The South West Africa National Union (SWANU) is a Namibian political party founded in 1959. Most of its members came from the Herero people, while fellow independence movement SWAPO was mostly an Ovambo party.

SWANU has a president, a vice-president, and a secretary-general. As many other socialist parties, it has a Politburo of 26 members, and a Central Committee of 52.

The first president of SWANU was Fanuel Kozonguizi, who led from its formation in 1959 until 1966. Rihupisa Justus Kandando was the president from 1998, followed by Usutuaije Maamberua followed by Tangeni Iijambo.

SWANU had its roots in the South West African Student Bureau (SWASB), an association of Namibian students studying at South African universities during the 1950s. The students had been radicalised by their firsthand exposure to apartheid in South Africa, and the active resistance to that system by the African National Congress (ANC). In 1955, the SWASB became a political party in its own right in 1955, when its members renamed it the South West African Progressive Association (SWAPA) and appointed Uatja Kaukuetu as its first chairman.

SWAPA possessed little support outside academia, however, and in an attempt to expand its support base it united with the Ovamboland People's Congress (later the Ovamboland People's Organisation, or OPO), which represented Ovambo migrant labourers in Cape Town, to form the South West African National Union (SWANU) on 27 September 1959. However, SWANU's leadership and agenda remained dominated by former SWAPA members, and OPO retained its autonomy under the partnership. Fanuel Jariretundu Kozonguizi was named the first president of SWANU, with Kaukuetu, the chairman of SWAPA, being appointed vice president. The party eventually came under the direct sponsorship of the South African Communist Party and became increasingly radical as a result. Throughout late 1959, SWANU and the Herero Chiefs' Council organised a bus boycott in Windhoek's Old Location, in response to forced evictions being undertaken by the South African Police. The police opened fire on the protesters, killing or wounding up to sixty.

The Old Location shootings was the first of several political developments which ushered in a period of decline for SWANU. In the controversy surrounding the incident, the Herero Chiefs' Council disavowed SWANU and denied involvement with the Old Location protests. In July 1960, the OPO dissolved its affiliation with SWANU and issued its own party constitution. It also rebranded itself as the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) and opened its ranks to Namibians of all ethnic backgrounds. SWAPO's agenda was virtually identical to SWANU's: both called for an end to colonialism and imperialism, promoted pan-African ideals, and called for the economic, cultural, and social advancement of the Namibian people. However, SWANU placed a disproportionate emphasis on self-reliance, while SWAPO acknowledged the importance of external actors and the role of the United Nations in securing Namibian independence from South Africa.

Both organisations competed for international recognition and support, and the relationship between SWAPO and SWANU's leadership grew increasingly frigid. SWANU was the only one of the two parties formally represented in the All-African People's Conference, the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organisation, and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. It had established a political headquarters in Dar es Salaam and political offices in Accra and Cairo.

Both SWANU and SWAPO received formal recognition from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. They also succeeded in establishing bilateral relations with the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China. The growing severity of the Sino-Soviet split drove a rift between the two parties, however, with SWANU becoming more influenced ideologically and politically by China, and SWAPO by the Soviet Union.