Lines in the Sand: The Global Politics of Local Development in Apartheid-Era Namibia, 1950-1980 Open Access

Abstract

During the Cold War and era of global decolonization, South Africa attempted to
formally annex Namibia, its League of Nations Mandate. When the National Party
government came to power in South Africa in 1948, it sought to implement apartheid
policies in the territory. By masking apartheid as "development," the South African
government hoped to gain international and United Nations approval of its racially
discriminatory policies. The state also intended development to justify its contested
presence in Namibia and to silence African opposition to South African rule and
apartheid. This dissertation explores how competing forces of decolonization and
apartheid coalesced around intra-Herero identity and water politics in rural Namibia
between 1950 and 1980. Oral and archival sources illuminate how local disputes over
ethnicity and water control became powerfully fused with global decolonization
struggles, apartheid, and Cold War tensions. This dissertation not only considers how
these larger forces shaped rural Herero society, but also demonstrates the ways in
which parochial ethnic and development politics profoundly influenced the ways in
which regional and international issues such as race, democracy, and globalization
impacted the uncertain process of decolonization. By examining the entanglement of
rural Herero identity politics, apartheid state formation, and decolonization at the
United Nations, this dissertation provides new insights into the ways that local people
negotiated the interstices of local-global and ethno-racial political nexuses and
attempted to claim sovereignty over their lives, lands, and futures in a moment of
great uncertainty and possibility.

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Table of Contents

About this Dissertation

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	History
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	History, African
Keyword	Apartheid Herero Namibia Decolonization Development water
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Crais, Clifton C, Emory University
Committee Members	Mann, Kristin, Emory University Scully, Pamela F, Emory University

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