Paul van Schalkwyk
THE WATERFALL DISPUTE
AND NAMIBIA’S BOUNDARY WITH ANGOLA
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cursory glance at the map of Namibia shows that the country is a classic example of colonial boundaries that were drawn by simply using rivers and lines of latitude and longitude to delineate the borders. In Namibia’s case it was easy: six rivers and six straight lines.
Although the first agreement between Germany and Portugal on the border between what was then German South West Africa and Portuguese West Africa (Angola) was signed on 30 December 1886, it would take 40 years before what became known as the ‘Waterfall Dispute’ was finally settled. Germany disputed the exact location of the cataracts from where the parallel of latitude should be drawn from the Kunene River to the Okavango River. The German administration insisted that the cataracts were 38 km upstream of Ruacana, while the Portuguese maintained that the starting point was at Ruacana.
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After the two governments failed to reach an agreement, it was decided in August 1909 to create a neutral zone which was 13 km wide. The arrangement was to remain in force until the dispute could be resolved. Administration of the zone became the joint responsibility of a Portuguese and a German resident commissioner based at Namacunde. Following the capitulation of the German forces in German South West Africa during World War I, British officials accepted the neutral zone as a provisional arrangement in September 1916. It would, however, take another ten years before the dispute was finally resolved as a result of Britain’s insistence on water rights for South West Africa. In line with international convention, the boundary agreed upon in 1926 was the middle of the Kunene River from its mouth to the Ruacana Waterfall. But it was also agreed that the beacon from where the boundary was to be drawn to the Okavango River would be placed on the left (southern) bank of the Kunene River. As a result, the entire Ruacana Falls were in Portuguese territory.
