Bush of Ghosts: Life and War in Namibia 1986-90 Liebenberg, John

Unique images by veteran photographer Liebenberg are included, taken in stealth where cameras were outlawed, and because he managed to get to both sides of the conflict. The book traces the marks left by war on individuals on both sides, as much as on the region that was the theatre of operations – on its landscape, its cultural and its political life. It follows the conflict through to the aftermath: the arrival of the United Nations transitional authority and the advent of democracy in Namibia, showing many of the fault lines exposed in the process. The photographs, mostly in black and white, in large format, speak eloquently for themselves, with captions reduced to the minimum. No blame is apportioned in this, southwestern Africa’s Vietnam.

With historically contextualizing introduction by historian Hayes.