Editing Namibia (section)

===South African mandate===
{{see also|South West Africa}}
During World War I, South African troops under General [[Louis Botha]] [[South West Africa campaign|occupied the territory]] and deposed the German colonial administration. The end of the war and the [[Treaty of Versailles]] resulted in South West Africa remaining a possession of South Africa, at first as a [[League of Nations mandate]], until 1990.<ref name=Rajagopal>{{cite book|last=Rajagopal|first=Balakrishnan|title=International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance|url=https://archive.org/details/internationallaw00raja|url-access=limited|year=2003|pages=[https://archive.org/details/internationallaw00raja/page/n66 50]–68|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521016711}}</ref> The mandate system was formed as a compromise between those who advocated for an Allied annexation of former German and Ottoman territories and a proposition put forward by those who wished to grant them to an international trusteeship until they could govern themselves.<ref name=Rajagopal/> It permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination.<ref name=Louis>{{cite book|last=Louis|first=William Roger|title=Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization|year=2006|pages=251–261|publisher=I.B. Tauris & Company, Ltd|location=London|isbn=978-1845113476}}</ref> South Africa interpreted the mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy.<ref name=Louis/>{{multiple image
| image1            = Witbooi Hendrik.jpg
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| image2            = SamuelMaharero.jpg
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| footer            = [[Hendrik Witbooi (Nama chief)|Hendrik Witbooi]] (left) and [[Samuel Maharero]] (right) were prominent leaders against German colonial rule.
}}
As a result of the [[United Nations Conference on International Organization|Conference on International Organization]] in 1945, the League of Nations was formally superseded by the [[United Nations]] (UN) and former League mandates by a trusteeship system. Article 77 of the [[United Nations Charter]] stated that UN trusteeship "shall apply...to territories now held under mandate"; furthermore, it would "be a matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing territories will be brought under the trusteeship system and under what terms".<ref name=Vandenbosch>{{cite book|last=Vandenbosch|first=Amry|title=South Africa and the World: The Foreign Policy of Apartheid|url=https://archive.org/details/southafricaworld00vand|url-access=registration|year=1970|pages=[https://archive.org/details/southafricaworld00vand/page/207 207–224]|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington|isbn=978-0813164946}}</ref> The UN requested all former League of Nations mandates be surrendered to its [[United Nations Trusteeship Council|Trusteeship Council]] in anticipation of their independence.<ref name=Vandenbosch/> South Africa declined to do so and instead requested permission from the UN to formally annex South West Africa, for which it received considerable criticism.<ref name=Vandenbosch/> When the UN General Assembly rejected this proposal, South Africa dismissed its opinion and began solidifying control of the territory.<ref name=Vandenbosch/> The UN General Assembly and Security Council responded by referring the issue to the [[International Court of Justice]] (ICJ), which held a number of discussions on the legality of South African rule between 1949 and 1966.<ref name=First>{{cite book|last=First|first=Ruth|editor1-last=Segal|editor1-first=Ronald|title=South West Africa|year=1963|pages=169–193|publisher=Penguin Books, Incorporated|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-0844620619}}</ref>

South Africa began imposing ''[[apartheid]],'' its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during the late 1940s.<ref name="Crawford1">{{cite book|last=Crawford|first=Neta|title=Argument and Change in World Politics: Ethics, Decolonization, and Humanitarian Intervention|url=https://archive.org/details/argumentchangewo00craw|url-access=limited|year=2002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/argumentchangewo00craw/page/n350 333]–336|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521002790}}</ref> Black South West Africans were subject to [[pass laws]], curfews, and a host of residential regulations that restricted their movement.<ref name="Crawford1" /> Development was concentrated in the southern region of the territory adjacent to South Africa, known as the "[[Police Zone (South West Africa)|Police Zone]]", where most of the major settlements and commercial economic activity were located.<ref name="Devils">{{cite book|title=The Devils Are Among Us: The War for Namibia|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsareamongus00deni|url-access=limited|last1=Herbstein|first1=Denis|last2=Evenson|first2=John|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|year=1989|isbn=978-0862328962|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/devilsareamongus00deni/page/n26 14]–23}}</ref> Outside the Police Zone, indigenous peoples were restricted to theoretically self-governing [[Bantustan#Bantustans in South West Africa|tribal homelands]].<ref name="Devils" />

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accelerated [[decolonisation of Africa]] and mounting pressure on the remaining colonial powers to grant their colonies self-determination resulted in the formation of nascent nationalist parties in South West Africa.<ref name="Müller">{{cite book|last=Müller|first=Johann Alexander|title=The Inevitable Pipeline into Exile. Botswana's Role in the Namibian Liberation Struggle|year=2012|pages=36–41|publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien Namibia Resource Center and Southern Africa Library|location=Basel, Switzerland|isbn=978-3905758290}}</ref> Movements such as the [[South West African National Union]] (SWANU) and the [[South West African People's Organisation]] (SWAPO) advocated for the formal termination of South Africa's mandate and independence for the territory.<ref name="Müller" /> In 1966, following the ICJ's controversial ruling that it had no legal standing to consider the question of South African rule, SWAPO launched an armed insurgency that escalated into part of a wider regional conflict known as the [[South African Border War]].<ref name="Caprivi">{{cite book|last=Kangumu|first=Bennett|title=Contesting Caprivi: A History of Colonial Isolation and Regional Nationalism in Namibia|year=2011|pages=143–153|publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien Namibia Resource Center and Southern Africa Library|location=Basel|isbn=978-3905758221}}</ref>[[File:Foreign Observer identification badge in the 1989 Namibian election.jpg|thumb|Foreign Observer identification badge issued during the 1989 Namibian election]]In 1971 Namibian contract workers led a [[1971–72 Namibian contract workers strike|general strike against the contract system]] and in support of independence.<ref name="Moorsom1979">{{cite journal|last1=Moorsom|first1=Richard|date=April 1979|title=Labour Consciousness and the 1971–72 Contract Workers Strike in Namibia|journal=Development and Change|volume=10|issue=2|pages=205–231|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7660.1979.tb00041.x}}</ref> Some of the striking workers would later join SWAPO's [[People's Liberation Army of Namibia|PLAN]]<ref name="Devils2">{{cite book|last1=Herbstein|first1=Denis|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsareamongus00herb_929|title=The Devils Are Among Us: The War for Namibia|last2=Evenson|first2=John|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|year=1989|isbn=978-0862328962|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/devilsareamongus00herb_929/page/n26 14]–23|url-access=limited}}</ref> as part of the South African Border War.