A grim chapter in Namibia's history

THERE was a time in the 1970s when hardly a week went by without South West Africa (SWA) being in the news.

- MARK LEVIN

South Africa had exercised control over SWA from 1915 until 1990 when SWA gained independence under its new name of Namibia. Walvis Bay however, remained part of South Africa until 1994 when it was transferred to Namibia which, finally, was united.

Today, South Africans have little interest in their neighbour. Although a number of military histories on the border war in SWA and Angola have been published, few historians have examined South Africa's 75 years of disputed control of SWA. Even the death in February 2025 of Sam Nujoma, the founding president of Namibia, stirred little debate or reflection in South Africa.

Germany, however, has confronted or been forced to confront its colonial past. SWA became a German colony in 1884 following the (in) famous 1884 Berlin Conference. Britain had annexed Walvis Bay in 1878, but was not opposed to German expansion into SWA.

Initially, Germany's commitment to its new colony wavered. As late as 1892, it considered pulling out. This changed in 1894 when Africans were confronted with a very different experience of German domination. Settlers began to arrive in growing numbers and with them, the structures of colonial rule along with roads, railways and harbours.

In central and southern SWA, inhabitants lost not only much of their political power and autonomy, but also land, water and grazing rights. A decade later they took up arms and were answered with genocide. This grimmest of periods is examined in the reissue of A History of Namibia by Marian Wallace (Hurst, 2025). First published in 2011, it remains an insightful survey of Namibia, providing the general reader with an authoritative reference book through its detailed examination of existing records. The brief opening chapter (by John Kinahan) covers the current state of archeological research. The main thrust of the book is a study of the period from 1730 until independence in 1990.