African Liberation Movements

The purported aim of this book is to give an overview of the liberation struggle in Southern Africa in the 1960s. It includes a separate chapter on Namibia (p. 107-141). After a brief introduction to the country and the history of resistance against colonial rule, a section which contains a number of inaccuracies, the author discusses the origins and activities of SWANU and SWAPO up to 1970. The main focus is on personalities, ethnic rivalries, conflicts between groups in exile and the Sino-Sovietsplit, while there is virtually no attempt to relate the background of the movements and the development of the struggle to socio-economic conditions and the social forces at play in Namibia. There is not, for instance, a single reference to the migrant labour system or to working class support for SWAPO. Although some of the detail is of apparent interest, the author presents few means of verification. In general, the narrow and distorted political perspective and the factual errors rule this chapter out as a serious historical interpretation or reliable source. (Eriksen/Moorsom 1989).