Special Flights: The GDR and Liberation Movements in Southern Africa

After the victories of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) against Portuguese colonialism, the liberation struggle in Southern Africa today consists of the heroic efforts being made by the black and brown peoples of South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to destroy the system of racial oppression established in these countries by white settlers. This system, known in its extreme form of economic explotation and political and cultural oppression as apartheid in South Africa and Namibia, is closely tied to the survival of imperialist interests in Southern Africa. This is why any analysis of the difficulties being faced by the liberation movements of Southern Africa must include a discussion of the specific articulation of imperialism and settler colonialism in this area. For it provides the context in which the African liberation struggle must be understood.

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Roger Southall, Liberation Movements in Power: Part and State in Southern Africa, Suffolk, U.K.: James Currey, 2013. 400 pp. ISBN: 1847010660. £45.00.

Itinerario ◽

10.1017/s0165115315000613 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 394-396

Author(s):

Chris van der Aa

Keyword(s):

Southern Africa ◽

Power Part ◽

Liberation Movements

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Soft-balancing: SADC Former Liberation Movements’ Responses to the Imposition of Sanctions on Zimbabwe 2002 -2015

Quest Journal of Management and Social Sciences ◽

10.3126/qjmss.v2i1.29027 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 116-129

Author(s):

More Panganayi ◽

Tendayi Marovah

Keyword(s):

Southern Africa ◽

Strategic Alliances ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Survival Strategy ◽

Political Survival ◽

Power Politics ◽

The World ◽

Soft Balancing ◽

Liberation Movements ◽

International Anarchy

Background: This paper addresses a popular dichotomous African nationalist and independentist approaches to foreign policy mainly characterised by soft balancing and quiet diplomacy. This dichotomous approach has been dominated by the need to maintain independence from resurgent neo-colonial claws by promoting African agenda. The African nationalist and independentist prism are used to interrogate the misconceptions created by the resurgence of meetings of former liberation movements in Southern Africa. Objective: This paper aims to proffer alternative political survival tools that can be adopted by the weak global south states against resurgent neo-colonialism. Methods: Using the work of Machiavelli on international anarchy complemented by the soft balancing as a real-power politics theory, the paper offers alternative lenses to interpretation of impact of sanctions and subsequent strategic alliances formed after 2002 in Southern Africa. Findings: Depending on the dominant realist paradigm to analyse sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, the paper confirms the anarchic nature of international society and that the formation of alliances was not an ad hoc reaction. Conclusions: Arguing that the world is anarchic and there is no international arbiter, the paper recommends soft balancing as a political survival strategy. Implications: This paper can be useful to concerned authorities of Zimbabwe in planning appropriate policies post sanction. For that purpose this study can serve as reference.

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