Exile and Repatriation: Experiences from the Zambezi Region, Namibia

The Namibian Zambezi region, formerly Eastern Caprivi, has an exceptional borderland geohistory. It resulted from the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty between Great Britain and Germany in 1890, to give Germany a corridor to the Zambezi River linking German East and South-West Africa. The Caprivi Strip as it was called proved useless, but has remained part of the geopolitical setting of Southern Africa to date. During the struggle for independence from the 1960s to 1989 the area soon became a strategic asset of the South African Defense Force and was heavily militarized. Due to increasing repression, many young adults, men and women, left the area to join SWAPO in Zambia. They crossed the border to Zambia and Botswana and were transported between camps to receive basic military training. Many were sent abroad to get additional training both military and civilian. Most also served in Angola, on the so-called northern front. The interviews of ten former exiles are the empirical data for this paper, most of them served in the armed struggle, but some served as nurses, teachers and as SWAPO envoys. The key concepts here are the experiences of the border people reflecting the decision to leave, the camp life, comradeship, and the common cause. After repatriation most suffered from a sense of being an outsider, and it took time to reconcile the leavers and remainers. The education and training in the Soviet Union, Finland, North Korea and elsewhere, were certainly beneficial for both the rebuilding of the new Namibia, but also for their personal life.