South African Rule and the Freedom Struggle in Namibia
With passing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, German South West Africa was declared a mandate of the League of Nations under South African administration. Subsequently, German was displaced as the official language and although most Germans remained, 4000 left the country. South Africa encouraged Afrikaner families to settle in the country, especially in the south.
In 1951 the ominous South African Apartheid laws were also implemented in South-West Africa. Following the Odendaal Plan, between 1964 and 1966 different artificial so-called homelands for the Herero, Nama, Damara, San and the Ovambo were proclaimed. The black population was then forcefully resettled, in Windhoek the township Katutura emerged.
The United Nations withdrew the mandate from South Africa in 1966. South Africa refused to accept this resolution and to hand its control over the country to the UN.
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The SWAPO (South-West African Peoples Organisation) under the leadership of Sam Nujoma – the later President of the country – started the armed struggle in the same year. It mainly took place in highly populated Ovamboland at the Angolan border in the north-west. The rest of the country was largely spared from fighting activities.
The SWAPO fighters followed a strategy of pinholes, since they had very little to set against the well equipped South African army with their tanks and combat helicopters. The SWAPO's guerrilla actions were answered with brutal bombardements by the South African airforce.
The armed struggle for the independence of Namibia lasted 23 years. The eventual retreat of South Africa was not owed to military successes of SWAPO but to growing international pressure and massive economic problems the Apartheid regime in Pretoria had to face. They had also been brought about by many years of international sanctions against the country.
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