Fleeing the Wrong Way: Black Angolan Refugees and Apartheid South Africa’s Military Humanitarianism at the Angolan-Namibian Border, 1975–1978

Abstract

This article contributes to two sets of growing historiographies: one on refugees and international humanitarian organizations during decolonization in Africa; and another one on military humanitarianism. The article’s focus is on the little-known case of thousands of Black Angolan refugees who fled from the civil war in Angola to the South African-occupied territory of Namibia in 1975–77. Based on archival sources and oral history interviews, I investigate how and why these refugees found themselves in camps administered by the apartheid-era military rather than an international humanitarian organization, such as the UNHCR. I highlight how these refugees found themselves in a two-fold predicament. First, they had the misfortune of having fled to a territory that, in the context of the global Cold War, was legally, politically, and militarily contested. Second, since the refugees included ex-colonial forces and armed fighters from different Angolan liberation movements, the ‘genuineness’ of their refugee status was questioned by various international organizations. My main argument is that while this group of refugees was in many ways exceptional, their story illustrates the struggles inherent in the UNHCR’s expansion beyond Europe. As a result, other actors – such as the apartheid-era military – stepped in to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees.