Southern Africa Power Research Articles

Bargaining with Land: Borders, Bantustans, and Sovereignty in 1970s and 1980s Southern Africa

‘Independence’ for bantustans was universally rejected by the international community in the late 1970s and early 1980s. How the status of Lesotho and Swaziland as internationally recognised states deeply embedded in South Africa’s economic and political orbit differed from that of the bantustans was clear in some cases, murky in others. The apartheid regime floated many ideas of land transfer in an attempt to force these states to recognise the bantustan system and, by extension, the legitimacy of apartheid. While some of these proposed transfers were non-starters, the fact that the apartheid regime did transfer land from South African ownership to the bantustans and between bantustans kept alive the possibility that territory could be transferred between South Africa and the independent states. This article looks at Lesotho’s claim to the ‘Conquered Territory’, the transfer of Herschel and Glen Grey to the Transkei at ‘independence’ in 1976 and the 1982 Swaziland land deal to argue that the study of bantustans needs to be done in a regional framework to understand how bantustan leaders, the leaders of smaller regional states and apartheid leaders all deployed the idea of land transfer and border changes to project state power and gain leverage in other negotiations. It must, however, be noted that often the cost of diplomatic struggles over borders, boundaries and the projection of state power were, and continue to be, borne by those who live in the region’s contested borderlands. Utilising the concept of a ‘borderscape’, we argue that border contestations were central to defining ideas of state power in southern Africa during the apartheid era.

Racial justice and the Cold War: Gerald R. Ford, Rhodesia and the Geneva Conference of 1976

ABSTRACTThis article explores the humanitarian and geopolitical rationale behind the decision of President Gerald R. Ford in placing the power and prestige of the United States, for the first time, in actively seeking an end to minority control in Rhodesia. This article specifically highlights the importance of Ford’s morality and belief in racial equality combined with the changing Cold War realities, specifically the growth of Cuban and Soviet power in southern Africa, as the major influences shaping presidential decision making. Rhodesia, given its unique legal status as an unrecognized nation and as part of the global “periphery” offered a great deal of flexibility to the White House in shaping policy. This article, therefore, not only illuminates an area of policy that has previously been somewhat overlooked by academic scholarship but further offers a deeper understanding of the Ford administration’s broader approach to foreign policy.

Impact of political and economic barriers for concentrating solar power in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) needs additional affordable and reliable electricity to fuel its social and economic development. Ideally, all of this new supply is carbon-neutral. The potentials for renewables in SSA suffice for any conceivable demand, but the wind power and photovoltaic resources are intermittent and difficult to integrate in the weak electricity grids. Here, we investigate the potential for supplying SSA demand centers with dispatchable electricity from concentrating solar power (CSP) stations equipped with thermal storage. We show that, given anticipated cost reductions from technological improvements, power from CSP could be competitive with coal power in Southern Africa by 2025; but in most SSA countries, power from CSP may not be competitive. We also show that variations in risk across countries influences the cost of power from CSP more than variations in solar resources. If policies to de-risk CSP investment to financing cost levels found in industrialized countries were successfully implemented, power from CSP could become cheaper than coal power by 2025 in all SSA countries. Policies to increase institutional capacity and cooperation among SSA countries could reduce costs further. With dedicated policy measures, therefore, CSP could become an economically attractive electricity option for all SSA countries.

Logistics in Namibia: Issues and challenges

Logistics is perceived to be important for Namibia’s growth and development, but this may be a matter of conjecture as there is a dearth of documented information about the industry in Namibia. Furthermore, it is uncertain what the understanding of logistics is for key stakeholders in the country. This article reports on a project; the objectives were to address some of these issues and to lay the foundation for a more thorough investigation in the future. The findings of the initial project were disseminated in 2012 by: a conference paper showing the challenges and opportunities facing logistics in Namibia in 2012; a report; and through a Logistics and Transport Workshop held in Walvis Bay, Namibia in September 2012. These reports, additional interviews and subsequent discussions highlighted some potential opportunities and problems. This article summarises the project to date, showing the methodology and findings as updated by subsequent feedback and further interviews. The findings from key stakeholders of the logistics industry in Namibia include: universal agreement on the importance of logistics to Namibia; the variety in the understanding of the term logistics; the strength of the continuing influence of South Africa as the dominant economic power in southern Africa; and contrasting views on the main factors limiting logistics development, including infrastructure, attitude, government, customs, training, railways, corruption and driver shortage.

The Culture of Power in Southern Africa: Essays on State Formation and the Political Imagination (review)

The Culture of Power in Southern Africa: Essays on State Formation and the Political Imagination (review)

Chiefs and Bureaucrats in the Making of Empire: A Drama from the Transkei, South Africa, October 1880

Journal Article Chiefs and Bureaucrats in the Making of Empire: A Drama from the Transkei, South Africa, October 1880 Get access Clifton Crais Clifton Crais Clifton Crais is a professor of history at Kenyon College. He received his PhD in 1988 from Johns Hopkins University. His research and writing have focused on colonialism and resistance in South Africa, slavery and emancipation, political culture and political movements, and the history of vulnerability and poverty. He is the author of White Supremacy and Black Resistance in Pre-Industrial South Africa (1992), and The Politics of Evil (2002), editor of The Culture of Power in Southern Africa (2003), and co-editor with Nigel Worden of Breaking the Chains (2001). He is completing a book-length project on rural poverty and, with Pamela Scully, is co-authoring a biography of Sarah Baartman, more famously known as the “Hottentot Venus.” Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 108, Issue 4, October 2003, Pages 1034–1056, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/108.4.1034 Published: 01 October 2003

The Culture of Power in Southern Africa: Essays on State Formation and the Political Imagination

The Culture of Power in Southern Africa: Essays on State Formation and the Political Imagination

The Uncertain Promise of Southern Africa

Part 1 Introduction: the uncertain promise of southern Africa, York Bradshaw, Stephen N. Ndegwa balance of power in southern Africa, Colin Legum. Part 2 Countries: South Africa - transition to majority rule, transformation to stable democracy, Kenneth W. Grundy Zimbabwe - the erosion of authoritarianism and prospects for democracy, Masipula Sithole democracy and development in post-independence Namibia, Joshua Bernard Forrest democratising the administrative state in Botswana, John D. Holm, Staffan Darnoff militarism, warfare and the search for peace in Angola, Horace G. Campbell celebration and confrontation, resolution and restructuring - Mozambique from independence to the Millennium, M. Anne Pitcher. Part 3 Themes: popular culture in southern Africa, David B. Coplan gendered terrains - negotiating land and development, whose reality counts? Jean Davidson law and gender in southern Africa, Chuma Himonga education in southern Africa - the paradox of progress, Bruce Fuller, Allen Caldwell health and society in southern Africa in times of economic turbulence, Ezekiel Kalipeni business in southern Africa, Tony Dyer, Sue Kell compendium of data for the quantitative analysis of southern Africa, Leizell Bradshaw.

The Politics of Economic Power in Southern Africa, by Ronald T. Libby

The Politics of Economic Power in Southern Africa, <i>by Ronald T. Libby</i>

The politics of economic power in southern Africa

The politics of economic power in southern Africa

The Politics of Economic Power in Southern Africa

The Politics of Economic Power in Southern Africa

The Politics of Economic Power in Southern Africa

The Politics of Economic Power in Southern Africa

The future of soviet power in Southern Africa: Continuity and change

The future of soviet power in Southern Africa: Continuity and change

Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa

Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa

Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa, by Joseph Hanlon

Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa, <i>by Joseph Hanlon</i>

Book reviews

Book reviews

Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa

Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa

Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa

Joseph Hanlon pieces together the details of apartheid South Africa's military attacks on its neighbours, and relates them to the control the apartheid system exercises thorugh its economic power and control of the transport system in the region. North America: Indiana U Press

Mission to South Africa: the Commonwealth Report, South Africa: no easy path to peace and Beggar your neighbours: apartheid power in southern Africa

Mission to South Africa: the Commonwealth Report, South Africa: no easy path to peace and Beggar your neighbours: apartheid power in southern Africa

International organizations and the politics of Southern Africa: towards regional integration or liberation?

The balance of power in Southern Africa has shifted since 1973 with the independence of Mozambique and Angola and with increased pressures on the white regimes in Rhodesia and South West Africa. However, Southern Africa continues to be a distinctive regional subsystem' dominated by the hegemony of South Africa and characterized by substantial economic, military and social interactions. It is somewhat premature to suggest that a revolutionary situation exists in Southern Africa,2 because the political economy of the region has yet to undergo significant change in the direction of either socialism or self-reliance. Rather it is suggested that the kaleidoscopic changes in the region might be best understood as shifts in multinational coalitions among a rich diversity of actors; these complex coalitions involve relations of both conflict and cooperation among actors at sub-national, national, regional, continental and global levels over several important issues.3 This article is an analysis of the impact of mul-