Information in the Namibian national liberation struggle (1966–1989): Applying a model

Abstract

AbstractThe Namibian liberation struggle against South African rule, 1966–1990, can be looked at as an information war rather than a military conflict. The author has previous elaborated a model that incorporates information and communication activity by both contestants in such struggles, at their command centres, in the field and in the media. Here, the Namibian struggle is used to examine the capacity of the model to assist in explaining the outcomes of the conflict. Using published sources and printed archive material, the range of information inputs, the incidence of suppression of information and information outputs are set out in the pattern provided by the model. This shows how both sides used covert intelligence gathering, secret communication, propaganda and disinformation, accompanied by censorship and the suppression of critical comment by force to further their political/military aims. The liberation movement won the information and communication struggle and was, in consequence, ultimately victorious despite South Africa's military superiority. The model exposes the way in which this came about with particular clarity.