A new guide to Swapo Party archives published

A NEW publication launched in Windhoek last week should serve as a valuable aid to researchers wanting to chronicle Namibia’s struggle for Independence and especially the Swapo Party’s role in this historic mission.

The book is a 322-page guide to the collection of material on Swapo and Namibia’s liberation struggle held by Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB), an archive, library and resource centre based in Basel, Switzerland, and also known as the Namibia Resource Centre – Southern Africa Library. The Namibia Resource Centre houses one of the biggest collections of material on Namibia outside Namibia itself, Giorgio Miescher, the historian who compiled the new book, said at its launch at the National Archives of Namibia in Windhoek on Wednesday.The book, titled ‘Guide to the Swapo Collection in the Basler Afrika Bibliographien’, is an enlarged and revised edition of one of the first proper inventories of a Swapo archive to have been published, said Miescher.That first edition, published in 1994, was also compiled by Miescher.The new edition is double the size of its predecessor.Its inventory lists every document in BAB’s collection on Swapo.This collection consists mainly of printed material published by Swapo or about the former liberation movement turned ruling party between the 1960s and 1990.Besides stating the title of every document in the collection, the inventory also gives a short description of the contents of each publication.These include documents such as press releases, statements and periodical publications issued by Swapo through the two and a half decades of its armed struggle for Namibia’s Independence, as well as a selection of newspaper and other news reports, statements and publications from other sources on the long campaign for Independence.The inventory would serve as an aid to help researchers using not only BAB’s archive and library, but also the National Archives of Namibia, where some material similar to that kept in Basel is being stored, Miescher said.The guide will be sold at N$50 a copy.BAB can be contacted by e-mail at bab@bluewin.ch.The Namibia Resource Centre houses one of the biggest collections of material on Namibia outside Namibia itself, Giorgio Miescher, the historian who compiled the new book, said at its launch at the National Archives of Namibia in Windhoek on Wednesday.The book, titled ‘Guide to the Swapo Collection in the Basler Afrika Bibliographien’, is an enlarged and revised edition of one of the first proper inventories of a Swapo archive to have been published, said Miescher.That first edition, published in 1994, was also compiled by Miescher.The new edition is double the size of its predecessor.Its inventory lists every document in BAB’s collection on Swapo.This collection consists mainly of printed material published by Swapo or about the former liberation movement turned ruling party between the 1960s and 1990.Besides stating the title of every document in the collection, the inventory also gives a short description of the contents of each publication.These include documents such as press releases, statements and periodical publications issued by Swapo through the two and a half decades of its armed struggle for Namibia’s Independence, as well as a selection of newspaper and other news reports, statements and publications from other sources on the long campaign for Independence.The inventory would serve as an aid to help researchers using not only BAB’s archive and library, but also the National Archives of Namibia, where some material similar to that kept in Basel is being stored, Miescher said.The guide will be sold at N$50 a copy.BAB can be contacted by e-mail at bab@bluewin.ch.