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Namibia is a resource-rich country with a fragile ecosystem. As one of the driest countries in the world, it faces environmental challenges. Its socio-economic realities are still much influenced by the structural legacy of colonialism. Raw material is mainly exported without any value addition, and the distribution of relative wealth is highly unequal. Although Namibia is an upper middle-income country, a large number of its inhabitants live in poverty. Since 2016, the economy has entered into a lasting recession, leading to fiscal constraints on the state and government and an increase in unemployment. While the Constitution and certain laws create a normative framework for protecting the environment, economic role-players are tempted to ignore these specified requirements when it comes to the exploitation of natural resources. This chapter uses the cases of seabed phosphate mining, the harvesting of timber in a precarious ecological environment, and the opening of a tobacco plantation to illustrate the conflicting interests that arise. It shows that while legal provisions are in place, they are not always strictly recognized and implemented. This brings to the fore the dilemma of an economic policy that seeks to secure income from the country’s natural resources but at times does so at the cost of the natural habitat. As is also shown, line ministries are not always in agreement and reach different conclusions and policies. This points to relatively selective and occasionally incoherent implementation of the country’s constitutional and legal provisions.

Under the presidency of Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s foreign policy is characterized by the desire to ‘re-engage’ with the West with a view to securing the removal of sanctions and encouraging investment. In this, it has received the backing of the African Union and Southern African Development Community states. Simultaneously, the violence of the Mnangagwa regime has reinforced the reluctance of the West to remove sanctions, and Zimbabwe has even begun to test the patience of its neighbours. The government has placed renewed faith in the ‘Look East Policy’, but China is seeking to match its investments with tighter control.

These Reflections present an overview and take stock of the German-Namibian bilateral negotiations how to come to terms with the genocide committed by the German empire in the colony South West Afr...

The Republic of Namibia was a latecomer in the decolonization of Africa. Its trajectory has also been exceptional in other ways. The first three decades after independence in 1990 were characterized by the political hegemony of a former liberation movement as government in a multiparty constitutional democracy under the rule of law. In contrast to other anticolonial movements, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO of Namibia) consolidated and further entrenched its power in successive national, and regional and local, elections until 2014 and 2015, respectively. But the presidential and National Assembly election results in November 2019 and those of the Regional and Local Authorities in November 2020 marked a rupture. The shifting grounds indicate a gradual erosion of the party’s credibility. Contributing factors were the lack of delivery in governance and, in particular, the effects of growing socioeconomic constraints. An initial period of economic growth based on resource extraction mainly benefited the old and new elites in collusion with international companies. The policies of those in government and control over the state displayed the limits to socioeconomic transformation for the majority of people, who had expected more material benefits from self-determination. As a result, there has been a growing lack of trust in governance, and new contestants have entered the political sphere. It remains to be seen how this new political landscape will shape the country’s social contract and democratic contestation.

History, Narratives and Realities : Engagements with the Past and Present in Southern African Literature

The South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO of Namibia) had a unique status among anti-colonial movements. Fighting South Africa’s illegal occupation of South West Africa/Namibia, dubbed by the United Nations as a “trust betrayed,” it resorted to armed struggle in the 1960s. SWAPO was subsequently recognized as “the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people” by a United Nations General Assembly resolution since the mid-1970s. The political culture in post-colonial Namibia is much characterized by the dominance of SWAPO as a former liberation movement and its official history. This paper summarizes the relevance of the armed struggle for the heroic narrative. It contrasts the glorification with some of the ‘hidden histories’ and trajectories related to some less documented realities of the armed struggle and its consequences which do not have much visibility in the official historiography. It thereby finally seeks to present a more nuanced picture by giving voice to some protagonists of a post-colonial political culture not considered as mainstream.

For the first time, the former liberation movement SWAPO as government and its presidential candidate have recorded a loss in voter support. The National Assembly and Presidential election results ...

This article engages with the limits to liberation in Southern African societies under former liberation movements. It argues that the policies executed in the new societies are still infec...

The overwhelming dominance of the former liberation movement the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in terms of electoral support since independence resulted in a de facto one-party rule in Namibia’s democracy for the last 30 years. This has, in democracy theories, been labelled as competitive authoritarianism, and made it easy for SWAPO to fully endorse the democratic principles vested in the country’s Constitution, adopted as the last step to national sovereignty resumed on 21 March 1990. This chapter presents an overview on the SWAPO dominance in Namibia’s political system. It then looks at the degree the party and its leaders recognize and respect the constitutional democracy. It ends with a summary of the last National Assembly and Presidential elections, which suggest a turning point towards a loss of dominance and legitimacy of SWAPO, while still retaining the political control.

In presenting the results of the 'Brand South Africa' project as a special focus, this issue of the Strategic Review for Southern Africa has even more to offer than normal. The work of the guest editors is gratefully acknowledged and they will introduce the contributions to the project in more detail in the pages that follow. The journal is proud to have such a wealth of insights to share.The other articles in this volume provide additional perspectives to this special thematic focus: Albert Edgar Manyuchi looks at selected countries on the continent and critically assesses their governance of foreign direct investment. This stocktake highlights the need for careful assessments, if and when governance matters when attracting external economic interests to establish businesses and generate profit, and how best to reconcile potentially adverse interests.

Entwicklung und Fortschritt sind Begrifflichkeiten, die seit dem Zeitalter der Aufklarung mit ideologischer Verbramung einer Hierarchisierung von Menschen und deren Gesellschaften zu tun haben. Diese Wahrnehmung fordert eine Wertigkeit, die mit Herabstufung einher geht und damit einer rassistischen Sichtweise entspricht. Als allein erstrebenswerte Daseinsform gelten die westlich-industriellen Produktions- und Lebensweisen. Aufgrund dieses Eurozentrismus, der die eigene Gesellschaft in den Mittelpunkt stellt und daruber hinaus dazu neigt, alles andere als „weniger gut“ zu (miss-)verstehen, gibt es zwischen Kolonialismus und Entwicklungshilfe mitunter nur graduelle Unterschiede in der Wahrnehmung des Anderen. Dadurch beforderte rassistische Diskriminierungen sind deshalb keinesfalls passe. Dies zeigen noch immer dominante Sichtweisen in der Entwicklungspolitik.

Major changes in the global governance architecture have markedly impacted upon and considerably changed the situation in Southern Africa since this journal was established 35 years ago. These shifts have also modified the approach documented in the periodical. With this issue, the Strategic Review enters another stage in its development. In pursuance of being a relevant source of information, profound analysis and engagement with topical policy matters, it is representing academically sound Southern African perspectives, as well as perspectives on Southern Africa. At the same time, it adds voices from civil society and other agencies, contributing in their way to necessary debates. The new blend offers further reflections and dimensions to provoke fruitful discourses not only confined to a purely academic analysis. 1. Post-colonial Southern Africa The collapse of the Soviet bloc of states and the subsequent implosion of the Soviet Union marked the end of the bi-polar world and almost half of the 20th century dominated to a large extent by the Cold War and superpower rivalry. What Francis Fukuyama had termed "the end of history" (meaning the unabated triumph of capitalism) paved the way for a global appeasement strategy, which allowed the opening of new historical chapters for people in many parts of the world. In Southern Africa, the geostrategic realignments resulted--after the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Afghanistan as a tit-for-tat--in the solution of the United States (US)-imposed 'linkage' (which was tantamount to a 'blockage'), that is, the withdrawal of the Cuban military forces from Angola and the implementation of the United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 435 (1978) for a UN-supervised transition towards sovereignty of Namibia. Namibian Independence on 21 March 1990 at the same time marked the test phase for subsequent controlled change in the neighbouring 'big brother' and former occupying power, South Africa. One could say that the controlled change that took place in the former 'fifth province' ultimately also paved the way towards democratic governance in South Africa as a result of a similarly negotiated transition. With the exception of the Western Sahara, still occupied by Morocco, the African continent had finally achieved decolonisation. The newly (re-)constituted Southern African Development Community (SADC) of the early 1990s faced the challenge of overcoming the structural legacies of foreign dominated societies and economies. This has been a mammoth task, constantly hampered by deeply entrenched local and foreign interests in the maintenance of a status quo and by unrest and civil war which continued as a result of earlier destabilisation efforts in parts of the sub-region. Finally, the chronic violence in Mozambique and Angola could by the turn of the century be brought to an end with the different forms of defeat of Renamo and UNITA in Mozambique and Angola, and the integration of their remnants into the political sphere. However, the failed secessionist attempt in the Caprivi region of Namibia in 1999, the turmoil in Lesotho caused by the failed coup d'etat in 1998, and the involvement of several SADC member states in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1998/99 showed that war-like unrest was not only confined to the former Portuguese colonies. Unfortunately, the increasingly violent nature of the political contestation in Zimbabwe turned into a new factor of concern and resulted in hitherto unprecedented numbers of refugees from this country since the failed referendum in 2000. At the same time the kingdom of Swaziland became more and more a sort of rogue state under a monarch whose royal lifestyle contrasts with the abject poverty among those he rules with an iron fist. Notwithstanding such setbacks, the Southern African sub-region entered a hitherto unknown phase of relative peace and stability during the past decade. But the continued occasional eruption of political violence and the responding state terror to bring social unrest under control in some of the SADC member countries were reminders that the peace remains relative and fragile. …