Glossary

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Waitangi Day -  Waitangi Day is a public holiday in New Zealand, commemorating the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This Treaty is seen as New Zealand’s founding document, making the island part of the British Empire and guaranteeing Maori rights to their land as British subjects.
Waldo Stumpf -  Waldo Stumpf (b. 1942). South African scientist, an important official in the South African nuclear arms programme.
Walter Kamba -  Walter Kamba (1931-2007) was a Zimbabwean lawyer and academic who served as legal advisor to Zimbabwean nationalists at the Lancaster House Conference in 1979. He served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe from 1981 to 1992.
Walter Rodney -  Walter Anthony Rodney (1942-1980) was a Guyanese scholar and political activist closely associated with left politics in the Caribbean, Pan-Africanism and the Black Power movement. During the 1960s and 70s he taught history at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, publishing among other works his influential How Europe Underdeveloped Africa in 1972. Rodney founded the Working People’s Alliance in Guyana in 1974, and in 1980 was killed by a bomb placed in his car.
Walter Sisulu -  Walter Sisulu (1912-2003). South African anti-apartheid activist who was Secretary-General of the African National Congress from 1949 to 1954. He was Deputy President of the ANC from 1991 to 1994.
Walvis Bay -  Namibian harbour town. After Namibian independence in 1990, South Africa retained Walvis Bay until 1994.
War in Angloa -  Civil war lasting, with interruptions, from 1975 to 2002.
War in the former Yugoslavia -  A linked series of wars in the Balkans from 1990 to 1999, during which several former regions of Yugoslavia asserted their autonomy.
War with China -  The month long border war between China and India that occurred in 1962.
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.
Washington Okumu -  Professor Washington Jalang’o Okumu (b.1936) is a Kenyan economist who played a role in the Henry Kissinger and Lord Carrington-led negotiating team during the 1994 South African elections. He is celebrated for his intervention in the South African constitutional crisis. From 1971 to 1987, Okumu worked for the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and was ambassador-at-large for Kenya’s Forum for the Restoration of Democracy political party.
Wassily Kandinsky -  Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a Russian painter and theorist associated with the development of abstract art in the early twentieth century. He taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture in Germany from 1922 to 1933, later moving to France where he became a citizen in 1939.
Waterkloof military airbase -  A South African airbase near Pretoria.
Welshman Ncube -  Welshman Ncube (b.1961) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Industry and Commerce in Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013. He is President of the Movement for Democratic Change – Ncube, and a former Professor of Law at the University of Zimbabwe.
West Indies Federation -  The brief (1958-1962) political union between British colonies in the Caribbean, that was intended to become independent from Britain as a single state.
Western European Union -  An international organisation formed in 1948. It was dissolved in 2011.
Westminster Abbey -  An ancient church in London. The traditional venue for British coronations.
Westminster Foundation -  Westminster Foundation for Democracy. A British think tank founded in 1992, independent but funded by the state.
Westminster system -  A term used to describe parliamentary government on a British model, that was often used by formerly British controlled territories upon achieving self-government.
White Australia -  A term use to describe Australian immigration policies that discriminated against non-whites, instituted in 1901 and replaced in the post–war years from 1949 to 1973.
Whitehall -  London street. Site of many government buildings, the term ‘Whitehall’ is often used to refer to the bureaucracy of the British government.
Whitlam Government -  The ‘Whitlam Government’ was the federal Executive Government of Australia from 1972 to 1975, led by the Australian Labor Party with Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister.
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.
Wilfred Cantwell Smith -  Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916-2000) was a Canadian academic who acted as Director of the Harvard University Centre for the Study of World Religions from 1964 to 1973. Throughout his career he was associated with Forman Christian College, Lahore; the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University; the Department of Religion, Dalhousie University; and the Faculty of Divinity, University of Toronto. Smith is the younger brother of Arnold Smith, the first Commonwealth Secretary General.
William Hague -  William Jefferson Hague (b.1961) is a British political figure who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2010 to 2014 and Leader of the House of Commons from 2014 to 2015. Hague was previously Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2001.
William Heseltine -  Sir William Heseltine, b.1930 in Australia, was Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II from 1986 to 1990.
- Synonyms: Bill Heseltine
William Kalema -  William Wilberforce Kalema (1926-1972) was a political figure in post-Independence Uganda, elected as representative of the Kabaka Yekka political party which later joined the Uganda People’s Congress. He acted as Cabinet Minister in charge of Works and Communications under President Milton Obote and was part of Obote’s delegation to the Singapore CHOGM in 1971; during the cabinet’s absence, Idi Amin seized power in Uganda.
William Ruto -  William Ruto (b. 1966). Kenyan Politician. He is the incumbent Deputy President of Kenya (2013-).
William Waldegrave -  William Arthur Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill, (b.1946) is a British political figure who served as Chief Secretary of the Treasury from 1995 to 1997. He was previously Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1994-95).
Willy Brandt -  Willy Brandt (1913-1992) was a German statesman and politician who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1969 to 1974.
Wilton House -  A British country house.
Winnie Mandela -  Winnie Mandela (b. 1936). South African politician, held junior ministerial office from 1994 to 1996. She was married to Nelson Mandela from 1959 until their divorce in 1996.
Winston Cox -  Winston Cox is a Barbadian economist who served as Deputy Secretary General for Economic Affairs and Development at the Commonwealth Secretariat from 2000 to 2006. Following his time at the Secretariat, Cox joined the Inter-American Development Bank as Executive Director. He had previously served as Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados (1997-99).
Winston Peters -  Winston Peters, b.1945, served as 13th Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand under Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley’s administrations. He has also served as Treasurer, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Maori Affairs. In 1993 he established the New Zealand First political party, which he continues to lead.
Witness Mangwende -  Witness Mangwende (1946-2005). Zimbabwean politician, who held a number of ministerial posts in the government of Robert Mugabe, including Foreign Minister (1981-1987).
Wits University -  The University of the Witwatersrand. A South African university in Johannesburg, founded in 1896.
WMD -  Weapons of mass destruction.
Wole Soyinka -  Akinwande Oluwole ‘Wole’ Soyinka (b.1934) is a Nigerian poet, playwright and novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. Soyinka has been an active political critic in Nigeria and was imprisoned in 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War. During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993-98), Soyinka was forced to live in exile.
World Bank -  The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. An international institution, founded in 1944, that funds development projects
World Health Assembly -  The World Health Assembly (WHA) is the governing forum of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is the highest health policy-setting body in the world, composed of health ministers from its 194 member states. The WHA meets annually in May in Geneva.
World Service Trust -  A British charity, with international development goals, attached to, but independent of, the BBC. Founded in 1999, and known as BBC Media Action since 2011.
WTO -  The World Trade Organization. International organisation that aims to manage and organise liberalisation of international trade. Established in 1995, the WTO replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade signed in 1947