Paper short abstract:

This paper will consider ways in which the roles of the ANC and SWAPO during their respective liberation struggles have been memorialised.

Paper long abstract:

Memorialisations of liberation wars: some ANC and SWAPO comparisons

This paper will consider ways in which the South African and Namibian governments have memorialised the roles of the ANC and SWAPO during their respective liberation struggles, and will compare the two, in respect of both rural and urban memorials. Heroes Acre in Windhoek will be contrasted with Freedom Park outside Pretoria, and issues of inclusivity will be analysed, along with the ways in which memorials have come into being, not only in South Africa and Namibia themselves but also in Angola, where both liberation movements had their military camps. Finally, the issue of memorialisation will be related to the consciousness of the liberation struggles in the two cases: in that of the ANC internal resistance was far more important, but the liberation struggle remains more significant in present-day politics in Namibia than in South Africa.