The end of South African control over its former Southwest Africa Mandate and the imminent emergence of an independent Namibia provide opportunity for reorientation of South-Central Africa's export metal trade. How rapid this may occur will depend in some measure upon the political and commercial environment still to evolve in the Walvis Bay exclave. This, in turn, may be related to the future treatment of Namibia's critically placed white minority and to the political rhetoric of a SWAPO government. Any reorientation of the region's export trade will place the strategic CapriviStrip in a new geopolitical perspective, one better resembling that which Imperial Germany had in mind for this sliver of land than had evolved during 75 years of South African rule. Expansion of trade through the Caprivi Corridor should stimulate transportation development in NE Namibia. Were the Walvis Bay situation not to be resolved in a manner conducive to its future use by an independent Namibia or by neighboring states, then pressure to build a new deep water port will accelerate. The strategically placed fishing industry and the use of these waters by large foreign trawler fleets might be the stimuli for the initial financing of the construction of any new port. Luederitz, the country's “true port,” is inadequate to the task of modern commerce and is located too far from the economic and population core of the country