Botswana's Role in the Namibian

Journal of Namibian Studies, 14 (2013): 127 – 130 ISSN 2197-5523 (online)

Review: Johann Alexander Müller, “The struggle. It is unfortunate, however, that Inevitable Pipeline into Exile.” Botswana’s he did not draw upon Parsons’ pioneer- Role in the Namibian Liberation Struggle, ing article for a broader, regional Basel, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, picture of the inflow of political refugees 2012. into Botswana and what happened to them there. And Müller’s early chapters perhaps set the scene too broadly, When introducing a set of papers on introducing too much general context. Botswana and the liberation of Southern The first chapter includes a section on Africa some years ago, this reviewer theory that many readers will probably pointed out that, though valuable, they skip over. said little about how Botswana provided political, diplomatic, material and moral While Botswana was the major east/west support to the liberation movements in ‘pipeline’ into exile for Namibians from South Africa-occupied Namibia. In one the late 1950s to the mid 1970s, of the papers Neil Parsons wrote about Müller’s book, as his subtitle suggests, the south/north ‘pipeline’ – the term is goes beyond the way in which found in official documents of the early Namibians travelled through the country 1960s – through Botswana, used most to go elsewhere. The first work to dis- famously by Nelson Mandela, under the cuss in depth the liberation struggle in Setswana alias of David Motsamayi, in Namibia in relation to Botswana, his 1962. While Parsons mentioned that book is suggestive for other studies on Botswana was the key conduit through liberation movements in the region, for, which political refugees from Namibia as Reinhart Kössler points out in his passed from the late 1950s, he did not, introduction, most work on the history I noted, “investigate the help that of liberation struggles in southern Africa Botswana gave to the South West Africa has primarily seen those struggles People’s Organisation [SWAPO] in the within a national framework, and has 1970s and 1980s”.1 I did not know tended to play down the significance of then that Johann Müller was, in 2009, to trans-national relationships. Ronald complete a doctoral dissertation that Dreyer, for example, wrote about the would, to some extent, fill the gap I had region in Namibia and Southern Africa: referred to. Now published, his study, Regional Dynamics of Decolonisation enriched by twenty-five photographs, (London, 1994) but he did not focus on some previously unpublished, adds liberation movements. While some of the considerably to our knowledge of chapters in the fifth volume of the South certain aspects of Namibia’s liberation African Democracy Trust’s “Road to Democracy” series examine how other

countries in the region supported the 1 Chris Saunders, “Botswana and the Liberation of Southern Africa”, Social Dynamics, 34 (1), South African liberation struggle, they 2008, 2-4; Neil Parsons, “The Pipeline: do so on a country-by-country basis.2 Botswana’s Reception of Refugees, 1956-68”, Social Dynamics, 34 (1), 2008, 17-32, an article based in part on “the chance survival of an 2 South African Democracy Education Trust archive in Francistown”. (SADET), The Road to Democracy in South Africa,

There is clearly much more work to be and Botswana (though not in the Ruth done both on connections between the First papers in London, which contain different liberation movements them- relevant material; the SWAPO archive in selves and between those movements Windhoek remains, unfortunately, in- and their supporters in other countries.3 accessible to scholars). This reviewer has recently explored Relationships of the kind Müller explores relations between SWAPO and South have an intrinsic importance. They may Africa’s African National Congress also have significance for later ties. To during the years of struggle,4 but we suggest, however, as Kössler does that still do not have detailed studies of, for Müller’s account “conveys some of the instance, SWAPO’s relations with its foundations of regional co-operation Angolan partners, the Union for the that today are incorporated into the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) SADC” (p. x) seems excessive. Müller is and, from 1975, its main host, the not really able to show how, for ex- Popular Movement for the Liberation of ample, the ties established when Angola (MPLA). While scholars from Namibians passed through Botswana on Botswana interested in the history of their way to countries from which they liberation have tended to focus on could wage a liberation struggle fed into Botswana in relation to the liberation the Southern African Development Com- struggle in South Africa,5 Müller spotted munity (SADC), which was not founded a gap in the literature – relations until 1992 and in which Namibia and between the Namibian liberation move- Botswana have sometimes differed ment and Botswana – and has filled it significantly, especially, in recent years, admirably. As he discusses in his third over policy on Zimbabwe.6 chapter, his book is based on a large Müller is mainly concerned with the number of interviews he conducted and 1960s and early 1970s, when Bot- substantial archival research in Britain swana was the chief route for Namibians into exile. The importance of that route volume 5, part 1, Pretoria, Unisa Press, 2013; part 2 is still awaited. We also await the volumes lessened when the route into Angola promised by the Hashim Mbita project, to be opened, even before Angolan indepen- published in Dar es Salaam; that project was dence in November 1975. Müller shows launched by SADC in 2005. how extreme prudence governed 3 This is the thrust of a project initiated at the Botswana’s diplomacy, given that it was University of Evora, Portugal, by Professor land-locked and, except in the north, Helder Fonseca, who is, inter alia, using the PIDE files in Lisbon to explore such transnational surrounded by countries under colonial connections. or apartheid rule. Having to appease its 4 Chris Saunders, “The ANC and SWAPO: Aspects very powerful neighbour to the south, it of a Relationship”, unpublished paper, 2014 5 The best survey is Part T. Mgadla and Brian T. Mokopakgosi, “Botswana and the Liberation of 6 SADC was hardly “embodied in a figure such as South Africa: an Evolving Story of Sacrifice”, in: Daniel Munamava […] along with many other SADET, The Road to Democracy in South Africa, prominent Namibians, including the first and vol. 5 part 1, Pretoria, Unisa Press, 2013: 393- second presidents of independent Namibia” 440. (p. x)

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could not allow an armed struggle to be fascinating account of how David fought from its soil. Botswana’s econo- Munamava, the outstanding figure in my was bound up with that of South this regard, helped many members of Africa, it was a member of the Southern both the South West Africa National African Customs Union, and its transpor- Union (SWANU) and SWAPO to pass tation system was integrated with those through western Botswana, one of of Rhodesia and South Africa. As whom was Sam Nujoma in February Bechuanaland it was aptly dubbed (with 1960. In chapter 5 Müller comes to the Basutoland/Lesotho and Swaziland) one real subject of his book: the role of of South Africa’s Hostages,7 and as Namibians and their organisations in the independent Botswana it continued to Bechuanaland Protectorate and then be heavily dependent on its far stronger independent Botswana. He devotes neighbour to the south, then occupying separate chapters to SWANU, to SWAPO, Namibia. On the other hand, most and to Mburumba Kerina and the people in Botswana wished to be National Unity Democratic Organisation supportive of the refugees that arrived (NUDO). Because SWANU has received from Namibia, and Botswana offered relatively little attention in the literature political support and allowed the on the Namibian liberation struggle, Namibian nationalist movements to what Müller has to say about it is open offices on its territory. The two particularly important. At a time when countries took very different paths, SWAPO had not yet emerged as the however: not only was there no armed dominant Namibian organization, SWANU struggle in Botswana to overthrow was active in Botswana. Müller analyses colonial rule, but, as Namibia’s armed some of the reasons for its decline: struggle against South African occu- despite the talk of launching an armed pation intensified, Botswana developed struggle, and the plans of SWANU’s as a new multi-party democracy and, external council, no route back into thanks to the discovery of diamonds, Namibia was created, and the many began to emerge from poverty. SWANU refugees in Botswana, having to Müller develops further in this book a focus on survival, became increasingly topic he has written about elsewhere: disillusioned. One is struck by the the Herero networks that linked the two hardships suffered by those who had to countries, and how the Herero-speakers traverse western Botswana, much of living in Botswana, descendants of which is desert, before reaching the refugees from German rule after the more populous regions, and by the 1904–07 war, were particularly helpful extent of the help and co-operation the to their kin from Namibia.8 There is a Namibians received, not only from Herero-speakers but also from the

7 Jack Halpern, South Africa’s Hostages: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, and Swaziland, motherland in the fight against apartheid”, in: Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1965. Andre du Pisani, et al., (eds.), The Long 8 Johann Müller, “The Ovaherero in Botswana Aftermath of War: Reconciliation and Transition in and their Namibian brothers: transnational Namibia , Freiburg, Arnold Bergstraesser Institut, cooperation between the diaspora and 2010: 281-304. 129

Ngwato. Tshekedi Khama had, after all, then independent Botswana – and helped prevent South Africa incorpor- Müller emphasises the continuities in ating Namibia in 1946.9 policy between the two – often turned a SWAPO was especially active in Francis- blind eye to the activities of the Na- town and Müller provides a detailed mibian liberation movements and so, he account of the activities of its repre- argues, helped their struggle. His book sentatives there: Maxton Joseph, who is not the last word on the topic – he received funds from Patrick Duncan, the says relatively little, say, about how South African liberal, Gideon Kasheta, Namibians left Botswana, via the then Lucky Shoopala, whom SWAPO Kazangula ferry to Zambia or in other accused of collaborating with South ways – but it is an important addition to Africa and was jailed in Zambia. Müller the literature. makes the sweeping claim that SWAPO members in Botswana were willing to Chris Saunders “follow party instructions on demand” University of Cape Town because “they had not fully understood what the liberation struggle was about” (p. 181). He throws new light on what the ambitious Mburumba Kerina, who had been expelled from SWAPO in 1962, did in Bechuanaland, not least in trying to help the 154 Herero refugees from Namibia who became stranded in Makunda (chapter 8). Müller’s last chapter reflects on Bot- swana’s impact on the Namibian liberation struggle. After considering the way in which independent Mozambique and Malawi dealt with the issue of what support to give South African freedom fighters, he concludes that Botswana, struck a balance between, on the one hand, overt support, and hostility to South Africa – the latter “might have been an effective means of self- destruction” (p. 236) – and, on the other, refusal to be involved or collab- orate with South Africa (p. 228). Both Bechuanaland under British rule and

9 E.g. Michael Crowder, “Tshekedi Khama, Smuts, and South West Africa”, The Journal of Modern African Studies, 25 (1), 1987, 25-42.

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