All tagged Nyango camp

SWAPO’s struggle children and exile home-making: the story of Mawazo Nakadhilu

From the 1960s to 1990, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) opposed apartheid South African rule in Namibia, and administered camps for Namibian exiles in neighbouring countries. Mostly repatriated in time for Namibia’s political independence in 1990, many former exiles continue to appeal to the SWAPO-led government for assistance with their basic needs. Among them are ‘the children of the liberation struggle’, roughly ten thousand people born to at least one Namibian parent in exile. The struggle children emerged as a distinct group in 2008, presenting themselves to SWAPO as sons and daughters to whom the liberation movement and government bears an ongoing parental responsibility. This post tells the story of one of them, Mawazo Nakadhilu.