A History Lesson (Part Two)

A year after the outbreak of the First World War, South African forces captured German South West Africa and proclaimed it a protectorate. Mandated to South Africa in 1920, by the League of Nations, South West Africa and the Caprivi remained effectively under their administration until challenged by the South West African People’s Organization in the early 1960’s, just one of a rising number of communist-backed liberation movements, across the continent.

Using bases in southern Angola, SWAPO and its military wing PLAN (The People’s Liberation Army of Namibia) launched a campaign of cross-border incursions which were engaged by the South African National Defence Force. As the conflict intensified, the Caprivi became a front-line in this ‘border war’ which lasted until the late 1980's when eventually the South Africans, under increasing international pressure and despite their military successes against the insurgency, pulled out.

The remnants of this war can be still be seen to this day throughout the Caprivi region, in the many abandoned army bases, airstrips and part destroyed military ordinance. A more dangerous legacy remains however, in the numerous unexploded landmines which still litter the area, near the Angolan border. These occasionally kill and maims humans, as well as wildlife, such as elephants.