Namibia: South African mandate (1915-1945)

Updated August 2009

South Africa occupied South West Africa during First World War in 1915 with 43 000 troops (Saunders 2008, 826; Evans 1990, 563). Late in 1915, as the Portuguese attempted to consolidate their control over the interior of Angola, war broke out between them and the Kwanyama Kingdom and the South African government used the conflict in the north to occupy Ovamboland south of the Kunene and extend colonial administration to the boundaries agreed on between the Germans and the Portuguese in 1886, splitting the Kwanaya with one-third under South African control and the other two-thirds under Portuguese; when the Ovambos rejected the boundary a punitive expedition was sent and over 100 Ovambos were killed (Kiljunen, K 1981, 146; Clarence-Smith & Moorsom 1975, 380). South Africa expected to annex the South west Africa after the war, but this was not permitted (Saunders 2008, 826; Longmire 1990, 205). Instead it was given a C Class Mandate to administer the territory "in the interests of its population" and had to submit annual reports on its administration to the League of Nations' Council, but the terms of the mandate allowed it to administer the territory as an integral part of the Union of South Africa (Longmire 1990, 207, 208). By the South Africa Act of 1909 Walvis Bay became a part of the Union as part of the Cape Province and, in expectation of South West Africa's eventual incorporation, in 1922 South Africa decided it was more convenient to administer Walvis Bay from Windhoek; only in 1977 when it was evident that independence was inevitable was its administration transferred back to the Cape Province (Evans 1990, 563; Kiljunen, K 1981, 146).

South Africa did not pay more than lip service to the interests of the population. Not even the promise made to the Basters to return land alienated from them by the Germans was honoured, despite the assistance the Basters had rendered to the South African forces during the War (Kjæret & Stokke 2003, 585). Instead the government encouraged the settlement of white South Africans in the territory and alienated even more land to provide to them, so that by 1935 the settler population had risen to 31 800 from 14 830 in 1914; about 25.5 million hectares of land was reserved for Whites, 21 million hectares was designated crown land and a quarter of a million Africans were pushed into reserves comprising only 17.5 million hectares, under 22% of the land surface (Longmire 1990, 200, 205, 207, 208; Innes 1981, 64). South African settlers were given land on very easy terms and start up capital was advanced to them to enable them to acquire farms (Innes 1981, 65). Similarly, the interests of White South African capital were facilitated at every turn as illustrated by the transfer of the most important diamond mines to Anglo-American in 1919, even before South Africa had any legal title to the territory (Innes 1981, 63).

Legislation was passed to rationalise and extend the system of racial segregation initiated by the Germans and to legally create the reserves that Africans were confined to, which were established on marginal land incapable of supporting their populations, thus ensuring that they would become perennial sources of cheap contract labour for the White controlled economy (Innes 1981, 64; Longmire 1990, 200). To force Africans into migrant wage labour cash taxes and vagrancy laws were introduced and to control the movements of Africans in urban areas pass laws were bolstered and curfews implemented (Longmire 1990, 207; Kiljunen, ML 1981b, 91). The South West African Labour Association was created in 1926 to reduce the bargaining power of Africans with employers and to enforce compliance with the one-sided labour contracts that resulted (Innes 1981, 64; Kiljunen, ML 1981b, 90).

In 1925, by way of contrast, the South West African Constitution Act passed that created a Legislative Assembly for the representation of Whites, the overwhelming majority of which were by now of South African extraction, enabling them to assume a limited degree of power, while denying any representation to Africans (Innes 1981, 65). Instead administrative control over African in the reserves was tightened by the 1928 Native Administration Proclamation that enabled the authorities to appoint and depose traditional leader at will, reducing them to collaborative functionaries of the state (Innes 1981, 65).

Africans met South African impositions with resistance. In 1917 the Union Defence Force was used to mount a bloody punitive action against Ovambo Chief Mandume who led resistance in the region against the newly imposed White rule (Dale 1980, 61). The establishment of the reserves in 1922 required large scale removal of people from their land to remote and arid areas and provoked stiff resistance that was met with "violence, burning dwellings, seizing cattle and crops, or threats of violence" (Kiljunen, ML 1981b, 91). In 1922 the irrepressible Bondelswart rose yet again against colonial maladministration and the contract migrant labour system, but between one and two hundred of them died in the heavy handed military repression that followed; the military bombed them into submission from aircraft (Kiljunen, K 1981, 146; Dale 1980, 62). After years of attempting to regain their land and obtain a measure of self-government in the face of South African intransigence the Basters rebelled in 1924/5 in a hopeless attempt to reassert their independence, but though more restraint was exercised they were defeated (Minahan 2002, 292, 293; Kiljunen, K 1981, 146, 147). Finally, the Kwambi of Ovamboland rose in 1932 against the oppressive taxes levied by South Africa resulting in the destruction of their capital and the exile of their King (Kiljunen, K 1981, 147). The League of Nations, unhappy with the way in which South Africa was exercising its mandate, refused South Africa's request in 1932 to be allowed to annex the territory (UNESCO 1974, 138, 139).

The Great Depression impacted heavily on South West Africa. Nominal GDP fell by about 27% between 1920 and 1935 (Innes 1981, 65). The Anglo-American corporation responded to the fall in the demand for diamonds by slashing diamond production in the territory to nothing, while a devastating drought ravaged agricultural production (Innes 1981, 66). Stock farming in particular suffered with up to 80% of sheep holdings being lost and 50% of cattle (Innes 1981, 66). The effect of all this was that the contribution of mining to GDP fell from 59% in 1925 to 44% in 1930 and that of commercial agriculture plummeted from 13% to 5% in the same period (Innes 1981, 65). Dispossessed of viable land and wealth, confined to the rural ghettos that were the reserves, the African population's ability to resist reduction to the servitude of the contract migrant labour system was further undermined by the Depression since they had by then no reserves left to buffer them (Innes 1981, 67).

In 1933 the drought ceased and agriculture recovered, but despite a rise in diamond prices Anglo American did not reopen production and mining's contribution to the economy deteriorated to 13% (Innes 1981, 65, 66). Also, after 1933, the South African economy rebounded and farmers found a secure market there, so that agricultures share of national income soared to 46% of GDP by 1935 (Innes 1981, 66). Rather familiar colonial relation of exploitation were began to emerge, South West Africa exported primary products to South Africa and South Africa in turn exported higher value manufactured goods back, constraining economic diversification, while control of the economy of South West Africa became increasingly concentrated in the hands of South African companies (Innes 1981, 66). Nevertheless, South West Africa played a very peripheral role in the South African economy and little attention was paid to its development (Green & Kiljunen 1981b, 30). Despite economic revival, only in the early 1940s did nominal GDP recover and surpass its 1920 level (Innes 1981, 65).

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War most of the adult German male population of the territory was interned in 1940 since they were regarded as a security and were only released in 1946 (Weigend 1985, 164; Dale 1980, 63). The territory formed a vital part of the Allied defence of the south Atlantic and a source of recruits for the Union Defence Force, with Africans serving in non-combatant roles (Dale 1980, 63, 64).

References

DALE, R 1980 "The Armed Forces as an Instrument of South African Policy in Namibia", Journal of Modern African Studies, 18(1), March, 57-71, [www] http://www.jstor.org/stable/160410 [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

EVANS, G 1990 "Walvis Bay: South Africa, Namibia and the Question of Sovereignty", International Affairs, 66(3), July, 559-568, [www] http://www.jstor.org/stable/2623074 [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

INNES, D 1981 "South African capital and Namibia" IN Kiljunen, ML & Kiljunen, K (eds) Namibia: the Last Colony, Essex, Longman, 59-86.

KILJUNEN, K 1981 "National resistance and the liberation struggle" IN Green, R, Kiljunen, ML & Kiljunen, K (eds) Namibia: the Last Colony, Essex, Longman, 145-171.

KILJUNEN, ML 1981b "The land and its people" IN Green, R, Kiljunen, ML & Kiljunen, K (eds) Namibia: the Last Colony, Essex, Longman, 23-29.

KJÆRET, K & STOKKE, K 2003 "Rehoboth Baster, Namibian or Namibian Baster? An analysis of national discourses in Rehoboth, Namibia", Nations and Nationalism 9(4), 579-600, [www] http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118851212/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

LONGMIRE, P 1990 "Land and Labour in the Namibian Economy" IN Konczacki, ZA, Parpart, JL, Shaw, TM (eds) Studies in the Economic History of Southern Africa, Vol 1; The Front Line states, Frank Cass Publishers.

SAUNDERS, C 2008 "Namibia: Recent History" IN Frame, I (ed) Africa South of the Sahara 2008, London, Routeledge, 826-832.

UNESCO 1974 Racism and apartheid in southern Africa: South Africa and Namibia, Paris, Unesco Press.