Insurgency in Namibia

[Sayeret]

It took 24 years of insurrection and warfare for Namibia to gain its independence, with an estimated death toll of between 20,000 and 25,000. Namibia is made up of the Namib desert which dominates the terrain of the country, with a belt of savannah(dry scrub land) behind followed by the Kalahari desert. Although being a barren desert Namibia is rich in mineral wealth including diamonds and strategically important minerals such as uranium, vanadium, lithium and tungsten. It was these mineral deposits that encouraged South Africa to try and hold on to Namibia throughout the many years of insurrection as well as the idea that by holding onto Namibia the guerrilla warfare in Angola was kept further away from South Africa. With costs escalating to $1 billion a year and with the end of the war in Angola South Africa eventually decided to give Namibia independence.

South African apartheid laws were only partially applied to Namibia but did prevent black Namibians having any political rights and restricted social and economic freedoms. The focus of South African rule was exploitation of the mineral wealth by whites. During the 1960's most of black Africa gained independence and a liberation movement soon appeared in Namibia, SWAPO (South West Africa Peoples Organisation) was founded in 1964 with a mainly Marxist agenda. SWAPO claimed support from all the local tribes but the South Africans in at attempt to divide and conqueror claimed that it was dominated by the Ovambo tribe who make up just over half the population of Namibia. In 1967 South Africa arrested and tried 37 Namibians for supporting terrorism including Herman Toivo ja Toivo one of the founders of SWAPO who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.


http://www.rickard.karoo.net/articles/wars_namibia.html

[2RHPZ]

Counterrevolution in Namibia

Maj Robert C. Owen

THE SOUTH African counterrevolutionary experience in Namibia merits attention for two reasons. First, through careful coordination of an effective military strategy with political reform, the South Africans have fundamentally altered the direction of Namibian politics. They have militarily contained the principal revolutionary force in the country, the Marxist-oriented South West African People's Organization (SWAPO), and they have established a moderate political movement that may be able to govern Namibia successfully despite SWAPO's still-considerable political power and resistance. Second, the Namibian conflict offers indirect insight into American capabilities in this sort of struggle. Unfortunately for American military thinkers concerned with counterrevolutionary war, the unique social and political conditions making South Africa's successful efforts possible, suggest more about American limitations than strengths in counterrevolutionary war.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/gifs/apj.gif (http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj87/owen.html)