Description
Book SynopsisStudents of armed liberation struggle should find much to challenge received wisdom.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 How this came about, and at what cost,is the subject of this study which is based on unpublished documents and extensive interviews with a large range of the key activists in the struggle.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
Trade Review... Leys and Saul write about the past with a present agenda in mind. They wish to understand why a party which proclaimed socialism for so long has, since coming to power, followed a capitalist path and adopted what they call a neo-colonial economic strategy. They find the answer to lie, in part, in the suppression of democracy within SWAPO, which they attribute mainly to the brutalising effects of the war. And so they speak of the outcome as liberation without democracy, on the grounds that the present order is not really democratic because it does not empower the masses. And they reject any Robespierre-like justification that the terror used served a just purpose, in this case the ejection of South Africa from Namibia. - -- Christopher Saunders * SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORICAL JOURNAL *
This volume needs to be widely read and discussed within southern Africa and beyond. It is written with a clarity and concern for the people of this region, both of which make it attractive and engaged reading material. * JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES *
I can enthusiastically recommend the published outcome of the research project led by Leys and Saul for its insights into Namibia's struggle, as well as the politics of the region and the new state.' - -- Eve Sandberg, Oberlin College * JOURNAL OF MODERN AFRICAN STUDIES *
Le livre de Colin Leys et John Saul, mal accueilli par le gouvernement namibien, analyse pourtant le plus souvent de sympathie la remarquable transformation du movement de liberation de la SWAPO (Organisation de Lib ration du Sud-Ouest africain) en un parti de gouvernement post-colonial, mais il ne tait pas les pages honteuses de l'histoire du mouvement, qui avait etabli un regime de terreur dans certains de ses camps en Zambie et en Angola. - -- Victoria Brittain * LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE *
... with little doubt the best researched, if at times controversial, book on Namibia's recent political history to appear since independence ... also a wealth of other valuable information and analysis here on key aspects of the struggle which have received little if any attention from historians and analysts so far. - -- Graham Hopwood * THE NAMIBIAN *
Table of ContentsPart 1 The struggle: diplomacy by other means - SWAPO's liberation war, Susan Brown; SWAPO - the politics of exile, John S. Saul and Colin Leys; SWAPO inside Namibia, Colin Leys and John S. Saul; the churches, Philip Steenkamp. Part 2 The impact - three studies: the Namibian student movement - its role and effects, Sipho S. Maseko; state and civil society - policing in transition, Colin Leys; war, peace and social classes, Chris Tapscott. Part 3 The legacy: SWAPO in office, Lauren Dobell; the legacy - an afterword, John S. Saul and Colin Leys.
