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Bantustans in South West Africa (Namibia)
Last modified: 2001-04-06 by jarig bakker
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During the mandate period, South Africa erected homelands (bantustans)
in Namibia as well. Pedersen mentions Kavango,
Ovambo and Caprivi.
Ole Andersen, 22. December 1999
The Bantustan policy in South West Africa
In terms of the League of Nations' mandate for South West Africa, the responsibility
for the well-being and development of the indigenous population was vested
in the Administrator of South West Africa, acting as an agent of the South
African government. Traditional tribal authorities were, however, encouraged
to play an active and increasing role in the administration of their own
affairs. In 1922 the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations
commented that "The Mandatory Governments are to be commended on their
adoption of the principle of maintaining the former organisation of the
tribes and recognising the power of the chiefs". At a later session of
the Commission, Lord Lugard (the British African Administrator) had the
following to say: "It is also a matter of congratulation that the system
of governing the various tribes through tribal councils continues to prove
satisfactory and is being extended". It would also be true to say that
after taking over the administration of South West Africa in 1915, the
South African Government had little choice but to rely, to a large extent,
on the existing and re-established tribal authorities to rule large areas
of the territory. It had neither the manpower, the means, nor the facilities
to do otherwise in a country with a surface area of 824 269 square km and
a population density which, even now, is only 1,4 persons per square km.
As Robert von Lucius, the Southern African correspondent of the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung has pointed out, it is no exaggeration to say that the
notion of ethnicity as a vital underpinning of public policy has been in
practice for longer in what is now Namibia, than in South Africa. The formal
establishment of ethnically based "homelands" in South West Africa was
thus a logical extension of a system of government which had long been
in operation in the Territory. After the 1948 National Party election victory
and the formal implementation of apartheid in South Africa, the South African
government viewed the creation of 'self-governing' states based on the
boundaries of the major ethnic groups - both within the borders of South
Africa and in South West Africa - as a means of fulfilling the political
aspirations of the indigenous population. The evolution of these self-governing
areas (or Bantustans) was seen as South Africa's answer to decolonisation.
For South West Africa the stage was set when the South African Parliament
passed legislation in 1968 to extend self-government to the "Native Nations
of South West Africa" In terms of the Development of Self-government for
Native Nations in South West Africa Act (1968) those areas under traditional
tribal authority were set aside were to be "... reserved and set apart
... for the exclusive use and occupation by ..." the respective ethnic
groups living in those areas. The remainder of the country (with the exception
of Walvis Bay) was considered a single political unit in which the white
population predominated. Within the next 10 years, three of Legislative
Councils which had been established in terms of this Act were to acquire
their own coats of arms and flags. These were Owambo (formerly Ovamboland).
Kavango (formerly Okavangoland) and Caprivi (formerly Eastern Caprivi).
The coats of arms were to replace the South African and South West African
arms on official documentation, while each of the Flag Acts specified that
the respective flag "... shall be flown side by side with the National
Flag of the Republic [of South Africa] at the buildings where the Legislative
Council holds its sessions, at the principal administrative offices and
at all main district offices of the Government ....., and at such places
.... as the Government may determine". This practice continued until the
formal dissolution of the South West African "homelands" with the granting
of independence to Namibia on 21 March 1990.
Source: Coats and Arms and Flags in Namibia by FG Brownell (1992)
Bruce Berry, 25 November 1998