Namibia: The state of political culture

Henning Melber (ed.): Re-examining liberation in Namibia. Political Culture since Independence, Uppsala, The Nordic Africa Institute 2003, 149 pp., Euro 20.00, ISBN 91-7106-516-4

It haunts German history books as the “Herero Uprising”. In 2004, the war against the black population of “German South-West Africa” is blanketed by a hundred years of history. Bringing to an end three decades of German settler colonialism, it was followed by a South African occupation that flew in the face of international law – an occupation against which the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) took up arms in 1960.

A long period of resistance followed, which ended only when SWAPO, under Sam Nujoma, was elected in a UN-monitored transition process to form the first government of the Republic of Namibia in March 1990.

Since then, the process of change has led to new forms of political rule. And the liberation movement in power has shown how far it is prepared to allow civil society to develop. In this book, Henning Melber brings together authors who long supported the Namibian people's resistance to the South African occupation and actively engaged in and helped shape the work of SWAPO. The editor, born into a family of South West African immigrants, has lived in Namibia since 1967, joined SWAPO in 1974 and headed the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit from 1992 to 2000.

The contributions to this book – marked by critical solidarity but also disillusionment over missed opportunities and frustration with blatant abuse of power by the political elite – reflect the fact that strict limits have been placed on civil society development in post-colonial Namibia. It is to the authors’ credit that their critical reviews contribute to a much-needed and overdue removal of the taboos that overlay such sensitive issues.

The ten contributions are flanked by an extensive bibliography. The standard of all the featured writings warrants praise. Each contribution is worth reading in its own right, a thought-provoking essay prompting further debate. Despite the mosaic-like structure of the book, with its numerous chapters and the variety of subjects and approaches of its authors, it paints a comprehensive and critical picture of the state of post-colonial Namibia’s political culture and the ideology and actions of liberation movements after their rise to power.

Comparison with similar processes in other Southern African countries (Zimbabwe, South Africa) is scant and it would be nice if this book were to prompt further comparative study. Angola, Mozambique and other countries where the international solidarity movements of the 1970s and ‘80s projected their revolutionary dreams provide lots of material for critical questioning of the political elites (legitimised by free general elections) and their relationship with the people, their understanding of democracy and the way they wield power.
Thomas Lawo