South West African People's Organisation
Leader	Hifikepunye Pohamba
Founder	Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, Sam Nujoma
Founded	April 19, 1960 (1960-04-19)
Headquarters	Hans Dietrich Genscher Street, Erf 2464, Katutura, Windhoek
Youth wing	SWAPO Party Youth League
Ideology	Democratic Socialism, Social democracy[1][2]
Political position	Centre-left
International affiliation	Socialist International
Official colors	Blue, Red and Green
Seats in the National Assembly	54 / 72
Local councillors	226 / 327
Website
Website of SWAPO
Politics of Namibia Political parties Elections

The South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) (German: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO, Afrikaans: Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volk-Organisasie, SWAVO) is a political party and former liberation movement in Namibia. It has been the governing party in Namibia since achieving independence in 1990. The party won 75.1% of popular votes and 55 out of 78 seats in the parliamentary election held on November 15, 2004.^[3]

Though the organization rejected the term "South West Africa" and insisted on replacing it with "Namibia", the organization's own name—derived from the territory's old name—was already too deeply rooted to be changed. However, the original full name is no longer used and only the acronym remains; the party's official name today^[update] is SWAPO Party of Namibia.^[4]

History[link]

After World War I the League of Nations gave South-West Africa, formerly a German colony, to the United Kingdom as a mandate under the title of South Africa.^[5] When the National Party won the 1948 election in South Africa and subsequently introduced apartheid legislation,^[6] these laws also extended into South-West Africa which was the de facto fifth province of South Africa.^[7]

SWAPO was founded on 19 April 1960 by Andimba Toivo ya Toivo as the successor of the Ovamboland People's Congress, an organisation established in 1957 and renamed into Ovamboland People's Organisation in 1959. The reason for the renaming was that although the organisation had its base among the Ovambo people of northern Namibia it wanted to be representative of all Namibians.^[4]

During 1962 SWAPO had emerged as the dominant nationalist organization for the Namibian people, co-opting other groups such as the South West Africa National Union (SWANU), and in 1976 the Namibia African People's Democratic Organisation.^[8] SWAPO used guerrilla tactics to fight the South African military. On 26 August 1966 the first major clash of the conflict took place, when a unit of the South African Police, supported by South African Air Force, exchanged fire with SWAPO forces. This date is generally regarded as the start of what became known in South Africa as the Border War. In 1972 the United Nations General Assembly recognised SWAPO as the 'sole legitimate representative' of Namibia's people.^[9] The Norwegian government began giving aid directly to SWAPO in 1974.^[10]

The country of Angola gained its independence on November 11, 1975 following its war for independence. The leftist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, came to power. The MPLA offered SWAPO bases in Angola to launch attacks against the South African military in March 1976.

Controversy within the movement[link]

Various groups have claimed that SWAPO committed serious human rights abuses against suspected spies during the independence struggle. One of which includes the Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS), which was founded by those detainees to press the SWAPO-government on the issue.^[11][12] SWAPO denies serious infractions and claims anything that did happen was in the name of liberation. The stories of the detainees begins with a series of successful South African raids that made the SWAPO leadership believe spies existed in the movement. Hundreds of SWAPO cadres were imprisoned, tortured and interrogated.^[13]

SWAPO election campaign vehicle

In 2005 the P.E.A.C.E. Centre conducted an extensive study on the situation Namibian ex-fighters and their families fifteen years after Independence. The resultant ebook investigates the post-independence situation of those who fought on both sides of the Namibian Liberation War. Data from this research indicate that ex-fighters still^[update] exhibit symptoms of long-term post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The findings indicate there is a correlation between the life circumstances of ex-fighters and their lack of resilience to traumatic war experiences, with resiliency being linked to a number of protective factors such as the socio-economic situation of the survivors, their socio-political environment, their social support networks and their cognitive processes.^[14]

It is argued that in the case of Namibian ex-fighters, long term psychological distress is different from a simple PTSD diagnosis because the survivor has almost invariably gone almost two decades without seeking treatment. Moreover, during this time, the ex-fighters have also been exposed to additional social and psychological stressors which, for a person not suffering from long-term psychological distress would only have a fleeting impact, but for a sufferer of long-term psychological distress, each life incident could reduce the survivor's resilience to trauma as well as triggering "flashbacks".^[14]

Independence[link]

When Namibia gained its independence in 1990 SWAPO became the dominant political party, with its head, Sam Nujoma, elected as Namibia's first President. Nujoma had the constitution changed so he could run for a third term in 1999, but in 2004 he was replaced as the SWAPO presidential candidate by Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was described as Nujoma's hand-picked successor.^[15][16]

Former Prime Minister Hage Geingob was elected to succeed Pohamba as Vice-President at the same congress,^[17] and Minister of Justice Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana was elected as Secretary-General, becoming the first woman to hold that position. At the congress, Pohamba was renominated as SWAPO's presidential candidate for the 2009 election.^[18] SWAPO is a full member of the Socialist International.^[19] and was a member of the Non-Aligned Movement before the independence of Namibia.

See also[link]

• Namibia African People's Democratic Organisation
• Namibian War of Independence
• Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola
• South African Border War
• South West Africa National Union

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• Website of SWAPO
• Website of the SWAPO Youth League
• "Namibian Voters Deny Total Power to SWAPO," by Michael Johns, The Wall Street Journal, November 19, 1989.

v t e Political parties in Namibia Parliament South West Africa People's Organization (54) Rally for Democracy and Progress (8) Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (2) National Unity Democratic Organisation (2) United Democratic Front (2) All People's Party (1) Republican Party (1) Congress of Democrats (1) South West African National Union (1) Unrepresented Communist Party of Namibia Democratic Party of Namibia Monitor Action Group Namibian Democratic Movement for Change National Democratic Party United Democratic Party Portal:Politics List of political parties Politics of Namibia

Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt, London, April 2006
Background information
Birth name	Robert Wyatt-Ellidge
Born	(1945-01-28) 28 January 1945 (age 67) Bristol, England
Genres	Canterbury sound, jazz fusion, progressive rock, experimental rock
Occupations	Musician, composer
Instruments	Vocals, drums, percussion, piano, keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, trumpet
Years active	1963–present
Labels	Virgin, Rough Trade, Domino
Associated acts	The Wilde Flowers, Soft Machine, Matching Mole, Kevin Ayers, Henry Cow, Brian Eno, Nick Mason, Michael Mantler

Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945, Bristol) is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine,^[1] with a long and distinguished solo career. He is married to English painter and songwriter Alfreda Benge.

Early life[link]

Wyatt's mother was Honor Wyatt, a journalist with the BBC; his father, George Ellidge, was an industrial psychologist who joined the family only when Wyatt was about six. This extended family also included his half brother, actor Julian Glover,^[2] Honor Wyatt's son. Wyatt attended the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys, Canterbury^[3] and as a teenager lived with his parents in Lydden near Dover, where he was taught the drums by visiting American jazz drummer George Neidorf.

In 1962, Wyatt and Neidorf moved to Majorca where they stayed near the poet Robert Graves. The following year, Wyatt returned to England and joined the Daevid Allen Trio with Daevid Allen and Hugh Hopper. Allen subsequently left for France and Wyatt and Hopper formed The Wilde Flowers with Kevin Ayers, Richard Sinclair and Brian Hopper. Wyatt was initially the drummer in the Wilde Flowers, but following the departure of Ayers, he also became lead singer.

Soft Machine and Matching Mole[link]

In 1966, the Wilde Flowers disintegrated, and Wyatt along with Mike Ratledge was invited to join Soft Machine by Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen. Here Wyatt both drummed and shared vocals with Ayers, an unusual combination for a stage rock band.^[1]

In 1970, after chaotic touring, three albums and increasing internal conflicts in Soft Machine, Wyatt released his first solo album, The End of an Ear, which combined his vocal and multi-instrumental talents with tape effects.^[1]

A year later, Wyatt left Soft Machine and, besides participating in the fusion bigband Centipede and drumming at the JazzFest Berlin's New Violin Summit, a live concert with violinists Jean-Luc Ponty, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Michał Urbaniak and Nipso Brantner, guitarist Terje Rypdal, keyboardist Wolfgang Dauner and bassist Neville Whitehead,^[4] formed his own band Matching Mole (a pun on "machine molle", French for 'Soft Machine'), a largely instrumental outfit that recorded two albums. The band were about to embark on the recording of a third album when, on 1 June 1973, during a party for Gong's Gilli Smyth and June Campbell Cramer (also known as Lady June) at the latter's Maida Vale home, an inebriated Wyatt fell from a fourth floor window. He was paralysed from the waist down and consequently uses a wheelchair. On 4 November that year, Pink Floyd performed two benefit concerts, in one day, at London's Rainbow Theatre, supported by Soft Machine, and compered by John Peel. The concerts raised a reported £10,000 for Wyatt.

Solo career[link]

The injury led Wyatt to abandon the Matching Mole project, and his rock drumming (though he would continue to play drums and percussion in more of a "jazz" fashion, without the use of his feet). He promptly embarked on a solo career, and with musician friends (including Mike Oldfield, Ivor Cutler and Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith) released his solo album Rock Bottom^[1] on July 26, 1974. Two months later Wyatt put out a single, a cover version of "I'm a Believer", which hit number 29 in the UK chart.^[1] Both were produced by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. There were strong arguments with the producer of Top of the Pops surrounding Wyatt's performance of "I'm a Believer," on the grounds that his use of a wheelchair 'was not suitable for family viewing', the producer wanting Wyatt to appear on a normal chair. Wyatt won the day and 'lost his rag but not the wheel chair'. A contemporary issue of New Musical Express featured the band (a stand-in acting for Mason), all in wheelchairs, on its cover. Wyatt subsequently sang lead vocals on Mason's first solo album Fictitious Sports in 1981 (with songwriting credits going to Carla Bley).

His follow-up single, a reggae ballad remake of Chris Andrews's hit "Yesterday Man", again produced by Mason, was nearly released by Virgin, but at the last minute it was shelved, "the boss at Virgin claiming that single was 'lugubrious', robbing Wyatt of a possible follow-up hit."^[5]

Wyatt's next solo album, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard, produced by Wyatt apart from one track produced by Mason, was more jazz-led, with free jazz influences. Guest musicians included Brian Eno on guitar, synthesizer and "direct inject anti-jazz ray gun".

Throughout the rest of the 1970s Wyatt guested with various acts, including Henry Cow (documented on their Henry Cow Concerts album), Hatfield and the North, Carla Bley, Eno, Michael Mantler, and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, contributing lead vocals to lead track "Frontera", from Manzanera's 1975 solo debut Diamond Head. His solo work during the early 1980s was increasingly politicised, and Wyatt became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1983, his interpretation of Elvis Costello's Falklands War-inspired song "Shipbuilding", the last in a series of political cover-versions (collected as Nothing Can Stop Us), reached number 35 in the UK singles chart^[6] and number 2 in John Peel's Festive Fifty for tracks from that year.

In the late 1980s, after collaborations with other acts such as News from Babel as well as Japanese recording artist Ryuichi Sakamoto, he and his wife Alfreda Benge spent a sabbatical in Spain, before returning in 1991 with a comeback album Dondestan. His 1997 album Shleep was also praised.^[1]

In 1999 he collaborated with the Italian singer Cristina Donà on her second album Nido. In the summer of 2000 her first EP Goccia was released and Wyatt made an appearance in the video of the title track.^[1]

Wyatt contributed "Masters of the Field", as well as "The Highest Gander", "La Forêt Rouge" and "Hors Champ" to the soundtrack of the 2001 film Winged Migration. He can be seen in the DVD's Special Features section, and is praised by the film's composer Bruno Coulais as being a big influence in his younger days.

Influence on other artists[link]

The Tears for Fears song "I Believe" from their 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair was originally written by bandmember Roland Orzabal for Wyatt, but in the end the band decided to record the song themselves and dedicated it to him. As a further tribute to Wyatt, on the B-side of the single, Orzabal performs a cover version of "Sea Song", from the Rock Bottom album. This recording can also be found on the Tears For Fears compilation album Saturnine Martial & Lunatic as well as later remastered versions of Songs from the Big Chair.

"Sea Song" was also covered by Rachel Unthank and the Winterset on their 2007 album The Bairns, and The Guardian's David Peschek said of the cover: "That’s the best version of that I’ve ever heard".^[7] In November 2011, The Unthanks released a live album, The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons, and Wyatt is quoted on the cover of the album as saying "I love the idea. It makes me happy just thinking about it."

Recent years[link]

In June 2001 Wyatt was curator of the Meltdown festival, and sang "Comfortably Numb" with David Gilmour at the festival. It was recorded on Gilmour's DVD David Gilmour in Concert.

In January 2003 BBC Four broadcast Free Will and Testament, a programme featuring performance footage of Wyatt with musicians Larry Stabbins, Jennifer Maidman, Liam Genockey, Annie Whitehead and Janette Mason, and interviews with John Peel, Brian Eno, Annie Whitehead, Alfie and Wyatt himself.^[8] Later in 2003, the Mercury Music Prize nominated album Cuckooland was released.

In 2004 Wyatt collaborated with Björk on the song "Submarine" which was released on her fifth album Medúlla.

He lives in Louth, Lincolnshire and he has equipment in his bedroom where he records himself and his albums. We brought a G4 and Pro Tools and recorded it in one afternoon. He's such an extraordinary singer. Before he left, he insisted to give us a scale of his voice, where he sings all the tones – and he has the most amazing range, like 5 or 6 octaves. What's really interesting about his range is that each octave is of a totally different character. We actually ended up using that later for "Oceania", we used what he calls the 'Wyattron'. — Björk, Xfm, 25 August 2004

In 2006 Wyatt played with David Gilmour on Gilmour's new release On an Island, singing and playing cornet and percussion on "Then I Close My Eyes". Wyatt performed as a guest at Gilmour's series of Royal Albert Hall concerts, playing his cornet solo for this song. This is documented on the Remember That Night DVD and Blu-ray, released in 2007. Wyatt also read passages from the novels of Haruki Murakami for Max Richter's album Songs from Before.

In 2006 Wyatt collaborated with Steve Nieve and Muriel Teodori on the opera Welcome to the Voice. Wyatt interprets the character 'the Friend', both singing and playing pocket trumpet. Welcome to the Voice is an opera in one unique scene, on the street in front of an opera house. Wyatt's contribution to the recording was recorded at Phil Manzanera's home studio in North London. Welcome to the Voice was released in May 2007 on Deutsche Grammophon, and the recording features Robert Wyatt, Barbara Bonney, Sting, Amanda Roocroft, Elvis Costello, Nathalie Manfrino, Brodsky Quartet, Sara Fulgoni, Ned Rothenberg, Antoine Quessada, Marc Ribot, Steve Nieve and Muriel Teodori.

In March 2007 it was announced that Wyatt was working on a new solo album entitled Comicopera. It was released in October 2007 on the Domino Records label, a large independent label housing such big indie stars as Arctic Monkeys, Pavement, Neutral Milk Hotel and Elliott Smith.

In 2008 Domino re-released Wyatt's Drury Lane, Rock Bottom, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard, Nothing Can Stop Us, Old Rottenhat, Dondestan, Shleep, EPs and Cuckooland on CD and vinyl.

In May 2009 Wyatt appeared on the album Around Robert Wyatt by the French Orchestre National de Jazz.^[9]

Wyatt was one of the guest editors of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, working on the 1 January 2010 programme.^[10] Among other things he advocated greater prominence for amateur choirs, and admitted to a preference for them over professional choirs "because there's a greater sense of commitment and meaning in their singing."^[11][12]

In December 2010 Wyatt was asked by The Guardian to choose his top ten favourite pop songs for its audio Advent calendar.^[13]

"Wyatting"[link]

The verb "Wyatting" appeared in some blogs and music magazines to describe the practice of playing weird tracks on a pub jukebox to annoy the other pub goers. Wyatt was quoted in The Guardian as saying "I think it's really funny" and "I'm very honoured at the idea of becoming a verb."^[14] However, when asked if he would ever try it himself, he said "Oh no. I don't really like disconcerting people. Although often when I try to be normal I disconcert anyway."^[15]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• The End of an Ear (1970)
• Rock Bottom (1974)
• Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975)
• The Animals Film (1982, Soundtrack)
• Old Rottenhat (1985)
• Dondestan (1991)
• Shleep (1997)
• Dondestan (Revisited) (1998)
• Cuckooland (2003)
• Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8 September 1974 (2005)
• Comicopera (2007)
• Radio Experiment Rome, February 1981 (2009)
• Orchestre National de Jazz Daniel Yvinec / Around Robert Wyatt (2009)
• For the Ghosts Within with Gilad Atzmon and Ros Stephen (2010)

Compilations[link]

• Nothing Can Stop Us (1982, singles compilation; 1983 Australian edition includes "Shipbuilding")
• Mid-Eighties (1993; includes the whole of Old Rottenhat)
• Flotsam Jetsam (1994)
• Going Back a Bit: A Little History of Robert Wyatt (1994)
• Eps (1999)
• Solar Flares Burn for You (2003)
• His Greatest Misses (2004, compilation)

EPs[link]

• The Peel Sessions (1974, "Alifib"/"Soup Song"/"Sea Song"/"I'm a Believer")
• Work In Progress (1984, "Biko"/"Amber and the Amberines"/"Yolanda"/"Te Recuerdo Amanda")
• 4 Tracks EP (1984, "I'm a Believer"/"Yesterday Man"/"Team Spirit"/"Memories")
• A Short Break (1996, EP)
• Airplay (2002, "Fridge"/"When Access Was a Noun "/"Salt-Ivy"/"Signed Curtain")

Singles[link]

• "I'm a Believer"/"Memories" (1974)
• "Yesterday Man"/"I'm a Believer" (1974)
• "Yesterday Man"/"Sonia" (1977)
• "Arauco"/"Caimanera" (1980)
• "At Last I'm Free"/"Strange Fruit" (1980)
• "Stalin Wasn't Stallin'"/"Stalingrad" (1981)
• "Grass"/"Trade Union" (1981)
• "Shipbuilding"/"Memories of You"/"'Round Midnight" (1982)
• "The Wind of Change"/"Namibia"(1984) (as "Robert Wyatt with the SWAPO Singers")
• "The Age of Self"/"Raise Your Banners High" (1984)
• "Chairman Mao" (1987)
• "Free Will and Testament"/"The Sight of the Wind" (1997)
• "Heaps of Sheeps"/"A Sunday in Madrid" (1997)

Other contributions[link]

• Drums on most of Kevin Ayers's Joy of a Toy (1969)
• Drums on two tracks of Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs (1970)
• Harmony vocals on "Whatevershebringswesing" on Kevin Ayers's Whatevershebringswesing (1971)
• Drums and vocals on Daevid Allen's Banana Moon (1971)
• Drums on Keith Tippett's Septober Energy (1971)
• Harmony vocals on "Hymn" on Kevin Ayers's Bananamour (1973)
• Percussion on Kevin Ayers's June 1, 1974 (1974)
• Percussion and backing vocals on Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974)
• 2nd lead vocals on "Calyx" on Hatfield and the North's Hatfield and the North (1974)
• Vocals on Michael Mantler's The Hapless Child (1975/76)
• Vocals on John Cage's "Experiences No. 2" on Jan Steele/John Cage's Voices and Instruments (1976)
• Vocals on Michael Mantler's Silence (1976)
• Vocals on two tracks on Henry Cow's Concerts (1976)
• Piano on "1/1" on Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978)
• Drums on Kevin Coyne's Sanity Stomp (1980)
• Vocals on Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports (1981)
• Keyboards on Scritti Politti's Songs to Remember (1982)
• Wyatt released an EP entitled Summer Into Winter in collaboration with Ben Watt (1982)
• Vocals on two tracks on The Last Nightingale (1984)
• Vocals on four tracks on News from Babel's Letters Home (1986)
• Vocals on three tracks on Michael Mantler's Many Have No Speech (1987)
• Vocals on Ultramarine's United Kingdoms (1993)
• Vocals on one track on Michael Mantler's The School of Understanding (1996)
• Vocals on three tracks on John Greaves's Songs (1996)
• Vocals on Michael Mantler's Hide and Seek (2000)
• Vocals on Pascal Comelade's September Song EP (2000)
• Vocals on one track on Anja Garbarek's Smiling & Waving (2001)
• Vocals on two tracks on Bruno Coulais's motion picture soundtrack Travelling Birds (2001)
• Cover version of "Love" on Uncut Presents: Instant Karma 2002; a Tribute to John Lennon (2002)^[16]
• Vocals on "Submarine" on Björk's Medúlla (2004)
• Vocals on six tracks on Michael Mantler's Review (compilation - 2006)
• Cornet on the song "Then I Close My Eyes" on David Gilmour's On an Island (2006)
• Wyattron on "Cold Shoulder" on Kevin Ayers's The Unfairground (2007)
• Vocals on "This Summer Night" on Bertrand Burgalat's Chéri B.B (2007) - released in 2008 as a limited edition 12" vinyl single (500 copies only)
• Backing vocals on "I Keep Faith" on Billy Bragg's Mr. Love & Justice (2008)
• Drums on 2 songs on Everything That Happens Will Happen Today by David Byrne and Brian Eno (2008)
• "Camouflage" in collaboration with Barbara Morgenstern on her album BM (2008)
• Vocals on Hot Chip (featuring Geese) EP (not the LP of the same name) Made in the Dark (2009)
• Vocals (partly lead, partly backing) and trumpet on some tracks on Jeanette Lindström's Attitude and Orbit Control (2009)

Bibliography[link]

Text by Robert Wyatt and illustrations by Jean-Michel Marchetti 

• 1997 MW, Æncrages & Co publishing
• 1998 M2W, Æncrages & Co publishing
• 2000 MW3, Æncrages & Co publishing
• 2003 M4W, Æncrages & Co publishing
• 2008 MBW (with Alfreda Benge), Æncrages & Co publishing

Books about Robert Wyatt

• 1994 Robert Wyatt : Wrong Movements, by Michael King, SAF Publishing (Canada) ISBN 0-946719-10-1 ISBN 978-0-946719-10-5

References[link]

External links[link]

• Robert Wyatt at myspace.com
• Srongcomet.com