Namibia

Namibia Known as South- West Africa until 1968, it became a German colony in 1884, but was conquered by South African troops under J. Botha and Smuts in 1915. After five years of military rule it became a League of Nations Mandate, whereupon South Africa started to integrate the country as a fifth province. In 1946 Smuts applied to the UN for the right to annex the country, which was refused. Ignoring the UN's demands to administer it as a trust territory in preparation for independence, Malan gave White Namibians direct representation in the South African parliament in 1949. Apartheid laws were introduced, and the country was fully integrated into the South African economy. Legal battles over the next few decades in the International Court of Justice on the legality of South Africa's continued administration of South-West Africa ended in 1966, when the UN withdrew the Mandate unilaterally. South Africa was forced to rethink its strategy of incorporation following Angolan independence in 1975, as its new government allowed the Namibian independence movement, SWAPO (South-West African People's Organization), to set up bases there. South Africa thus started to work for a compromise solution which would give Namibia a degree of independence while enabling it to retain maximum possible influence. Following multi-party talks (with SWAPO excluded), 1975–7, negotiations were entered with the UN. In the subsequent decade the South African government found a number of reasons to stall the UN and prolong its own rule over the country. However, an international arms embargo against South Africa, imposed because of its occupation of Namibia and its apartheid regime, finally took its toll.

In 1987–8 it became clear that the South African army could not win against the well-equipped and increasingly superior Cuban and Communist forces in Angola which were backing SWAPO. South Africa accepted defeat, and on 21 March 1990 Namibia became the last African country to gain independence under the leadership of Nujoma. Namibia's largest port, Walfisbay, which had been part of the Cape since 1878 and thus an integral part of South Africa, came under joint administration in 1992. During the 1990s the government tried to remove the educational disparities between Black and White. In 1994 it passed a law enabling it to expropriate the wealthy (White) farmers by providing compensation. However, this law to reduce the inequality of landownership was applied sparingly.

The expropriation of White landowners in Zimbabwe from 2000 increased public pressure on the government to act, as 50 per cent of the agricultural land continued to be owned by a minority of less than 5,000 farmers. Namibia also suffered from the civil war in neighbouring Angola, as UNITA rebel forces operated from Namibian soil. In 1999 the government withdrew its soldiers from the Congo, where they had engaged in the civil war for the promise of the country's diamond resources. Following a constitutional change, which allowed the President to run for a third time in office, Nujoma was re-elected in 1999.