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Swapo Images of a Future Society: Women in Namibia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Carole Collins
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Extract

In recent months, international attention has focused on southern Africa in response to the accelerated guerrilla wars in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Namibia and the intensity of the South African government’s attempts to repress popular unrest by massive bannings of virtually all African political and community organizations. These developments are but a continuation of the long process of decolonization in Africa which began over twenty years ago and which in recent years saw the independence of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau. Because of the intransigence of Portuguese colonial rule, the struggles for self-determination in the latter three countries took the form of protracted popular guerrilla struggles against colonial rule. The growing success of these struggles over the period of the 1960s and early 1970s brought about significant political changes within Portugal itself and led to the April 1974 coup.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , Winter 1977 , pp. 39 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1977 

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References

Notes

1. See John Saul’s article on Mozambique in the September 1973 issue of Monthly Review for an exploration of differences between traditional and revolutionary nationalist movements.

2. See the series of articles by Collins, Carole on Mozambique in the Guardian (New York), July 6, July 13 and August 17, 1977 Google Scholar which focus on collective ownership of the means of production and what that means in practice. Also, see ‘The Political Program of SWAPO,” in LSMNews, Nos. 11-12, p. 71.

3. See Collins, , Carole, , This is the Time: Interview with Two Namibian Women (Chicago Committee for African Liberation: 1977)Google Scholar.

4. See Urdang, , Stephanie, , Revolution Within a Revolution: Women in Guinea-Bissau (New England Free Press, 1975)Google Scholar; also see various articles by Carolyn Fleuhr-Lobban; also see draft sections for a forthcoming book to be published by the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa on women in national liberation struggles in Africa.

5. See Friends of Namibia Committee, London, U.K., Namibia: Land and Resources, Population, History, SWAPO (London, 1974), p. 3.

6. “The Political Program of SWAPO,” op.cit, p. 71.

7. Ibid., p. 64 ff.

8. See TCLSAC Information Paper, October 1977, “South Africa’s Military Presence in Namibia,” pp. 3-4,6.

9. In August 1976 the Rehoboth Volksparty, representing many of the Coloureds and Basters in the Rehoboth Reserve south of Windhoek, decided to disband and join SWAPO. In November 1976, four groups representing 80% of the 37,000 southern Nama people dissolved and amalgamated with SWAPO. In April 1977 a major organization representing 17,000 Hereros decided to join SWAPO. In Ovamboland itself, SWAPO’s support has been estimated by the white-owned Windhoek Advertiser as being as high as 70% and growing. See Biman, Marilyn, “Inside Namibia—SWAPO Intensifies the Struggle,” in Southern Africa, June-July 1977, pp. 2-4; and “New Successes for Namibian Resistance,” issued by the Namibia Support Committee, London, May 1977.

10. Biman, op.cit., p. 2.

11. See Biman, Marilyn, “Namibia Intensifies the Struggle,” in Tanzania Sunday News, July 3, 1977, p.1.

12. LSMNews, Nos. 11-12, p. 69.

13. Ibid., p. 71.

14. Biman, “Namibia Intensifies the Struggle,” p. 1.

15. Biman, “Inside Namibia,’ p. 3.

16. Kaufman, Michael, “Mozambique Seems to Hage Gained Discipline Without the Martial Air,” in New York Times, November 12, 1977, p. 1.

17. From discussions with Madeleine Taylor of Hillside Productions, Inc. of Montreal, Canada.

18. Biman, “Namibia Intensifies the Struggle,” p. 2.

19. Collins, This is the Time, p. 6-7.

20. Ibid., p. 9.

21. Ibidem.

22. Ibid., p. 10-11.

23. Ibid., pp. 15-16.

24. Ibid., p. 18.

25. Ibid., pp. 20-21.

26. Ibid., p. 22.

27. Ibid., p. 24.