Institute of Commonwealth Studies

The bulk of this collection dates from the period in the history of Namibia (formerly South West Africa) after 1977 when the UN, the Western Contact Group (including France, West Germany, Canda, the United States and Great Britain) and the front-line states increasingly sought to bring about a resolution to the ongoing struggle between SWAPO and apartheid South Africa's armed forces in the country. Thus the materials can be roughly divided into those emanating from groups representing the German-speaking minority, such as the Interessengemeinschaft Deutschsprachiger Südwester (IG), and those campaigning on behalf of organisations opposed to South African rule, like the Namibia Support Committee and the SWAPO Women's Solidarity Campaign. Both sought to interpret and influence the discussions as they progressed. Some of the items are particularly interesting for the connections drawn between uranium mining in Namibia and the 1984 miners' strike in Great Britain.