The Red Line—From Zone to Fence, 1945–1960s

Abstract

Two major issues—South Africa’s attempt to incorporate the colony and the beginning of apartheid—dominate the historiography of Namibia immediately following the Second World War.¹ After the war, Pretoria had proposed integrating Namibia into the Union of South Africa as its fifth province, a plan that was rejected by the United Nations, which had by this time succeeded the League as trustee of the territory.² South Africa’s refusal to accept this verdict marked the beginnings of what would become an increasingly embittered conflict within the international community. This conflict, in turn, later formed the legal basis for the emerging Namibian African nationalist movement’s struggle against colonialism and for national self-determination.³ Two years after its 1948 electoral victory in South Africa, the National Party triumphed in Namibian elections. In the ensuing years, the apartheid policies of the National Party, including its policy of strict racial separation and social stratification on the basis of race, increasingly came to define the history of both South Africa and the colony of Namibia.⁴