle before Namibia could gain its independence from South Africa in March 1990. SWAPO's victory was remarkable in the face of an overwhelmingly superior enemy. How this came about, and at what cost, is the subject of this study which is based on unpublished documents and extensive interviews with a large range of the key activists in the struggle. The study should be of interest to everyone concerned with southern Africa. North America: Ohio U Press

he book offers a frank account of an African state that shook off colonial rule but has yet to see the fruits of independence distributed evenly among its people. Drawing on inside knowledge of SWAPO, the anti-colonial liberation movement, the author provides a valuable case study of nation building in the modern era.

Williams traces the South West Africa People's Organization of Namibia across three decades in exile in Tanzania, Zambia, and Angola.

This study investigates the experiences of women journalists during the last phase of Namibia's liberation struggle against South African rule. Black or white, women journalists in Namibia made significant contributions to the liberation cause -including the founding of a high-profiled newspaper -whilst others worked for media sympathetic to the apartheid government. Based on interviews and deploying feminist media theory, Maria Mboono Nghidinwa pays close attention to the gendered power relationships in the newsrooms of newspapers and radio stations at the time. She looks at the intense political intimidations which targeted women and, in particular, the constraints experienced by black women journalists.

Re-Viewing Resistance in Namibian History brings together the work of experienced academics and a new wave of young Namibian historians - architects of the past - who are working on a range of public history and heritage projects, from late nineteenth century resistance to the use of songs, from the role of gender in SWAPO's camps to memorialisation, and from international solidarity to aspects of the history of Kavango and Caprivi. In a culturally and politically diverse democracy such as Namibia, there are bound to be different perspectives on the past, and history will be as plural as the history-tellers. The chapters in this book reflect this diversity, and combine to create a remarkable collection of divergent voices, providing alternative perspectives on the past. Re-Viewing Resistance in Namibian History writes 'forgotten' people into history; provides a reading of the past that reflects the tensions and competing identities that pervaded 'the struggle'; and deals with 'heritage that hurts'.

"Reprinted with corrections"--T.p. verso.