Transitions in Namibia: Which changes for whom? (review)

Struggles against colonial subjugation through out the world and Africa in particular were predicated on the urgent need to regain independence. The basis for mass political mobilization was, inter alia, the need to regain land, restore economic, political and social justice. On this basis, the masses supported the liberation movements, which culminated in African countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia regaining their independence. Did political independence translate into political, economic and social justice for the majority of people in these newly independent African states? This is the big question the book, Transitions in Namibia: Which changes for whom, grapples with.

The book, Transitions in Namibia edited by Henning Melber is a collection of 14 articles or papers that attempt to answer the question posed above in relation to different themes; the economy, land, labour, regional development and gender among others. In almost all the articles, the authors endeavour to establish whether the SWAPO government delivered on its liberation struggle promises to the people. Emerging from the majority of these articles is the observation that, the SWAPO government, just like other Liberation war movements governments in the region especially ZANU Pf of Zimbabwe, has not delivered much on its promises. The independence cake has not been equally shared. Issues of ethnicity, regionalism corruption and graft have permeated the post independence Namibian state building project with the result that the majority of Namibians have been excluded.

The articles in the book can be divided into two general broad categories namely; issues to do with participation in the economy and development of the country and issues that concern gender equality in post independent Namibia. The book begins with an introductory overview of transitions in Namibia by Henning Melber. It sets the tone for the book by providing a historiographical overview of transitions that took place in Namibia since the 19^th century. Melber highlights the argument of the book when he notes "The contributions in this volume challenge SWAPO's liberation gospel that the struggle for independence achieved meaningful change for the people" (p10).

In the first category one can locate H Melber's paper, Poverty, Politics, Power and Privilege: Namibia's Black Economic Elite Formation. The article meticulously written takes stock of SWAPO's liberation struggle rhetoric to redress colonial inequalities. Using non-emotive language, Melber cogently advances that the postcolonial Namibian state has tremendously failed to use its newfound political power to ameliorate the socio-economic standing of the majority. Instead, the political socio-economic institutional framework created only managed to reinforce the existing status quo; a race to the bottom by the majority Namibians and a race to the top by a well politically connected minority (p112).

Melber correctly observes that, just like the situation of many independent sub Saharan African countries, Zimbabwe being a classical example, efforts to empower the black majority in Namibia have been marred in controversy and serious reports of graft and greed have been reported. Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment policy initiatives, for instance, only managed to empower a small clique with access to political power under corrupt under-hand dealings. Highlighting a number of high profile corrupt cases that have been documented, Melber concludes that political change in Namibia has not transformed the lives of the majority for the better.

In a related paper, Commercial Land Reforms in Post Colonial Namibia: What Happened to Liberation Struggle Rhetoric, Phanuel Kaapama reviews the thrust of the liberation struggle's political and economic ideological outlooks contrasting them against present policies and programmes being pursued (p30). It is argued that during the liberation struggle, SWAPO pledged to bring social and economic justice in land ownership by abolishing the free market system it accused of being responsible for the exploitation of the indigenous majority Namibians. Land ownership models based on the principle of social justice were espoused, but like in other areas that needed reform, the land promise remained between a dream and a nightmare.

Constitutional constrains not withstanding, Kaapama shows how the...