This “historical ethnography” of dissent and authoritarianism in Namibian exile camps run by swapo (South West African People’s Organisation) across Southern Africa from the 1960s to 1980s and its contemporary implications, combines anthropology with history and exile, human rights, and refugee studies. Williams’ deft meshing of disciplines works, but given that his chief sources are interviews and that he acquired little information from the documentary record (reflecting the paucity or closure of regional postcolonial archives), the result is a certain imbalance.
Williams analyzes the growth of intolerance in case studies of three exile camps—in Tanzania (1960s), Zambia (1970s), and Angola (1980s)—to explicate how authoritarianism that spilled over into serious human rights abuses was incubated in regimented camps run by swapo’s military. He is less concerned with deeper social roots. Nor is he concerned to probe further into the military dimension, even though all armed forces enforce hierarchy. He explains...