South West Africa/Namibia: a goal perspective on relative deprivation

Abstract

South West Africa/Namibia is one of the most vexing areas of conflict in the current international scene. The conflict in this territory is analysed in terms of Gurr's concept of relative deprivation in the sense that deprivation is seen as the prime motivation for internal conflict between revolutionaries and regime‐orientated organisations. Efforts to cease relative deprivation in the two areas of social injustice and the lack of political independence are seen as moves to contain and eliminate conflict and an assessment is made of the degree of success that was obtained in recent years.

In a goal perspective it appeared that internationally recognised independence was perceived by the inhabitants as a base value and the absence of this led to a high feeling of relative deprivation and consequently to a high potential for internal violence. Although this value has not yet been attained, relative deprivation was in fact eased substantially in other areas — notably the area of social injustice — and the potential for political violence in fact diminished.