ABSTRACT
In December 1988 the governments of South Africa, Angola and Cuba signed the accords that would lead to Namibian independence and the end of Cuban and South African military involvement in Angola. It was, by any standards, an impressive achievement. The accords undoubtedly constitute the most comprehensive regional peace settlement to be concluded in the past decade. The settlement capped 11 years of diplomacy and 40 years of international pressure on South Africa to relinquish control over Namibia, the ‘last colony in Africa’. It also marked the formal end of a growing conventional war which had already engaged Cuban, Angolan and South African forces in bloody fighting along the Angolan-Namibian border.
