Namibia Archives - Commonwealth Oral History Project

Interview with Mark Chona

by evanamusoke | Mar 22, 2016 | Angola, Apartheid, CHOGM, Decolonisation, Democracy, Diplomacy, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Race, Rhodesia (see also Zimbabwe), South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

NOTE: The respondent stipulates that, before 2026, researchers should seek permission from him before citing this interview in their work. Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Chona, Mark, 1935-. Educated at University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now...

Interview with Rashleigh Jackson

by chrismoffat | Jul 21, 2015 | Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Diplomacy, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Namibia, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Queen, South Africa, United Kingdom, United Nations, USA, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Jackson, Rashleigh Edond. 1929- . Born in New Amsterdam, British Guiana. Joined the civil service in 1949. Received scholarship to study in the United Kingdom, 1954. Educated at the University of London and University of...

Interview with Carl Dundas

by chrismoffat | Jul 21, 2015 | Apartheid, Barbados, Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Democracy, Development, Elections, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Technical Assistance, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Dundas, Carl. Educated in London and called to the bar at Gray’s Inn. Appointed Legal Counsel and Director of Legal Division of the Caribbean Community, 1973. Technical Legal Advisor to Joint Selection Committee on...

Interview with Moses Anafu

by chrismoffat | Jul 16, 2015 | Apartheid, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cameroon, Cold War, Commonwealth Secretariat, Democracy, Diplomacy, Elections, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rhodesia (see also Zimbabwe), Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcripts: Part One (17 June 2014); Part Two (13 July 2014); Part Three (19 November 2014). Appendices: One – Interview Inserts (6 May 2015); Two – Secretariat Analysis of 1979 Internal Settlement in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia; Three –...

Interview with Mark Robinson

by chrismoffat | Jul 15, 2015 | Apartheid, CHOGM, Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Development, Diplomacy, Education, Elections, Falklands Islands, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Grenada, Kenya, Malta, Namibia, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Queen, Rhodesia (see also Zimbabwe), South Africa, Technical Assistance, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom, United Nations, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcripts: Part One (17 July 2013); Part Two (8 August 2013); Appendix One (on Belize). Biography: Robinson, Mark. 1946- . Born in Bristol, England. Educated at the University of Oxford. Special Assistant, United Nations Emergency Relief Operation...

Interview with Dave Steward

by chrismoffat | May 5, 2015 | Angola, Apartheid, Canada, Cold War, Constitutional Change, Diplomacy, Namibia, Race, Rhodesia (see also Zimbabwe), South Africa, Sport, United Nations, USA, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Steward, Dave. 1945- . Born in Nairobi, Kenya. Educated at the University of Stellenbosch, 1962-65. Joined the South African Department of Foreign Affairs in 1966. Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, 1981-82. Policy...

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Definitioner

Vladimir Shubin

Vladimir Shubin (b.1939) is a former Soviet military adviser and academic who played a prominent role in African politics as Secretary of the Soviet Afro-Asian Solidarity Committee and Head of the African Section in the CPSU International Department. Following the unbanning of the African National Congress in South Africa, Shubin acted as the Soviet representative to its National Conference. Since 1992 he has been a Research Fellow and Director at the Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Princeton Lyman

Princeton Nathan Lyman (b.1935) is an American diplomat who previously served as US Ambassador to Nigeria (1986-89) and South Africa (1992-95). Lyman also acted as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1996 to 1998.

Vance-Owen Plan

The ‘Vance-Owen Plan’ may refer to the joint proposals developed by US Secretary of State Cyrus R Vance and British Foreign Secretary David Owen in the late 1970s to secure ‘one man, one vote’ rule in Rhodesia. An alternative ‘Vance-Owen Plan’ would be the peace plans developed by then-UN Special Envoy Vance and EC representative Lord Owen to secure peace between warring factions in Bosnia in the early 1990s.

Allister Sparks

Allister Sparks (b.1933) is a South African writer and journalist who edited the influential Rand Daily Mail during the 1970s, having previously worked for the paper as a columnist in the 1960s. He was also editor of the Sunday Express and acted as correspondent for the Washington Post, The Observer, and NRC Handelsblad. Sparks has written a number of books on South Africa’s transition from apartheid, including Tomorrow is Another Country (1996). He founded the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in South Africa in 1992.

Cosby Show

The Cosby Show was an American television sitcom that ran from 1984 until 1992. It starred the comedian Bill Cosby and followed the comedic exploits of the upper middle-class African-American Huxtable family living in Brooklyn, New York.

Abe Bailey Scholar

The Abe Bailey Scholarship was established following the death of Sir Abraham ‘Abe’ Bailey, a South African diamond tycoon and politician. The Scholarship comes in the form of a travel bursary and is awarded to university students and young academics (under the age of 25) in South Africa to allow them experience of the United Kingdom.

Caltex

Caltex was founded in 1936 as the California Texas Oil Company, and is currently one of the major international brand names of Chevron Corporation. Operating across some 60 countries in Asia, the Middle East and Southern Africa, it is particularly dominant in the Australian market. In South Africa, Caltex owns a major refinery in Milnerton, Cape Town, and a manufacturing plant in Durban. Caltex was frequently criticised for its South African operations during the apartheid era.

Sasol

Sasol Limited is an energy and chemical company that was formed in Sasolburg, South Africa in 1950. Now operating in 38 countries around the world, its South African operation remains its largest, focusing on mining, gas, synfuels and oil. Its main plant in the province of Mpumalanga is the only commercial coal-to-liquid energy plant in the world.

Mossgas

Mossgas (Pty) Limited was an oil and gas company responsible for a controversial fuel-from-gas project near Mossel Bay, Southern Cape. Established in 1989, it was originally planned by the South African government as an alternative energy resource while the apartheid regime was facing international oil sanctions. In 2002, Mossgas merged with Soekor (Pty) Ltd and parts of the Strategic Fuel Fund Association to establish The Petroleum, Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (PetroSA).

Sullivan codes

The Sullivan principles are a set of corporate codes of conduct developed by African-American preacher Reverend Leon Sullivan during his time on the board of General Motors in the 1970s. Focused on promoting corporate social responsibility and an end to racial segregation in the workplace, the principles were originally introduced in 1977 to pressure multinational corporations operating in apartheid South Africa. A new, ‘global’ set of Sullivan principles were introduced in 1999 in cooperation with the United Nations.

Chet Crocker

Chester Crocker (b.1941) is an American diplomat who, as President Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1981-1989), was influential in the negotiations for Namibian independence and in articulating a policy of “constructive engagement” toward apartheid South Africa.

Tocqueville (Alexis de Tocqueville)

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was a French political thinker who wrote influential volumes on democracy and revolution in both the French and American contexts. He is considered a representative of classical liberalism and an important precursor to the disciplines of sociology and political science.

Wiehahn Commission

The Wiehahn Commission was a 1979 inquiry into South African labour legislation, reporting its findings on trade union activity and migrant workers to the state. The Commission recommended that, rather than ban the growing number of unauthorised Black trade unions, the Government should recognise them as legitimate and establish a regulated unitary system of union registration. It should also set up a National Manpower Commission and a special Court to focus on industrial litigations.

Georg Meiring

General Georg Meiring (b.1939) was a South African military figure who served as the first Chief of the South African National Defence Force from 1994 to 1998. He was also the last Chief of the South African Defence Force (SADF) from 1993 to 1994.

Derek Auret

Derek Auret is a South African civil servant who spent two decades in the Foreign Service from the 1970s to 1990s. He was Special Envoy with the rank of ambassador to the United Nations, Deputy Director-General of Foreign Affairs in the Middle East, and Chief Director for the Americas, Middle and Far East and Australaisa. Auret was also involved in negotiations around the independence of Namibia and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. He was later chairman of the Western Cape Provincial Public Service Commission.

Mulungushi Minute

The ‘Mulungushi Minute on the Establishment of a Joint South African-Angolan Monitoring Commission’ was an agreement that emerged from the February 1984 Lusaka Accords, outlining a disengagement process for South African troops in Angola that would stretch for fourteen months following the declaration of a ceasefire.

General Geldenhuys (Johannes Geldenhuys)

General Johannes Geldenhuys (b.1935) was a South African military figure who served as Chief of the South African Defence Force (SADF) from 1985 to 1990. He is known for his work bringing to an end the South African Border War – or the Angola Bush War – in 1989, after some 23 years of conflict.

South African Defence Force

The South African Defence Force (SADF) was the name of the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994, to be succeeded in 1994 by the South African National Defence Force. The SADF combined a conventional military strategy of securing the borders of the Republic with a mandate to counter internal threats to the state. During apartheid, this involved quelling violent opposition to minority rule.

SADF (South African Defence Force)

Hannes Philipp

Major-General Hannes Philipp was an Austrian military figure who served as Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) from 1974 to 1979. Philipp later acted as Force Commander of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia from 1978 to 1980.

Resolution 432

United Nations Security Council Resolution 432 was adopted on 27 July 1978 and called for the state of South Africa to relinquish its control of Walvis Bay to Namibia, allowing for the territorial integrity of the nascent independent country.

Resolution 435

United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 was adopted on 29 September 1978 and set the conditions for a cease-fire and post-conflict elections in South Africa-controlled South-West Africa. The Resolution was influential in facilitating the independence of Namibia, establishing the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG).

Eschel Rhoodie

Eschel Mostert Rhoodie (1933-1993) was a South African civil servant who acted as Secretary of the Department of Information between 1972 and 1977. In 1978-79, he was implicated in the ‘Muldergate Scandal’ involving Minister of Information Connie Mulder, which led to the resignation of BJ Vorster as State President. Mulder and Rhoodie had gained support from Vorster for a corrupt ‘propaganda war’ to defend the apartheid government from its critics.

Ainsley Gotto

Ainsley Gotto (b.1946) is an Australian public figure who was appointed Private Secretary for Prime Minister John Gorton in 1968. Gotto attracted controversy for the influence she reputedly wielded over the Prime Minister. She has subsequently worked in the private sector and served as National President for the Australian chapter of Women Chiefs of Enterprises International.

John Gorton

Sir John Grey Gorton (1911-2002) was an Australian politician who served as Prime Minister of Australia from 1968 to 1971. A Senator from Victoria, he had previously served in a range of cabinet positions for the Liberal Party, including Minister for the Navy (1958-63), Minister for the Interior (1963-64), Minister for Works (1963-67) and Minister for Education and Science (1962-68).

Otto Krause

Otto Krause (1930-1999) was an Afrikaner journalist who founded and ran the news magazine News Check from 1966 to 1971. He was later Editor of the Financial Gazette and a prominent political commentator in the South African media.

Johannes Degenaar

Johannes Jacobus (Johan) Degenaar (b.1926) is a South African philosopher and Emeritus Professor at Stellenbosch University. From the 1960s Degenaar was active as an outspoken critic of the apartheid ideology in South Africa.

Ramphul (Radha Ramphul)

Mr Radha Krishna Ramphul was a Mauritian diplomat who served as the Permanent Representative of Mauritius to the United Nations in New York from 1969 to 1982.

Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick (1926-2006) was an American diplomat who served as US Ambassador to the United Nations from 1981 to 1985. An ardent anti-Communist, she sat on Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council, Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and Defense Policy Review Board.

Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Josef Waldheim (1918-2007) was an Austrian diplomat who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981. He was President of Austria from 1986 to 1992.

Trevor Manuel

Trevor Manuel, b.1956, is a South African politician who served as Minister of Finance from 1996 to 2009 and Minister in the Presidency for the National Planning Commission from 2009 to 2014.

Gough Whitlam

Edward Gough Whitlam (1916-2014) was the 21^st Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975.

Washington Consensus

The term ‘Washington Consensus’ is used to describe a set of economic policy prescriptions that became standard practice in the 1980s for several Washington-based institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in their dealings with developing countries. These prescriptions include policies of deregulation, the opening of national economies to foreign trade and investment, and the facilitation of market forces domestically, priorities which are seen to be representative of an emerging ‘neo-liberal’ tendency in the era.

Rotary

Rotary International is an international service organisation that was established in Evanston, Illinois, in 1905. It is a secular organisation that aims to bring together business and professional leaders to support humanitarian services and charity initiatives.

Jonas Savimbi

Jonas Malheiro Savimbi (1934-2002). Angolan politician and military leader, he founded and led UNITA.

UNITA

UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) is an Angolan political party founded in 1966. It thought against the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) in the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002), receiving military aid from the United States and South Africa.

SABC

South African Broadcasting Corporation is a South African radio and television broadcaster, established in 1936.

OAU

Organisation of African Unity. Founded in 1963 to act as a collective voice for African Nations, it was replaced by the African Union in 2002.

Alfred Nzo

Alfred Nzo (1925-2000). Secretary General of the ANC (1969-1991) and South African Minister of Foreign Affairs (1994-1999).

Walvis Bay

Namibian harbour town. After Namibian independence in 1990, South Africa retained Walvis Bay until 1994.

John Vorster (BJ Vorster)

Balthazar Johannes 'John' Vorster (1915-1983). South African politician, served as Prime Minister (1966-1978) and State President (1978-1979).

Hendrik Verwoerd

Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (1901 –1966). Prime Minister of South Africa (1958-1966), closely associated with apartheid policies.

Verwoerd (Hendrik Verwoerd)

Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (1901 –1966). Prime Minister of South Africa (1958-1966), closely associated with apartheid policies.

Cyrus Vance

Cyrus Vance (1917-2002). American politician and diplomat, served as Secretary of State (1977-1980) and as a United Nations envoy (1991-1993).

UNTAG

United Nations Transition Assistance Group. A United Nations force that operated in Namibia from 1989 to 1990. It monitored elections and the transition to independence.

United Nations. Major international organisation, founded in 1945.

UDI

Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Rhodesia’s 1965 declaration of independence without British agreement, intended to preserve white minority rule.

SWAPO

South West Africa People’s Organisation. A Namibian political party founded in 1960 to campaign for independence; it has governed Namibia since 1990.

Security Council

A body, part of the United Nations organisation, charged with upholding of global peace and security.

SACP

South African Communist party, founded in 1921.

Robin Renwick

Lord Renwick of Clifton (b. 1937). British diplomat. Head of Chancery, British Embassy, Washington, 1981-84; Assistant Under-Secretary of State, FCO, 1984-87; British Ambassador to South Africa, 1987-91, and to the United States, 1991-95. Author of 'Unconventional Diplomacy in Southern Africa' (Palgrave, 1997).

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004). President of USA (1981-1989).

Sonny Ramphal (Shridath Ramphal)

Shridath Surendranath 'Sonny' Ramphal (b. 1928). Guyanese politician, second Commonwealth Secretary-General (1975-1990).

Old Commonwealth

An informal term describing the countries of the pre-1945 Commonwealth: Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.

General Obasanjo (Olusegun Obasanjo)

Olusegun Obasanjo (b. 1937). Nigerian Head of Federal Military Government (1976-1979) and President (1999-2007). He was Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on South Africa (1985-1986).

Sam Nujoma

Sam Nujoma (b. 1929). Namibian politician and resistance leader. He was leader of SWAPO (1960-2007) and President of Namibia (1990-2005).

Connie Mulder

Connie Mulder (1925-1988). South African politician. Stood against PW Botha for the leadership of the National Party in 1978.

Lancaster House

A London mansion house, frequently used as the venue for decolonisation negotiations between the 1940s and 1970s. It was the site of the Lancaster House Agreement in December 1979, for instance, which brought an end to white rule in Rhodesia.

FW de Klerk

FW de Klerk (b. 1936). South African politician and State President (1989-1994).

Geoffrey Howe

Geoffrey Howe (b. 1926). Lord Howe of Aberavon. British politician, held various Cabinet positions in Margaret Thatcher’s government including Foreign Secretary (1983-1989).

Bob Hawke

Bob Hawke (b. 1929). Australian Prime Minister (1983-1991).

Malcolm Fraser

Malcolm Fraser (b. 1930). Prime Minister of Australia (1975-1983). Fraser also served as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on South Africa.

EPG

Eminent Persons Group. A group of well-known individuals chosen by the Commonwealth to research a specific issue. The 1985 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting appointed an EPG to report on apartheid in South Africa, published in 1986 as Mission to South Africa. A second EPG was appointed in 2009 and tasked to produce a report on Commonwealth reform for 2011.

John Diefenbaker

John Diefenbaker (1895-1979). Canadian Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963.

Cold War

A period of ideological tension from around 1945 to 1991 between capitalist nations led by the USA and communist nations led by the USSR.

CODESA

The Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) is the name for a series of multi-party negotiations on the ending of apartheid in South Africa, hosted in 1991 and 1992. CODESA I took place in December 1991, nearly two years after the unbanning of political parties and the release of Nelson Mandela. CODESA II began in May 1992, though negotiations collapsed following the Boipatong massacre in June.

COSATU

The Congress of South African Trade Unions. A South African federation of trade unions, founded in 1985.

Pik Botha

Roelof Botha (b. 1932).South African politician and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1977-1994).

British Commonwealth

The term used to describe the Commonwealth until 1949, reflecting British pre-eminence within it.

Anthony Barber

Anthony Barber (1920-2005). British politician, who served in a variety of ministerial positions including as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1970-1974). He also served on the Commonwealth Eminenet Persons Group on South Africa (1985-1986).

Apartheid

A system of legally enforced racial segregation implemented and upheld by the National Party in South Africa from 1948 – 1994

Anglo-Boer War

The war between Britain and Afrikaner settlers fought in southern Africa between 1899 and 1902, culminating in a costly British victory.

ANC

African National Congress. A South African political party, founded in 1912, that opposed apartheid and has been South Africa’s governing party since 1994.

African Union

The successor organisation to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) from 2002. It aims to promote greater cooperation and unity between member states.

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher (1926-2013). British politician and Prime Minister (1979-1990).

Mrs Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher)

Margaret Thatcher (1926-2013). British politician and Prime Minister (1979-1990).

Interview with Mark Chona

Interview with Rashleigh Jackson

Interview with Carl Dundas

Interview with Moses Anafu

Interview with Mark Robinson

Interview with Dave Steward

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