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To Be Born to Be Born a Nation the Liberation Struggle Fornamibia F Q To Be Born To Be Born A Nation The Liberation Struggle forNamibia f q, Department of Information and Publicity, SWAPO of Namibia To Be Born A Nation Department of Information and Publicity, SWAPO of Namibia To Be Born A Nation The Liberation Struggle for Namibia Department of Information and Publicity, SWAPO of Namibia SMDARITY FREEDOM JUSTICE Department of Information and Publicity, SWAPO of Namibia, CP 953, Luanda, People's Republic of Angola. Zed Press, 57 Caledonian Road, London N! 9DN. Acknowledgements SWAPO wishes to acknowledge the kind assistance it has received from the Southern Africa Committee, Amsterdam and the International University Exchange Fund in the process of preparing this book. To Be Born a Nation was prepared and issued by the Department of Information and Publicity, South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) of Namibia, CP 953, Luanda, People's Republic of Angola. Published by Zed Press, 57 Caledonian Road, London NI 9DN in June 1981. Copyright © Department of Information and Publicity, SWAPO of Namibia, 1981 Cover design, maps and diagrams by Jan Brown Typeset by Margaret Cole Proofread by Penelope Fryxell Printed by Biddies of Guildford All rights reserved British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data To be born a nation: the liberation struggle for Namibia. 1. Namibia-Politics and government I. SWAPO. Department of Information and Publicity 968.8'03 DT714 ISBN 0-905762-73-8 Pbk Zed Press would like to thank the following for the use of photographs: International Defence and Aid Fund: cover, 5, 19, 27, 37, 41,53,73,81,88,90,115,134,142,149,157,173,181, 182, 195, 220, 227, 228, 243, 252, 260,261,284, 296. SWAPO: 7, 14, 19, 27, 61,75, 77, 88, 90, 113,129,149, 161,163,204, 211,212,249,260, 261,275,277,288, 294, 299. Second Impression, May 1983 U.S. Distributor: Biblio Distribution Center, 81 Adams Drive, Totowa, New Jersey 07512. Contents Foreword i 1. Introduction I SECTION 1: NAMIBIA UNDER COLONIAL RULE 7 2.TheColonialConquest 9 3. The Economics of Exploitation 16 Colonisation and Expropriation 16 The German Conquest: Land Robbery and Forced Labour (16) South Africa's Colony: A Paradise for Foreign Capital (20) The Structure of the Economy 22 The Growth of Colonial Capitalism (23) Settler Ranching (26) Fish Processing (30) Mining (31) Industry, Commerce and Services (39) The Ravages of Imperialism and Capitalism 43 The Dominance of Foreign Monopoly Capital (43) The Destructive Impact of Resource Imperialism (47) The South African Stake (51) The Poverty of Capitalist Exploitation (56) 4. Life Under South African Rule 57 Colonial Oppression and Cheap Labour \ 57 Bantustans and Peasant Impoverishment 60 The System of Labour Repression 64 Forced Labour (64) Racial Discrimination and the Migrant Labour System (66) The Legal Apparatus of Apartheid (68) The Poverty of Apartheid 72 Peasant Subsistence (72) Wages (73) Labour Repression (78) Working Conditions (81) * Denial of Bargaining Rights (84) Social Conditions 85 Housing (86) Education (91) Health and Welfare Services (92) Women Under Colonialism 98 Political and Military Oppression 100 Denial of the Franchise (100) The Apparatus of Repression (101) The Cost of Resistance (107) Military Terrorism and Torture (110) The Persecution of Axel Johannes (114) Turnhalle: A New Dispensation? 118 5. South African Colonialism and Imperial. Strategy 122 The League of Nations, the United Nations and Namibia 122 Imperialist Strategy 125 South African Colonialism in Namibia 131 South Afica's Stake in Colonial Rule (131) The Apartheid Strategy and the Turnhalle (134) The Political Economy of Decolonisation 140 SECTION 2: THE PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE 149 6. Traditions of Popular Resistance: 1670-1970 151 The Undermining of Namibian Independence (1670-1903) 151 The German Colonial Regime 156 Resistance to Colonial Intrusion (1878-1903) (156) The War of National Liberation (1904-08) (158) The Aftermath of Genocide and Forced Labour (1905-15) (16 1) The South Africans Take Over 162 Resisting the Conquest (1915-24) (162) The Dark Years (1925--45) (165) The Formative Phase of National Resistance (1946--60) 166 Traditional Leaders and the U.N. (167) The Emancipation of the Churches (168) Early Nationalism and the Trade Unions (169) OPO, SWANU and the Windhoek Massacre (172) Building the National Liberation Movement (1960-70) 176 The Formation, of SWAPQ and the Launching ofArmed Struggle (176) The Tanga Consultative Congress (179) 7. From Tanga to the General Strike: A Revolutionary Turning-Point 1970-71 184 The World Court Rules and the Mass Upsurge 185 The General Strike 188 The Struggle Against Contract Labour (188) The Contract Workers Organise (191) Launching the Strike (193) Closing the Ranks (197) ThePeasantUprisingandtheReignofTerror 199 SWAPO Intensifies the Liberation Struggle 203 8. 'The People are SWAPO': Sustained Mass Struggle 1972-79 206 The Struggle Against the Bantustans (1972-74) 207 The Drive for National Unity Against the Turnhalle (1974-77) 214 South Africa Recruits its Tribal Circus (214) SWAPO Unites Anti-colonial Forces Against the Conference(217) The Trial of Mushimba and Shikongo (219) The Triumph of the Angolan Revolution (221) PLAN Escalates the Armed Struggle (222) SWAPO Builds a Wall of National Unity (228) South Africa Prepares its 'Internal Settlement' (1977 -79) 232 From 'Interim Government' to the U.N. Transition Plan (232) Mass Mobilisation and Violent Repression (236) The U.N. Negotiations (240) Intensified Military Rule (246) The Occupation Regime Installs its Puppets (248) White Settlers and Black Collaborators in Disarray (250) SWAPO Advances the Armed Revolutionary Struggle (251) 9. Forces of Popular Resistance 255 The Principles and Strategy of the National Liberation Movement 255 The People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) 259 Workers 265 Sustained Labour Militancy (265) Trade Union Organisation and the N. U.N. W. (268) Workers in the Vanguard of the Liberation Movement (272) Peasants 273 Traditional Leaders 274 Youth and Intelligentsia 276 The Churches 280 Women 284 10. Towards Independence 293 Appendix A: Chronologies 301 Appendix B: Selected SWAPO Documents and Speeches 311 Appendix C: Basic Namibian Statistics 322 Bibliography 349 Resource List 356 List of Maps and Figures Maps 1. Namibia iv-v 2. Namibia before the Holocaust 10-11 3. The Namibian economy: primary production and communications 69 4. The completion of the colonial land robbery 126 5. South African aggression against Angola: attacks and airspace 134 violations by South African land and air forces, April 1976June 1979 6. South Africa's military build up in the north 1976-78 224-226 Figures 1. Home languages spoken by Namibians 3 2. Namibia's stop-go colonial economy: rates of growth of the GDP 25 at constant (1938) and current prices 1920-78 3. The dominance of export-orientated primary production: share 25 of the main sectors of the economy in GDP 1920-77 4. The rise of settler ranching: numbers of beef cattle and 29 karakul pelts marketed 1930-78 5. The rise of settler ranching: sales of farm produce 1977 29 6. The Afrikaner fishing cartel 30 7. The principle fish products 1962-78 31 8. The Namibian mining industry 34-36 9. The big three in mining: Rossing, CDM and Tsumeb 38 10. The imperialist levy on Namibian workers: the foreign 44 appropriation of GDP 1920-77 11. Who profits from imperialism: breakdown of foreign remittances 46 12. The foreign stranglehold on Namibia's productive resources 48 13. South Africa's cheap imports from Namibia: proportions 54 of the value of exports taken by South Africa 1977 14. The division of the spoils: distribution of the GDP between 55 workers, peasants, capitalists and the state 1977 15. Exploiters and exploited: the class composition of the working 59 population 1977 16. 'Homelands' in the desert: the proportion of viable farmland in 62 the designated bantustans 17. The colonial land robbery: land and livestock ownership under 64 the apartheid regime 18. The poverty of apartheid: wage-rates for semi-skilled and 78 unskilled black workers 1976 19. Education for subservience 93 20. Apartheid and health: access to health care and infant mortality 93 rates in Windhoek 1973-75 21. The migrant labour trap: composition of the black working 99 population by sex 1977 22. The apparatus of repression: South Africa's 'Security Forces' 105 in Namibia and their chains of command 23. South Africa's economic stake in Namibia 1977-78 132 24. The imposition of the apartheid masterplan 1968-77 137 25. The profitability of colonialism: investment, output and profits 139 per black worker in mining, fishing and farming 1977 26. Subsistence wages and the profits squeeze 141 27. Apartheid in practice: residential apartheid in Windhoek 175 Foreword The year 1980 marks the 20th anniversary of the formation of SWAPO the South West Africa People's Organisation of Namibia - the national liberation movement dedicated to the complete overthrow of South African rule in our country. Formed on April 19 1960, SWAPO drew together various anti-colonial forces in Namibia. Then, it was the realisation of the Namibian people's need for a nation- wide movement to confront effectively the South African regime. Now, it has become the embodiment of their aspirations for freedom, locked in combat wih South Africa in a war of liberation, and recognised by the international community and the United Nations as the 'sole authentic representative of the Namibian people'. The South African regime which now occupies our country succeeded the German colonial regime in Namibia under a League of Nations Mandate of 1919. South Africa was instructed to ensure the well-being and development of Namibians as a 'sacred trust'. Instead, however, it drove the people into subjection under a battery of repressive apartheid legislation and organised brutality. It divided the people into segregated 'native reserves' and bound the men as contract labourers to work in the mines, in the factories and on the farms.
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