There are many reasons why the Namibian churches and politica11eaders needed cooperation during the dark period of apartheid, especially after the 1946 AMEC schism. In 1948 the National Party defeated the United Party in the South African election, and immediately announced that it wanted South Africa to officially incorporate Namibia as a fifth province of South Africa. It was a matter of historical record that all attempts from 1945-1948 by the United Nations failed to resolve the deadlock. In the midst of hot debate, Daniel Malan extended some of the recently introduced apartheid laws - including the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality Act to Namibia. In 1959, with the NP policy of divide and rule, thousands of residents of Windhoek's old location were ordered to move to the newly established township of Katutura, without their consent. 31
Thousands had been forcibly resettled to create a black ghetto which complied with the racial segregation scheme of the South African government. In Katutura the various peoples lived strictly separately according to their ethnic membership, with different settlements for the Namas, Hereros, Ovambos and Damaras. African men and women had demonstrated outside the office of the administrator for South West Africa, the highest representation of the South African government. After negotiations with the government failed, the African people began boycotting buses in the township. The police started to fire at the unarmed crowd, killing 11 people and wounding 55. This was the first in a series of conflicts and thus a turning point for the country. The African people were no longer prepared to accept the racial policy of the white regime. From this time onwards, their resistance began to grow. More and more Namibians left their country to live in exile. The brutalities of the regime led to the founding of the Namibian liberation movement SW APO (South West Africa People's Organisation) in 1960. The satellite town of Katutura was a workers' colony where people were only permitted to stay if they found employment with white people. The black townships were shanty towns that were intended to disappear again one day. Anyone who went to black Katutura from Windhoek was made painfully aware of the huge gulf between the peoples and races. It was a segregation between black and white, rich and poor, free and unfree. Blacks
31 O. Levinson. South West Africa. Cape Town: Tafelberg Uitgewers. 1976. p.81.
Katutura is a black township outside Windhoek city. It is a Herero name meaning "place where we do not want to stay."
and whites were living at close quarters, but in two totally different worlds. The pass laws were the order of the day. In such a hostile situation, the Namibian churches faced a serious challenge to be the voice of the voiceless. 32
5.7.1 The Namibian Churches' Alliance and the Rise of SWAPO
In the 1950's a new generation of indigenous leaders emerged. They were bitterly opposed to South Africa's illegal occupation of the country. In another important development, British clergyman Michael Scott, Herero Chief Hosea Katuko, Mburuma Kerina and Samuel Witbooi based themselves at the United Nations headquarters in New York where they worked tirelessly to expose the nature of South Africa's rule. Throughout the 1960's, the Namibian churches, except the Dutch Reformed Church, took part in discussions and sent memorandums to the South African government to take a stand against the unjust and inhumane treatment of blacks. In the meantime, South Africa's Odendaal report in 1964 recommended the extension of the Bantustan programme into South West Africa. Out of the Odendaal report emerged ten African homelands, constituting 41 percent of the territory's total land area.33
Two years before the Katutura protest, Toivo ya Toivo had started in Cape Town as a lobbyist for SW APO formation. He and Nujoma put enormous pressure on the South African government for the inhumane treatment of the indigenous people. The governments of the frontline states (Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana, Angola and Mozambique) also tried to produce a solution, but they were unsuccessful. It bears repeating that South Africa was unqualified to negotiate for the African people of Namibia, as their troops had been involved in war with SWAPO. The South West African administration on its own was equally unqualified to resolve the problem to the advantage of the Namibians since, aside from being representative of the South West Africa white minority, its main purpose in bringing in the Cuban withdrawal from the Namibian territory was to prevent the establishment of majority rule in Namibia.
32 The World Book of Encyclopedia. N.O. Volume 14. Chicago: World Book, Inc.
1989. p. 10.
33 Richard W. HUll. Southern Africa: Civilizations in Turmoil. New York: New York University Press, 1981. p. 156.
While an activist of SW APO inter alia Sam Nujoma was organising opposition to the South African presence in Namibia, the United Nations continued condemning South Africa's rule of the country. In 1960, Ethiopia and Liberia, the only two members of the General Assembly who had also been members of the League of Nations, took the matter to the International Court. The judges took five years to hand down a verdict - and even then it was not a unanimous one. With the Australian president of the Court, Sir Percy Spender, exercising his casting vote, the Court ruled that it had no power to decide the dispute.
Although reaction to the decision was predictable, ranging from joy on the National Party side to anger from the Namibian lobbyists, the most significant response came from SW APO and the churches. At this point, I should mention that SW APO leadership was based in exile.
The SW APO leadership said they had no other alternative but to rise in arms and bring about liberation in the country. It was the beginning of the war against South Africa on 26 August 1966. 34 Ka~avivi says:
In Their 70 years of rule, South Africa exercised one of the worst forms of human domination ever in history, characterized by the marginalization of black people, the extention of land appropriation, forced labour and the apartheid policy. Swapo officially embarked on an armed struggle against the South African regime in August 1966.35
5.7.2 The Armed Struggle
Twenty-five years of external talks on the independence of Namibia failed. So did the initial attempts at an internal solution. The internal solution of South Africa was to establish a puppet government which was accountable to South Africa, and not the electorates. The war between the freedom fighters and the South African forces, comprising both black and white soldiers, had been long and bitter. Both sides had fought with equal determination. Both sides had justified their respective causes on moral grounds. Both sides had called upon the same God to give them victory. Of major concern to the South African government was the fact
34 The World Book of Encyclopedia. N-O Volume 14. Chicago: World Book, Inc.
1989. pp. 10-11.
35 Interview with Peter Kaljavivi, Vice-chancellor of the University of Namibia
Namibia. 23 August 2002. '
that despite mounting losses, SW APO continued to spread its influence among the
. d· I 36
m Igenous peop e.
The armed struggle in Namibia had killed many people of both races. It had destroyed many African homes. It had seriously disrupted family life in African communities. Many young Namibians between the ages of 12 and 35 went into exile, scared of the persecution by the security police. It made deep inroads into the national economy, which had led to insecurity and unemployment. Many Namibians in the border areas had entered Angola and Botswana as refugees. As the war escalated, so did the elements of fear and insecurity enter more and more hearts of the black man, the white man and the Coloureds.
5.7.3 The Response of the Churches
The South African government was very hostile towards the black churches in Namibia. For the first time in history, two black churches dared to describe apartheid as inhumane and detrimental to the peace and stability of the country,. Not only did the churches condemn individual acts of discrimination and the brutalities of the South African police, army and security forces, they also rejected the entire system of racism. The churches reiterated their call that South Africa's presence in Namibia was against the will of peace-loving and law- abiding citizens.
In the Namibian context it was not easy for the church to take a neutral stand in the face of injustices and maltreatment. The apartheid society which has been inflicted on the Namibians violated every single principle of the universal declaration of human rights. While the pressure was mounting from the Namibians in exile, the Namibian churches played an ever greater role in the liberation of the country. As a consequence of this, many clergy and church workers were victimized by the apartheid colonial regime. Clergy were harassed by the regime. Travel documents and visas of pastors had been refused by the government, preventing them from travelling outside the country. Clergy were harassed by the regime, their houses were burned down, and they experienced many untold sufferings.37
36 The New Nation. 1990. pp.10-14 and Olga Levinson. 1976. pp 90-91.
37 Interview with Bishop P. Diergaardt. Windhoek, Namibia. 07 July 2000.
The church, on the basis of her faith, was called to participate as the church in the struggle to freedom and to the establishment of an independent country. Often, the church was accused by the colonial regime that it supported SW APO as a political party. The active involvement in the struggle, however, did not transform the church into a political organisation. The individual Christian had the full right to participate in party politics and to be a member of such a political party. The individual Christian, therefore, is both a member of a political party and a church, and on both counts, Christians can participate in the church and political activities.
The Namibian churches, especially the black churches had been very concerned with the political situation of the country. More than 90% of Namibians were Christians, and on that basis, the church had spoken out clearly for an end of apartheid, for an end to foreign control over Namibia. The South African government that was imposed on Namibia did not like the church when the church criticized them and spoke out against their violations of human rights. They felt pressure from the church and recognised that the church was a force in society. They attempted to manipulate the church and its leaders, and attempted to divide the black churches. When the black churches spoke out for the oppressed, it became a threat to the white minority government. The Namibian historical context has shown that God's Spirit and the voice of the church strengthened the people and helped frustrate the occupation of Namibia. As people were able to resist and survive, Christian faith was very important in Namibia. God's people were alive and the churches remained the conscience of society. The church was called to be prophetic, to identify injustices, to speak the word of hope, to promote the well-being of the poor, needy and the oppressed. It always promotes dialogue throughout the society among Christians and between Christians and those of other faiths and of no faith. In the midst of suffering the aim was to promote a community of people working together for justice and the common good. The gospel message sums up the situation of the church in the following words:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has appointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4: 17).
On the basis of this it was evident that the church only fulfilled its prophetic task. The church did not propagate any political ideology to its followers. There was uneasiness among the white minority regime that the black churches in Namibia were under the influence of commumsm.