South Africa refused to comply with the resolution of the League of Nations, which had entrusted Namibia to her led to the war. The principle reason of preparing Namibia for independence had evaporated in favour of colonial policy.

The South African government had extended its policy of apartheid in Namibia. Namibians were opposed to the policy of separate development and racial segregation.

South Africa's failure to recognise UNO authority over Namibia made resistance inevitable. In 1966, the United Nations Organisation revoked South Africa's mandate over Namibia and resolved to take over the territory and prepare it for independence. South Africa adamantly rejected the UN proposal and went ahead to continue occupying Namibia illegally. South Africa's disrespect of the UNO and its failure to take immediate action to liberate Namibia forced SWAPO to take up arms and resist South Africa.

South Africa's implementation of the 1964 Odendaal Plan was yet another reason for the resistance. The Odendaal Plan, which was first published by South Africa in 1964 bound Namibia more closely to South Africa and imposed on the territory its own form of apartheid. According to the Plan, nine homelands were to be created in 40 percent of the land for black settlements and 60 percent of Namibia was to be the "white area". This plan was unacceptable to SWAPO which turned to armed resistance to liberate Namibia.

The growing sence of nationalism and patriotism led to the people of Namibia to resist South Africa. Right from the onset of German and South African colonialism, the people of Namibia expressed their love for their territory and the dislike for foreign occupation. For instance, the Herero people began a revolt against the Germans in 1904, which was crushed in 1907, leaving 65,000 Herero dead. This did not end resistance among the people of Namibia against foreign rule but instead made them change tactics. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the elite of Namibia founded modern political organisations in the names of SWANU and SWAPO to liberate the country. The two organisations declared an armed struggle against South African occupation. Therefore, the strong and resurgent nationalism compelled the people of Namibia to do something to liberate their country, including the use of force

The resistance broke out as an attempt to stop South Africa's absorption of Namibia as one of her provinces. After rejecting UNO authority over Namibia, South Africa began to treat Namibia as part and partial of her territory with no intention of relinquishing her. South Africa began a gradual process of absorbing Namibia. For instance, the all white electorate of Namibia voted its representatives to the South African Parliament. The people of Namibia could not look on as South Africa took their territory. They therefore, took up arms to resist South Africa.

The South African policy of land alienation contributed to the outbreak of the resistance. All through German and South African occupation, the black people of Namibia suffered the policy of land alienation. For example, during the 1890s, the Germans brutally forced the Herero and Damara off their ancestral lands in the Windhoek area. South Africa also demarcated a 1km strip of land between Angola and Namibia as no-man's-land, leading to the displacement of over 50,000 black Namibians. Worse still, thousands of Africans were forced to live on dry and infertile land as the whites occupied all the land rich in mineral deposits such as diamonds and uranium. This policy created an army of landless and disgruntled Africans who had everything to lose if South Africa continued to occupy their country. It is those that joined the bandwagon of resistance to liberate Namibia.

The 'wind of change* speech delivered by Sir Harold Macmillan to the South African _!( Parliament provoked the resistance. While touring Africa, Sir Harold Macmillan, the then British I Prime Minister, reached Cape Town in 1960. In his speech to the all-white South African Parliament, Macmillan declared apartheid and colonialism unacceptable, he said: "

The winds of change are blowing through the continent Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is apolitical fact Our national policies must take account of it"

Much as Macmillan was booed by members of the South African Parliament, the words he spoke were well received by the people of Namibia.Such encouraging words gave impetus to SWAPO to use the force of arms, to challenge foreign occupation and apartheid.

The introduction of apartheid in Namibia in 1966 was unacceptable to the people of Namibia, who took up arms to challenge it. In 1966, apartheid was officially extended to Namibia including pass laws, labour legislation and petty apartheid. Since apartheid had a bad record of discrimination, suffering and injustice in South Africa, the people of Namibia could not wait to fight when it was introduced in their country.

The complete absence of peaceful means of liberating Namibia left the people of Namibia with one option, the use of force. Repeated peaceful efforts to persuade South Africa to grant freedom and independence fell on deaf ears and were met with violence and chaos. The United Nations, OAU and SWAPO tried to convince South Africa to surrender Namibia to the trusteeship council but South Africa vehemently refused to heed. This left SWAPO with only one option of -resistance.

The need to end South Africa's exploitation and plunder of mineral wealth made the resistance inevitable. Just like any other imperial power could have done, South Africa embarked on the exploitation and plunder of Namibia's mineral wealth such as copper, diamond, uranium, zinc and lead, among others. In his book History of Africa, Kevin Shillington had the following to

"... South African-based mining companies systematically stripped the country of its vast natural mineral resources, including diamonds, copper, uranium and many other valuable minerals. In the event of South Africa ending its illegal occupation, there would be Hule mineral UfeaJth left on which to base future development to benefit the people of Namibia,

South Africa made sure that she controlled all the mineral wealth of Namibia. What angered the people of Namibia was the fact that the only TDeneiit* they got from South Africa's exploitation of their resources was environmental degradation and pollution, as South Africa developed. This inevitably contributed to the resistance.

The 1966 resistance against South Africa in Namibia got inspiration from the famous 1904 - 1907 Nama Herero revolts against German rule. The 1966 SWAPO resistance against South Africa was part of a pattern of historic revolts against colonial occupation, which are traced back to the advent of German colonialism.

External support of SWAPO, especially from the communist world, provoked the people of Namibia to resist South Africa. The Soviet Union and Cuba recognised and promised support in the form of arms, training, uniforms and food to SWAPO. The readily available support encouraged SWAPO to declare war against the South African occupying forces.

The support and encouragement to SWAPO by the United Nations Organisation. On top of officially recognising SWAPO, the UNO went a mile ahead by passing a resolution revoking South Africa's mandate over Namibia. The UNO too continued to put pressure on South Africa to relinquish Namibia. With such support from the UNO, the people of Namibia resorted to armed resistance since their cause was recognised and justified.

The disruption of settlements and way of life of the people of Namibia further caused resistance. In the process of creating homelands, the people of Namibia, especially the Herero, Damara and Ovambo, were moved from their ancestral settlement areas to completely new areas. In 1959, the South African occupying forces planned to shift the capital Windhoek from its original location to another place. This did not only disorganise, but also disrupted the way of life of the people and made them lose the strong attachment they had to their ancestral lands. The people therefore took up arms to resist South Africa.

The resistance too, was provoked by South Africa's attempt to use divide and rule methods to prolong her occupation of Namibia. The South African occupying forces attempted to stir ethnic tension among the people of Namibia. Small ethnic groups such as the Herero, Nama, Damara, Tswana and Basters were inspired to rise up against the dominant Ovambo tribe, which compose over 45 percent of the population of Namibia. However, the people of Namibia realised this attempt by South Africa and instead united to resist her.

The resistance was caused by the worry that the 1OO,000 white settlers could dominate the social, economic and political affairs of Namibia as the case was in South Africa. The people of Namibia could not accept a scenario where a minority group of whites controlled and ruled majority blacks. They therefore fought to stop that from happening.

The banning of African political parties by the South African occupying forces. SWAPO and SWANU, which represented African interests, were declared illegal and banned. This did not impinge on the fundamental human rights of the people of Namibia but suffocated their interests and vision. SWAPO and SWANU went underground and declared a war of survival against South Africa.

The influence of the Second World War played a central role in the outbreak of the Nasriibian struggle for independence. South Africa joined other Commonwealth countries in becoming an ally of Britain during the Second World War. The then Prime Minister of South Africa, General Smuts, made a number of promises in order to win the support of the people for war. After the war, Smuts realised the need to do something to end the misery and suffering of blacks in both South Africa and Namibia. It became fashionable for the colonised people of Africa to demand freedom,, independence and justice because Germany had been fought for denying Poland the same values. * Therefore, the people of Namibia demanded independence from South Africa, since many African nations had successfully demanded it after the Second World War.

The people of Namibia also resisted South African occupation because they were encouraged by support from other African nations. Support in the form of arms, ammunition, training and military bases, was rendered to SWAPO form Angola, Mozambique and Zambia. Such support encouraged the resistance in Namibia.