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Naldi, Gino J. 1995. CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS IN NAMIBIA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS. Ndabeni, South Africa: Juta and Co.
Dobell, Lauren. 1998. SWAPO'S STRUGGLE FOR NAMIBIA, 1960-1991: WAR BY OTHER MEANS. Basel Namibia Studies Series. Basel, Switzerland: P. Schlettwein.
Forrest, Joshua Bernard. 1998. NAMIBIA'S POST-APARTHEID REGIONAL INSTITUTIONS: THE FOUNDING YEAR. Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press.
Nine years after independence, a new generation of Namibianists is beginning to present deeper and more concrete studies on Namibian political life which go beyond the liberation struggle equation. The three books under review here are good examples of the research that is beginning to surface based on new developments, opportunities, and research agendas. First, Gino Naldi compares the highly regarded Namibian Constitution and early Namibian court decisions regarding human rights and democracy in his Constitutional Rights in Namibia: A Comparative Analysis with International Human Rights. Second, Lauren Dobell utilizes SWAPO documents and postindependence interviews of key participants to measure the shifting political and developmental policies of the now-governing party in Swapo's Struggle for Namibia, 1960-1991: War by Other Means. Finally, Joshua Forrest's Namibia's Post-Apartheid Regional Institutions: The Founding Year, explores the Regional Councils and the second chamber of parliament (the National Council, established in 1993) through document reviews, observation, and extensive interviews with the participants.
Namibia rightly has acquired a reputation as one of the most promising African countries to experience a "second wind" of democracy during the 1990s. This reputation is based in part on the profoundly democratic character of the written constitution (with its entrenched protections for basic rights), lively multi-party elections, reconciliation policies between formerly warring adversaries, and favorable economic prospects. Careful scholarly assessments of the actual processes and institutions that undergird this reputation are needed. The three books under review here make an excellent start toward such scholarly evaluations. Together with similar works recently published or underway, these works demonstrate real accomplishment and continuing tensions in Namibia's democratic transformation.
Gino Naldi attempts to assess the quality and direction of Namibia's commitment to human rights by comparing the constitutional language that was adopted, and court decisions extending or clarifying the law, to international standards established by Western nations (mostly European Union), the African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights of the...