By Henning Melber

The 1st quantity on "Re-examining liberation in Namibia" (2003) focused on the political tradition due to the fact that Independence. This moment choice of essays, which completes the study, provides to the generally famous and praised attempt to severely check the achievements and screw ups of the erstwhile German and South African colony below a liberation circulation in political strength.

It enhances the previous assortment via generally assessing the cloth elements of decolonization and its obstacles with regards to the empirical social realities. The members are students and civil society activists usually established in Namibia or operating widely on and within the state. Their analyses are guided by way of a dedication to the Namibian humans and the declared ambitions of social emancipation as formulated through the anti-colonial fight. The chapters care for felony elements of the recent method, the ideas of a brand new elite, the continuing social disparities, kinds of exploitation and marginalization, land as a contested factor, the combination of ex-combatants, the function of juvenile, decentralization and nearby improvement, city deprivation, HIV/Aids, gendered violence and different kinds of discrimination.

The insights upload to the physique of information touching on negotiated and regulated switch with a move of political strength to former liberation events rather in Southern Africa. it's thought-provoking in terms of the mandatory reflections at the limits to liberation and is of curiosity and use to students, activists and practitioners alike.

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Additional resources for Transitions in Namibia: Which Change for Whom?

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However, because of the nature of the dynamics that unfolded during the transition to independence and its immediate aftermath, only a handful of white farmers left the country. Second, another key factor in the transition to independence that reputedly precluded pursuance of the radical socioeconomic transformation envisaged by SWAPO was the Security Council’s imposition of the 1982 constitutional principles. These represented a number of constitutional preconditions for an independent Namibia that would have to be met if the country was to be admitted into the community of independent nations.

These circumstances contributed to the tendency of individual farmers to continue to manage unprofitable farms. They note that any effort to tax agricultural land would likely force most commercial farms out of business – and put these farms in government hands In addition, Sherbourne (2004:14) has observed that some of Namibia’s economic elite tend to acquire farms merely as places to visit occasionally with a view to enjoying a rural lifestyle in contrast to the urban lives that they have become accustomed to.

He predicated these doubts on the fact that the goal of socialist transformation and the application of socialist concepts to African situations had suffered from both theoretical inadequacies and practical drawbacks. ” However, he insisted that there were prospects for and the promise of successfully pursuing the desired socioeconomic transformation, provided the right foundations were laid. In particular, he strongly refuted claims that socialism and democracy were inherently irreconcilable by insisting that the latter needed to be an essential part of the former.

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