National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO's Exile Camps (African Studies)
Cambridge University Press, 10/8/2015
EAN 9781107099340, ISBN10: 110709934X
Hardcover, 284 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm
Language: English
This book traces the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) across its three decades in exile through rich, local histories of the camps where Namibian exiles lived in Tanzania, Zambia, and Angola. Christian A. Williams highlights how different Namibians experienced these sites, as well as the tensions that developed within SWAPO as Namibians encountered one another and as officials asserted their power and protected their interests within a national community. The book then follows Namibians who lived in exile into post-colonial Namibia, examining the extent to which divisions and hierarchies that emerged in the camps continue to shape how Namibians relate to one another today, undermining the more just and humane society that many had imagined. In developing these points about SWAPO, the book draws attention to Southern African literature more widely, suggesting parallels across the region and defining a field of study that examines post-colonial Africa through 'the camp'.
Part I. Camp, Nation, History
1. Liberation movement camps and the past of the present in Southern Africa
2. Revisiting an image of a camp
remember Cassinga?
Part II. Camps and the Formation of a Nation
3. Living in exile
life and crisis at SWAPO's Kongwa Camp, 1964–8
4. Ordering the nation
SWAPO in Zambia, 1974–6
5. 'The spy' and the camp
SWAPO in Angola, 1980–9
Part III. Camps and the Production of History
6. Namibia's 'Wall of Silence'
challenging national history in the international system
7. Reconciliation in Namibia? Narrating the past in a post-camp nation
8. The camp and the post-colony.