Biography of Kaxumba kaNdola, alias Eliaser Tuhadeleni, as leader of the early nationalist movement in northern Namibia during the apartheid era. Covers his eventual arrest and sentence to life imprisonment on Robben Islands. Includes extensive interviews with members of his immediate family, neighbors, and people who were nurses and teachers.
Windhoek in the early 1960s: the 34-year-old politician Clemens Kapuuo knocks at the door of the senior advocate Israel Goldblatt to solicit advice regarding the myriad of difficulties encountered by Africans daily under the apartheid regime. An unusual relationship and friendship develops, one that transcends the racial divide in this South African-governed Territory and will last for nearly 10 years. Meeting in Goldblatt's chambers, at his home and in the Old Location, other participants in the consultations included the veteran politician Chief Hosea Kutako and a group of younger nationalists, among them Rev. Bartholomews Karuaera and Levy Nganjone. Through Kapuuo, Goldblatt also met Kaptein Samuel Witbooi and counselled the long-term prisoner from Caprivi, Brendan Simbwaye. Israel Goldblatt's notes on these meetings were discovered after his death and form the core of this book. They are complemented by additional biographical information about his interlocutors, and annotations that place his notes in their historical and political context. Illustrated with many photographs, this publication pays tribute to Israel Goldblatt and the Namibian nationalists who attempted to build bridges where apartheid entrenched racism and suspicion.
Womens contributions against apartheid under the auspices of the Namibian liberation movement SWAPO and their personal experiences in exile take center stage in this study. Male and female leadership structures in exile are analysed whilst the sexual politics in the refugee camps and the public imagery of female representation in SWAPOs nationalism receive special attention. The partys public pronouncements of women empowerment and gender equality are compared to the actual implementations of gender politics during and after the liberation struggle.
Taking the history of trade and of traders as its subject matter, this book offers the first economic history of northern Namibia during the twentieth century. It traces Namibias way from a rural, largely self-relying society into a globalised economy of consumption. This transformation built on colonial economic activities, but it was crucially shaped by local traders, a new social elite emerging during the 1950s and 1960s. Becoming a trader was one of the few possibilities for black Namibians to gain monetary income at home. It was a pathway out of migrant labour, to new status in the local society and often to prosperity. Politically, most traders occupied a middle ground: content of their own social position, but intent on political emancipation from colonial rule. Economically, their energy and business acumen transformed northern Namibia into an increasingly urban consumer society. The development path they chose, however, depended too much on the colonial reserve economy to remain sustainable after 1990. Their legacy still shapes spatial and social structures in northern Namibia, but most traders businesses have today closed down. By telling the history of the rise and decline of traders and trade in northern Namibia, this book is thus also a reflection on the conundrums of economic development under conditions of structural inequality.
In Oshiwambo, the elephant is likened to the most challenging situation that people can face. If an elephant appears in the morning, all planned activities are put on hold and the villagers join forces to deal with it. For Tshiwa Trudie Amulungu, the elephant showed up on many mornings and she had no choice but to tame it. Growing up in a traditional household in northern Namibia, and moving to a Catholic school, Amulungu’s life started within a very ordered framework. Then one night in 1977 she crossed the border into Angola with her schoolmates and joined the liberation movement. Four months later she was studying at the UN Institute for Namibia in Lusaka Zambia, later going on to study in France. Amulungu recounts the cultural shocks and huge discoveries she made along her journey with honesty, emotion and humour. She draws the reader into her experiences through a close portrayal of life, friends and community in the different places where she lived and studied in exile. This is a compelling story of survival, longing for home, fear of the return, and overcoming adversity in strange environments. It is also a love story that brought two families and cultures together.
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'.
The author looks at how Namibia was founded as a German colony known as Deutsch-Südwestafrika (German South-West Africa) and how it evolved into a nation. He explains how it was founded on brutal suppression of the indigenous people, including extermination of large numbers of some groups, and how, on becoming a colony of South Africa, its people continued to be subjected to brutal treatment by the white minority rulers who denied them racial equality. The author also focuses on the liberation struggle against apartheid and how the country won independence from apartheid South Africa. He also looks at how the leaders of the new nation are trying to build the country and construct a national identity on the basis of unity in diversity. It is an analysis of identity formation at the national level, and consolidation of the state, whose relevance is continental in scope: studies of other African countries in their quest for unity and construction – or reconstruction – of their national identities during the post-colonial era can benefit from this work. It is also a work of comparative analysis in terms of nationhood in the African context and how Namibia and Tanzania – two case studies – have sought to construct their national identities, the obstacles they have faced and continue to face in the quest for national unity, especially in the case of Namibia, and why Tanzania has been more successful than most countries on the continent in building a cohesive society where tribalism is virtually non-existent, enabling it to consolidate its unity and national identity. The author also looks at the concept of national character and its relevance to national identity formation and why the national identities of different African countries are weak and what can be done to address the problem. It is also an introductory text which may be helpful to some people who are going to Namibia for the first time although it is essentially a scholarly work intended for members of the academic community and specialists in some fields dealing with this southwest African country and its people. But members of the general public who want to learn more about Namibia may also find the book to be useful.
The collection contains primary material from Swapo and about Swapo dating from the 1960s to 1990. It contains the history of Swapo and the Namibian liberation struggle.
