Student political consciousness: Lessons from a Namibian mission school

Abstract

This ethnographic history offers insight into the political consciousness of students attending St. Therese, a Catholic secondary school in southern Namibia, during the mid-1970s. Although scholars have indicated events and trends that influenced the politicisation of students in Namibia at this time, local circumstance and perspectives are virtually unconsidered. This text offers such vantage points, illuminating how students, who were largely unaware of national politics in 1973, grew increasingly cognisant of the struggle, began to identify with SWAPO and became political activists, leading a strike in solidarity with Soweto students in 1976. These students' political consciousness was significant to SWAPO as it established itself as a national political party, to the liberation movement in exile, and to Namibia's current leadership. Hence, further studies that consider local circumstances and perspectives on the development of political consciousness and their relation to regional, national and international movements are therefore recommended.