Winning the Hearts and Minds: Legitimacy in the Namibian border war

Abstract

The thesis examines the Namibian border war that was fought from 1966 till 1989. It looks at the WHAM efforts the South African Defence Force implemented as part of their counterinsurgency against SWAPO, and relates these to four dimensions of legitimacy: legal, pragmatic, moral and identity-based. It was found that WHAM did not address identity-based legitimacy, which is concerned rather with who governs, than with how the authorities govern.