South West: The Last Frontier in Africa

South Africa: Voortrekkerpers, 1967 The jacket's front inside flap reads: What is this territory of South West Africa that has featured so prominently in the world press the past year, contending for headlines with Vietnam, China, the Middle-East and other troubled areas of the globe? It has been referred to as a "threat to world peace" and, according to the Afro-Asian world, the entire future of the United Nations now depends on what happens to South West Africa. It has been the subject of a five year dispute before the International Court of Justice - the World Court - and at the begin ning of 1967 a United Nations Committee was debating whether to recommend to the world body that South West Africa's disputed international status be settled by force, by persuasion or by negotiation. Yet of all the regions in Africa, South West Africa is the least known and its socio-political structure the least understood. There are fewer people living in South West Africa than in Cape Town - fewer people per square mile than almost any where else in Africa and Asia. The land is inhospitable, the soil arid. This is a terrain in which human survival is guaranteed only by unremitting struggle. In a territory as big as France and Italy combined there are no perrenial rivers. On the western seaboard the dreaded Namib Desert and on the eastern frontier the burning Kalahari Desert guard a bare and thirsty highland. In this inhospitable land live, not one homogeneous nation, but no fewer than twelve different peoples, distinct in appearance, stages of develop ment, religion, custom, language and tradition. Why this hitherto peaceful and little known territory is now the subject of such intense debate is a major reason for this book. Another reason is that while its future is indisputably bound up with that of the Republic of South Africa, few people in South Africa really know or care about South West Africa. Generally speaking South Africans know more about Britain or America than they do of the land and the people of South West Africa. South West Africa is a land which could interest all of us - whether in its drama tic history, its rare phenomena, the kalei doscope of its different peoples or the fascinating nature of its mountains, desert, fauna and flora. There is also the threat of a forced "liberation" of South West Africa (for which South Africa has cared for over 40 years now) on the part of a hostile United Nations. The purpose of this book is to fill the gaps in our knowledge of the history of South West, its people, the land, political and economic prospects for the future and the ties which bind us together. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 284 pages including graphs, photos and index ------------------ Orders over $100.00 are shipped using tracked courier delivery services. Size: Approx 5½ " Wide - 8½ " Tall