Abstract:
During the 1960's as conflict between Namibian rebels and South African forces increased and the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was founded, a kind of political-autobiographical literature appeared in Namibia. According to the writer and revolutionary Frantz Fanon, 'this may be properly called a literature of combat, in the sense that calls on the whole people to fight for their existence as a nation' (155). Fanon's statement is substantiated by an up-front declaration by Namibian politician and anti-apartheid activist Herman Toivo ya Toivo: We believe that South Africa has a choice either to live at peace with us or to subdue us by force. If you choose to crush us and impose your will on us then you not only betray your trust, but you will live in security for only so long as your power is greater than ours. No South African will live at peace in South West Africa, for each will know that his security is based on force and that without force he will face rejection by the people of South West Africa. (Cartey & Kilson 340) The above pronouncement may be considered the point of departure of a number of political autobiographies by Namibians who joined the struggle for independence such as Vinnia Ndadi's Breaking Contract: The Story of Vinnia Ndadi (1974), Helmut Pau Kangulohi's The Two Thousand Days of Haimbodi Ya Haufiku (1988) or Helao Shityuwete's Never Follow the Wolf: The Autobiography of a Namibian Freedom Fighter (1990). As far as Battlefront Namibia (1981) is concerned, arguably the most prominent of all these documents (Melber 23), it basically describes the political awakening and affiliation of John ya-Otto, a Namibian marked by the social and racial conditions in which he grew up.
