The decolonization of Namibia was delayed from 1966 to 1989--the period of the war of independence--pitting the Namibian nationalists against the South African minority-ruled regime. This book describes the diplomatic, economic and military campaigns of the Namibian and South African belligerents and draws a comparison with several other decolonization wars. Using data from parliamentary debates, the aftermath is examined of the Namibian war and the newly independent nation. The book provides a basis for further investigation of the decolonization process.

The decolonization of Namibia was delayed from 1966 to 1989--the period of the war of independence--pitting the Namibian nationalists against the South African minority-ruled regime. This book describes the diplomatic, economic and military campaigns of the Namibian and South African belligerents and draws a comparison with several other decolonization wars. Using data from parliamentary debates, the aftermath is examined of the Namibian war and the newly independent nation. The book provides a basis for further investigation of the decolonization process.

This is the first attempt to bring together diverse scholars, using different lenses, to study South Africa’s Border War. As a book, it is critical in approach, provides deeper reflection, and focuses specifically on the SADF experience of the war. The result is a more complex picture of the war’s dynamics and its legacies. Although South Africa is a vastly different country today, the study of the Border War opens a range of questions, also relevant to contemporary deployments such as in Lesotho (1998) and the Central African Republic (2013). It includes the debate on participation in foreign conflicts; on the deployment, design and preparation of appropriate, modern armed forces and their use as foreign policy instruments in far‑off theatres; on military planning; and, as the historical controversies regarding the battles at Cuito Cuanavale and Bangui illustrate, on the interface between foreign campaigning and domestic politics.

Documents resistance to the German conquest by the Herero and Nama peoples; the South African take-over under the League of Nations mandate; land, labour and community resistance from 1920-1960; the emergence of Nationalist organisations; appeals to the UN and the ICJ; the launching of SWAPO's armed struggle, and nationalist responses to South Africa's Bantustan policy. Published in association with the OAU and UNESCO. North America: Africa World Press

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

The 1st April 1989 marked the first day of peace in Namibia. After seemingly endless years of dispute between South Africa and the UN, after 23 years of bush warfare between SWAPO and the SADF, which had spread from Namibia into Angola and, at times, into Zambia, Namibia was finally on course for UN supervised free and fair elections in November 1989, which would lead to independence in 1990. The South Africans had stuck to the letter of the agreements and even more. By 1st April they had demobilised the powerful SWA Territory Force, drastically reduced the strength of the SADF and confined the residue still remaining in Namibia to their bases. When the Sun rose on that fateful day, it would catch the shadows of only five SAAF Alouette helicopter gunships, emasculated of their deadly cannons, and dispersed along 400-km of the Namibian border with Angola. SWAPOAs leader, Sam Nujoma, knew it, for the knowledge was international property via the UN.