Economic Progress

Namibia's economy continues to roll along nicely. Although it was affected by the global recession in 2008–09, its mineral deposits ensured its economy rebounded as uranium and diamond prices recovered. By 2015 the country was again reporting a growth rate in excess of 5%.

There is much to be excited about when it comes to the country's economic future. Offshore oil and natural-gas exploration has thrown up some promising signals; the country is one of the world's largest producers of diamonds and uranium, with large deposits of gold, copper and zinc; while its tourism industry goes from strength to strength. In 2014, for example, the tourism sector was responsible for nearly one out of every five jobs in the country, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Nearly one million visitors come to Namibia every year – a lot when you remember that the country's total population is only 2.44 million people.

But like so many other countries, Namibia faces a massive challenge in ensuring that the country's prosperity benefits all Namibians. Crippling droughts have caused widespread hardship in a country that grows around half of its cereal requirements and where, according to the UN, nearly one-third of the population lives below the poverty line and roughly the same number is unemployed.

An Independent Voice

As their German and South African overlords learned through history, Namibia doesn't take kindly to being told what to do. When other African countries criticised the International Criminal Court for prosecuting more African suspects than suspects from elsewhere, Namibia joined the chorus and took it a step further, withdrawing from the ICC. When the world turned on Namibia early in 2014 when the country auctioned a hunting licence to shoot an old black rhino considered a threat to others of its kind, the government stood firm – instead of banning hunting as Botswana did in the same year, Namibia complained that the furore had resulted in lower bids by publicity-shy hunters, and that the money available for conserving black rhinos was much less as a result.

And so the pattern continues. Namibia has positioned itself so that it has strong political and economic ties to the West, but a subtle pivot in 2007 has seen the country strengthen its ties with China while continuing to do business with Europe and the US. This comes despite concern in some Western capitals about its ability to influence Namibian decision-making in economic, social and environmental fields. Namibia has also raised some eyebrows by, as recently as 2016, refusing to criticise Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe on the grounds that to do so would be to meddle in Zimbabwe's internal politics.

Namibia remains a responsible global citizen, but its willingness to chart its own course on the international stage suggests a genuine maturity, regardless of whether you agree with each of its individual policy positions.

Human-Wildlife Conflict

Like many countries in Southern Africa, Namibia is struggling to balance the needs of a growing population with the demands of a fragile environment.

Namibia may look like it has plenty of open spaces, and many of its large carnivores in particular – cheetahs and lions among them – may live at much lower densities here than they do in some other regions of Africa, but think how easy it is for the delicate balance between wildlife and human populations to end. A cheetah, as the story so often goes, ranges onto private farmland. It may or may not kill a lamb or young cow in its search for prey – sometimes its mere presence is enough for the owner of the land to seek revenge. In so doing, the cheetah population takes another hit it can ill afford. Multiply this to so many similar scenarios across the country and you'll see how even Africa's largest cheetah population quickly becomes vulnerable. And as the number of wildlife-rescue centres across the country attests, the problem is certainly not going away.

But there are always two sides to this story. Farmers in Namibia are usually much more tolerant of livestock losses than Western farmers are ever likely to be, but this mindset of sharing their land with wild cats does change during times of drought when they are struggling to make ends meet – the loss of a lamb or a goat can make the difference between surviving or having to jack it all in.

Namibia is finding creative solutions: struggling farms converted into more prosperous nature reserves across the country's heartland; reinforcing livestock kraals (huts) and teaching herders better practices to protect their livestock from predators in the Caprivi Strip; using the commercial or trophy hunting of 'problem animals' to raise money for conservation. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Increasingly it is a battle for survival for herders and wildlife alike.

In the Beginning

Namibia’s history extends back into the mists of time, a piece in the jigsaw that saw the evolution of the earliest human beings. The camps and stone tools of Homo erectus (literally ‘man who stands upright’) have been found scattered throughout the region. One archaeological site in the Namib Desert provides evidence that these early people were hunting the ancestors of present-day elephants, and butchering their remains with stone hand axes, as early as 750,000 years ago.

By the middle Stone Age, which lasted until 20,000 years ago, the Boskop, the presumed ancestors of the San, had developed into an organised hunting-and-gathering society. Use of fire was universal, tools (made from wood and animal products as well as stone) had become more sophisticated and natural pigments were being used for personal adornment. From around 8000 BC (the late Stone Age) they began producing pottery, and started to occupy rock shelters and caves such as those at Twyfelfontein and Brandberg, and the Tsodilo Hills in neighbouring Botswana.

The Settlement of Namibia

The archaeological connection between the late Stone Age people and the first Khoisan arrivals isn’t clear, but it is generally accepted that the earliest documented inhabitants of Southern Africa were the San, a nomadic people organised into extended family groups who were able to adapt to the severe terrain.

During the early Iron Age, between 2300 and 2400 years ago, rudimentary farming techniques appeared on the plateaus of south-central Africa. However, whether or not the earliest farmers were Khoisan, who had adapted to a settled existence, or migrants from East and central Africa, remains in question. Regardless, as the centuries came and went, Bantu-speaking groups began to arrive in sporadic southward waves.

The first agriculturists and iron workers of definite Bantu origin belonged to the Gokomere culture. They settled the temperate savannah and cooler uplands of southeastern Zimbabwe, and were the first occupants of the Great Zimbabwe site. Cattle ranching became the mainstay of the community, and earlier hunting and gathering San groups retreated to the west, or were enslaved and/or absorbed.

At the same time, the San communities were also coming under pressure from the Khoekhoen (the ancestors of the Nama), who probably entered the region from the south. The Khoekhoen were organised loosely into tribal groups and were distinguished by their reliance on raising livestock. They gradually displaced the San, becoming the dominant group in the region until around AD 1500.

During the 16th century, the Herero arrived in Namibia from the Zambezi Valley, and proceeded to occupy the north and west of the country. As ambitious pastoralists they inevitably came into conflict with the Khoekhoen over the best grazing lands and water sources. Eventually, given their superior strength and numbers, the Herero came to dominate nearly all of the indigenous Namibian groups. By the late 19th century a new Bantu group, the Owambo, settled in the north along the Okavango and Kunene Rivers.

European Exploration & Incursion

In 1486 the Portuguese captain Diego Cão sailed as far south as Cape Cross, where he erected a stone cross in tribute to his royal patron, João II. The following year, another cross was erected by Bartolomeu Dias at Lüderitz, but it wasn’t really until the early 17th century that Dutch sailors from the Cape colonies began to explore the desert coastline, although they refrained from setting up any permanent stations.

Soon after, however, growing European commercial and territorial interests were to send ambitious men deeper into Namibia’s interior, and in 1750 the Dutch elephant hunter Jacobus Coetsee became the first European to cross the Orange River. In his wake came a series of traders, hunters and missionaries, and by the early 19th century there were mission stations at Bethanie, Windhoek, Rehoboth, Keetmanshoop and various other sites. In 1844 the German Rhenish Missionary Society, under Dr Hugo Hahn, began working among the Herero. More successful were the Finnish Lutherans, who arrived in the north in 1870 and established missions among the Owambo.

By 1843 the rich coastal guano deposits of the southern Namib Desert were attracting commercial attention. In 1867 the guano islands were annexed by the British, who then proceeded to take over Walvis Bay in 1878. The British also mediated the largely inconclusive Khoisan–Herero wars during this period.

The Scramble for Africa

The Germans, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, were late entering the European scramble for Africa. Bismarck had always been against colonies; he considered them an expensive illusion, famously stating, ‘My map of Africa is here in Europe.’ But he was to be pushed into an ill-starred colonial venture by the actions of a Bremen merchant called Adolf Lüderitz.

Having already set up a trading station in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1881, Lüderitz convinced the Nama chief, Joseph Fredericks, to sell Angra Pequena, where he established his second station trading in guano (excrement of seabirds; used to make manure and a gunpowder ingredient). He then petitioned the German chancellor for protection. Bismarck, still trying to stay out of Africa, politely requested the British at Walvis Bay to say whether they had any interest in the matter, but they never bothered to reply. Subsequently, in 1884, Lüderitz was officially declared part of the German Empire.

Initially, German interests were minimal, and between 1885 and 1890 the colonial administration amounted to three public administrators. Their interests were served largely through a colonial company (along the lines of the British East India Company in India prior to the raj), but the organisation couldn’t maintain law and order.

In the 1880s, due to renewed fighting between the Nama and Herero, the German government dispatched Curt von François and 23 soldiers to restrict the supply of arms from British-administered Walvis Bay. This seemingly innocuous peacekeeping regiment slowly evolved into the more powerful Schutztruppe (German Imperial Army), which constructed forts around the country to combat growing opposition.

At this stage, Namibia became a fully fledged protectorate known as German South West Africa. The first German farmers arrived in 1892 to take up expropriated land on the central plateau, and were soon followed by merchants and other settlers. In the late 1890s the Germans, the Portuguese in Angola and the British in Bechuanaland (present-day Botswana) agreed on Namibia’s boundaries.

Reaping the Whirlwind

Meanwhile, in the south, diamonds had been discovered at Grasplatz, east of Lüderitz, by South African labourer Zacharias Lewala. Despite the assessment of diamond-mining giant De Beers that the find probably wouldn’t amount to much, prospectors flooded in to stake their claims. By 1910 the German authorities had granted exclusive rights to Deutsche Diamanten Gesellschaft (German Diamond Company).

For all the devastation visited upon the local populace, Germany was never to benefit from the diamond riches it found. The outbreak of WWI in 1914 was to mark the end of German colonial rule in South West Africa. By this time, however, the Germans had all but succeeded in devastating the Herero tribal structures, and had taken over all Khoikhoi and Herero lands. The more fortunate Owambo, in the north, managed to avoid German conquest, and they were only subsequently overrun during WWI by Portuguese forces fighting on the side of the Allies.

In 1914, at the beginning of WWI, Britain pressured South Africa into invading Namibia. The South Africans, under the command of Prime Minister Louis Botha and General Jan Smuts, pushed northward, forcing the outnumbered Schutztruppe to retreat. In May 1915 the Germans faced their final defeat at Khorab near Tsumeb and, a week later, a South African administration was set up in Windhoek.

By 1920 many German farms had been sold to Afrikaans-speaking settlers, and the German diamond-mining interests in the south were handed over to the South Africa–based Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM), which later gave way to the Namdeb Diamond Corporation Limited (Namdeb).

South African Occupation

Under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was required to renounce all of its colonial claims, and in 1920 the League of Nations granted South Africa a formal mandate to administer Namibia as part of the Union of South Africa.

While the mandate was renewed by the UN following WWII, South Africa was more interested in annexing South West Africa as a full province in the Union, and decided to scrap the terms of the mandate and rewrite the constitution. In response, the International Court of Justice determined that South Africa had overstepped its boundaries, and the UN established the Committee on South West Africa to enforce the original terms of the mandate. In 1956 the UN further decided that South African control should be terminated.

Undeterred, the South African government tightened its grip on the territory, and in 1949 granted the white population parliamentary representation in Pretoria. The bulk of Namibia’s viable farmland was parcelled into some 6000 farms for white settlers, while other ethnic groups were relegated to newly demarcated ‘tribal homelands’. The official intent was ostensibly to ‘channel economic development into predominantly poor rural areas’, but it was all too obvious that it was simply a convenient way of retaining the majority of the country for white settlement and ranching.

As a result, a prominent line of demarcation appeared between the predominantly white ranching lands in the central and southern parts of the country, and the poorer but better-watered tribal areas to the north. This arrangement was retained until Namibian independence in 1990, and to some extent continues to the present day.

Swapo

Throughout the 1950s, despite mounting pressure from the UN, South Africa refused to release its grip on Namibia. This intransigence was based on its fears of having yet another antagonistic government on its doorstep, and of losing the income that it derived from the mining operations there.

Forced labour had been the lot of most Namibians since the German annexation, and was one of the main factors that led to mass demonstrations and the increasingly nationalist sentiments in the late 1950s. Among the parties was the Owamboland People’s Congress, founded in Cape Town under the leadership of Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma and Herman Andimba Toivo ya Toivo.

In 1959 the party’s name was changed to the Owamboland People’s Organisation, and Nujoma took the issue of South African occupation to the UN in New York. By 1960 his party had gathered increased support, and it eventually coalesced into the South-West African People’s Organisation (Swapo), with its headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In 1966 Swapo took the issue of South African occupation to the International Court of Justice. The court upheld South Africa’s right to govern South West Africa, but the UN General Assembly voted to terminate South Africa’s mandate and replace it with a Council for South West Africa (renamed the Commission for Namibia in 1973) to administer the territory.

In response, on 26 August 1966 (now called Heroes’ Day), Swapo launched its campaign of guerrilla warfare at Ongulumbashe in northern Namibia. The next year, one of Swapo’s founders, Toivo ya Toivo, was convicted of terrorism and imprisoned in South Africa, where he would remain until 1984. Nujoma, however, stayed in Tanzania and avoided criminal prosecution. In 1972 the UN finally declared the South African occupation of South West Africa officially illegal and called for a withdrawal, proclaiming Swapo the legitimate representative of the Namibian people.

In 1975 Angola gained independence under the Cuban-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Sympathetic to Swapo’s struggle for independence in neighbouring Namibia, the fledgling government allowed it a safe base in the south of the country, from where it could step up its guerrilla campaign against South Africa.

South Africa responded by invading Angola in support of the opposition party, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), an act that prompted the Cuban government to send hundreds of troops to the country to bolster up the MPLA. Although the South African invasion failed, and troops had to be withdrawn in March 1976, furious and bloody incursions into Angola continued well into the 1980s.

In the end, it was neither solely the activities of Swapo nor international sanctions that forced the South Africans to the negotiating table. On the contrary, all players were growing tired of the war, and the South African economy was suffering badly. By 1985 the war was costing R480 million (around US$250 million) per year, and conscription was widespread. Mineral exports, which once provided around 88% of the country’s gross domestic product, had plummeted to just 27% by 1984.

Independence

In December 1988 a deal was finally struck between Cuba, Angola, South Africa and Swapo that provided for the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola and South African troops from Namibia. It also stipulated that the transition to Namibian independence would formally begin on 1 April 1989 and would be followed by UN-monitored elections held in November 1989 on the basis of universal suffrage. Although minor score settling and unrest among some Swapo troops threatened to derail the whole process, the plan went ahead, and in September 1989 Sam Nujoma returned from his 30-year exile. In the elections, Swapo garnered two-thirds of the votes, but the numbers were insufficient to give the party the sole mandate to write the new constitution, an outcome that went some way to allaying fears that Namibia’s minority groups would be excluded from the democratic process.

Following negotiations between the Constituent Assembly (soon to become the National Assembly) and international advisers, including the USA, France, Germany and the former USSR, a constitution was drafted. The new constitution established a multiparty system alongside an impressive Bill of Rights. It also limited the presidential executive to two five-year terms. The new constitution was adopted in February 1990, and independence was granted a month later, with Nujoma being sworn in as Namibia’s first president.

Postindependence

In those first optimistic years of his presidency, Sam Nujoma and his Swapo party based their policies on a national reconciliation program aimed at healing the wounds left by 25 years of armed struggle. They also embarked on a reconstruction program based on the retention of a mixed economy and partnership with the private sector.

These moderate policies and the stability they afforded were well received, and in 1994 President Nujoma and his party were re-elected with a 68% landslide victory over the main opposition party, the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA). Similarly in 1999, Swapo won 76.8% of the vote, although concerns arose when President Nujoma amended the constitution to allow himself a rather unconstitutional third term.

Other political problems included growing unrest in the Caprivi Strip, starting in 1999 with a failed attempt by rebels to seize Katima Mulilo. Continued fighting drove Caprivians out (and kept tourists away) until the conflict ended in 2002.

In 2004 the world watched warily to see if Nujoma would cling to power for a fourth term, and an almost audible sigh of relief could be heard in Namibia when he announced that he would finally be stepping down in favour of his chosen successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba.

Like Nujoma, Pohamba is a Swapo veteran, and he swept to power with nearly 77% of the vote. In 2009 he was re-elected for a second term. He left behind the land ministry, where he presided over one of Namibia’s most controversial schemes – the expropriation of land from white farmers. This policy formed part of the ‘poverty agenda’, which, along with Namibia’s HIV/AIDS crisis, the unequal distribution of income, managing the country’s resource wealth fairly and the challenge of raising living standards for Namibia’s poor, would become the defining domestic issues of his presidency.

In 2011 it was announced that Namibia had found offshore oil reserves amounting to 11 billion barrels, although it remains unclear whether the deposits will prove to be commercially viable. In the same year, the government's ongoing efforts to seek redress for colonial wrongs continued to bear fruit when the skulls of 20 Herero and Nama people were returned to Namibia from a museum in Germany.

In line with the constitution, and in keeping with Namibia's impressive postindependence record of largely peaceful transitions, President Pohamba honoured his pledge to stand aside in 2014. His successor, Hage Geingob, easily won elections in November of that year. Unusually for Namibia, political unrest marred the lead-up to the election and one protester was shot by police. Even so, international observers praised Namibia for its free and fair elections (and for its use of electronic voting, an African first). This, and the size of Swapo's electoral victory (Swapo won 87% of the vote in presidential polls and 80% of parliamentary seats), suggest that its dominance of Namibian politics is unlikely to change any time soon.

San

The word San is a collective term referring to the traditional groups of hunter-gatherers that occupy sub-Saharan Africa, and whose languages belong to the Khoisan family of languages. According to archaeological evidence, San communities were present in Namibia as early as 20,000 years ago, and left behind written records in the form of rock art. By AD 1000, however, the southward Bantu migration pushed the San into inhospitable areas, including the Kalahari. Regardless, anthropologists have dubbed the San our ‘genetic Adam’, stating that all living humans can ultimately trace back their lineage to this population group.

One of the most striking findings based on anthropological research is that traditional San communities were nonhierarchical and egalitarian, and grouped together based on kinship and tribal membership. Since groups were never able to build up a surplus of food, full-time leaders and bureaucrats never emerged.

Although village elders did wield a measure of influence over the mobile group, the sharpest division in status was between the sexes. Men provided for their families by hunting game, while women supplemented this diet by foraging for wild fruits, vegetables and nuts. While this was a tough and tenuous life by modern standards, more recent ethnographic data has shown that hunter-gatherers worked fewer hours and enjoyed more leisure time than members of industrial societies.

Owambo

As a sort of loose confederation, the Owambo have always been strong enough to deter outsiders, including the slavers of yore and the German invaders of the last century. They were historically an aggressive culture, which made them the obvious candidates to fight the war of independence. They also make up Namibia’s largest ethnic group (about 50% of the population) and, not surprisingly, most of the ruling Swapo party.

The Owambo traditionally inhabited the north of the country, and are subdivided into 12 distinct groups. Four of these occupy the Kunene region of southern Angola, while the other eight comprise the Owambo groups in Namibia. The most numerous group is the Kwanyama, which makes up 35% of Namibia’s Owambo population and dominates the government.

Recently, large numbers of Owambo have migrated southward to Windhoek, or to the larger towns in the north, to work as professionals, craftspeople and labourers. They have enjoyed considerable favour from the government over the years and, with the exception of white Namibians of European descent, are among the most successful of the tribal groups.

Kavango

The Kavango originated from the Wambo tribe of East Africa, who first settled on the Kwando River in Angola before moving south in the late 18th century to the northern edges of the Okavango. Since the outbreak of civil war in Angola in the 1970s, however, many Kavango have emigrated further south, swelling the local Namibian population and making them Namibia’s second-largest ethnic group. They are divided into five distinct subgroups: the Mbukushu, the Sambiyu, the Kwangari, the Mbunza and the Geiriku.

The Kavango are famous for their highly skilled woodcarvers. However, as with other groups in northern Namibia, large numbers of Kavango are now migrating southward in search of employment on farms, in mines and around urban areas.

Herero/Himba

Namibia’s 120,000 Herero occupy a few regions of the country, and are divided into several subgroups. The largest groups include the Tjimba and Ndamuranda in Kaokoveld, the Maherero around Okahandja, and the Zeraua, who are centred on Omaruru. The Himba of the Kaokoveld are also a Herero subgroup, as are the Mbandero, who occupy the colonially demarcated territory formerly known as Hereroland, around Gobabis in eastern Namibia.

The Herero were originally part of the early Bantu migrations south from central Africa. They arrived in present-day Namibia in the mid-16th century and, after a 200-year sojourn in the Kaokoveld, they moved southward to occupy the Swakop Valley and the central plateau. Until the colonial period, they remained as seminomadic pastoralists in this relatively rich grassland, herding and grazing cattle and sheep.

However, bloody clashes with the northward-migrating Nama, as well as with German colonial troops and settlers, led to a violent uprising in the late 19th century, which culminated in the devastating Battle of Waterberg in August 1904. In the aftermath, 80% of the country’s Herero population was wiped out, and the remainder were dispersed around the country, terrified and demoralised. Large numbers fled into neighbouring Botswana, where they settled down to a life of subsistence agriculture (although they have since prospered to become the country’s richest herders).

The characteristic Herero women’s dress is derived from Victorian-era German missionaries. It consists of an enormous crinoline worn over a series of petticoats, with a horn-shaped hat or headdress. If you happen to be in Okahandja on the nearest weekend to 23 August, you can witness the gathering of thousands of Hereros immaculately turned out in their traditional dress, come to honour their fallen chiefs on Maherero Day.

The Himba, a tribal group numbering not more than 50,000 people, are a seminomadic pastoral people who are closely related to the Herero, yet continue to live much as they have for generations. The women in particular are famous for smearing themselves with a fragrant mixture of ochre, butter and bush herbs, which dyes their skin a burnt-orange hue and serves as a natural sunblock and insect repellent. As if this wasn’t striking enough, they also use the mixture to cover their braided hair, which has an effect similar to dreadlocking. Instead of wearing Western clothes, they prefer to dress traditionally, bare-breasted, with little more than a pleated animal-skin skirt in the way of clothing.

Similar to the Masai of Kenya and Tanzania, the Himba breed and care for herds of cattle in addition to goats and sheep. Unlike the East African savannah, Himba homelands are among the most extreme environments in the world, and their survival is ultimately dependent on maintaining strong community alliances. It was this very climatic harshness and resulting seclusion from outside influences that enabled the Himba to maintain their cultural heritage over the centuries.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Himba were severely threatened by war and drought, though they have experienced a tremendous resurgence in recent years. At present, the population as a whole has succeeded in gaining control of their homelands, and in exerting real political power on the national stage.

Damara

The Damara resemblance to some Bantu of West Africa has led some anthropologists to believe they were among the first people to migrate into Namibia from the north, and that perhaps early trade with the Nama and San caused them to adopt Khoisan as a lingua franca.

What is known is that prior to the 1870s, the Damara occupied much of central Namibia from around the site of Rehoboth, westward to the Swakop and Kuiseb Rivers, and north to present-day Outjo and Khorixas. When the Herero and Nama began expanding their domains into traditional Damara lands, large numbers of Damara were displaced, killed or captured and enslaved. The enmity between them resulted in Damara support for the Germans against the Herero during the colonial period. As a reward, the Damara were granted an enlarged homeland, now the southern half of Kunene province.

When Europeans first arrived in the region, the Damara were described as seminomadic pastoralists, who also maintained small-scale mining, smelting and trading operations. However, during the colonial period, they settled down to relatively sedentary subsistence herding and agriculture. In the 1960s the South African administration purchased for the Damara more than 45,000 sq km of marginal European-owned ranch land in the desolate expanses of present-day Damaraland.

It has not done them much good – the soil in this region is generally poor, most of the land is communally owned, and it lacks the good grazing that prevails in central and southern Namibia. Nowadays, most of Namibia’s 80,000 Damara work in urban areas and on European farms, and only about a quarter of them actually occupy Damaraland.

Namibians of European Descent

There were no European settlers in Namibia until 1884, when the Germans set up a trading depot at Lüderitz Bay. By the late 1890s, Namibia was a German colony and settlers began to arrive in ever-greater numbers. At the same time, Boers (white South Africans of Dutch origins) were migrating north from the Cape. Their numbers continued to increase after Namibia came under South African control following WWI.

Nowadays there are around 85,000 white Namibians, most of whom are of Afrikaans descent. They are concentrated in the urban, central and southern parts of the country, and are involved mainly in ranching, commerce, manufacturing and administration. Furthermore, white Namibians almost exclusively manage and control the tourism industry.

Caprivians

In the extreme northeast, along the fertile Zambezi and Kwando riverbanks, live the 80,000 Caprivians, comprising five main tribal groups: the Lozi, Mafwe, Subia, Yei and Mbukushu. Most Caprivians derive their livelihood from fishing, subsistence farming and herding cattle.

Until the late 19th century, the Caprivi Strip was under the control of the Lozi kings. Today, the lingua franca of the various Caprivian tribes is known as Rotse, which is a derivative of the Lozi language still spoken in parts of Zambia and Angola.

Nama

Sharing a similar language to the San of Botswana and South Africa, the Nama are another Khoisan group, and one of Namibia’s oldest indigenous peoples.

The Nama’s origins are in the southern Cape. However, during the early days of European settlement, they were either exterminated or pushed northwards by colonial farmers. They eventually came to rest in Namaqualand, around the Orange River, where they lived as seminomadic pastoralists until the mid-19th century, when their leader, Jan Jonker Afrikaner, led them to the area of present-day Windhoek.

On Namibia’s central plateau, they came into conflict with the Herero, who had already occupied that area, and the two groups fought a series of bloody wars. Eventually the German government enforced the peace by confining both groups to separate reserves.

Today there are around 60,000 Nama in Namibia, and they occupy the region colonially designated as Namaqualand, which stretches from Mariental southward to Keetmanshoop. They’re known especially for their traditional music, folk tales, proverbs and praise poetry, which have been handed down through the generations to form a basis for their culture today.

Topnaar

The Topnaar (or Aonin), who are technically a branch of the Nama, mainly occupy the western central Namib Desert, in and around Walvis Bay. However, unlike the Nama, who historically had a tradition of communal land ownership, the Topnaar passed their lands down through family lines.

Today the Topnaar are arguably the most marginalised group in Namibia. Historically they were dependent upon the !nara melon, which was supplemented by hunting. Now their hunting grounds are tied up in Namib-Naukluft Park. Those Topnaar that remain in the desert eke out a living growing !nara melons and raising stock (mainly goats).

Most Topnaar have migrated to Walvis Bay and settled in the township of Narraville, from where they commute to fish-canning factories. Others live around the perimeter in shanty towns. In the Topnaar community, southeast of Walvis Bay, a primary school and hostel have been provided, although only a minority of students come from the Topnaar community.

Coloureds

After the transfer of German South West Africa (as Namibia used to be known) to South African control after WWI, the South African administration began to introduce the racial laws of apartheid. Thus, at the beginning of the 1950s, cohabitation of mixed-race couples became illegal, although marriage was still allowed. On Afrikaans and German farms all over the territory, farmers married Damara and Herero women, but a few years later marriage, too, was forbidden.

This left the children of these unions in an unenviable position, shunned by black and white communities alike. There are now around 52,000 coloureds in Namibia, living mainly in Windhoek, Keetmanshoop and Lüderitz.

Basters

Although distinct from coloureds, Basters are also the result of mixed unions, specifically between the Nama and Dutch farmers in the Cape Colony. In the late 1860s, after coming under pressure from the Boer settlers in the Cape, they moved north of the Orange River and established the settlement of Rehoboth in 1871. There they established their own system of government with a headman (Kaptein) and legislative council (Volksraad). They also benefited from supporting the Germans during the colonial period, with increased privileges and recognition of their land rights.

Most of Namibia’s 35,000 Basters still live around Rehoboth and either follow an urban lifestyle or raise livestock.

Tswana

Namibia’s 8000 Tswana make up the country’s smallest ethnic group. They are related to the Tswana of South Africa and Botswana, the Batswana, and live mainly in the eastern areas of the country, around Aminuis and Epukiro.

Women in Namibia

In a culture where male power is mythologised, it’s unsurprising that women’s rights lag behind. Even today, it’s not uncommon for men to have multiple sexual partners and, until recently, in cases where husbands abandoned their wives and their children, there was very little course for redress. Since independence, the Namibian government has been committed to improving women’s rights with bills such as the Married Persons Equality Act (1996), which equalised property rights and gave women rights of custody over their children.

Even the government acknowledges that achieving gender equality is more about changing grass-roots attitudes than passing laws. According to a US Department of State Human Rights Report in 2015, domestic violence was widespread, and endemic social problems such as poverty, alcoholism and the feeling of powerlessness engendered by long-term unemployment only served to increase women's vulnerability to violence. According to the US Department of State, the Namibian government has passed one of the most comprehensive legislative acts against rape in the world. However, women's groups and NGOs point out that many sexual crimes against women are never reported and never reach the authorities.

Namibian women do feature prominently in local and civic life, and many a Namibian woman took a heroic stance in the struggle for independence.

In 2016 women held 43 out of 104 seats in the National Assembly, an impressive 41.35% of all MPs, while women have been increasingly appointed to ministerial roles under the ruling party's much-touted 'zebra policy', whereby every ministry must have a male and a female in the top two positions. In the private sector, however, women remain underrepresented in senior leadership positions.

Women are also undoubtedly the linchpin of the Namibian home. They shoulder a double responsibility in raising children and caring for family members as well as contributing to the family income. This load has only increased with the horrendous effects of HIV/AIDS on the family structure – in 2015 just over 13% of the adult Namibian population was living with HIV/AIDS, down from 18% in 2009.

Female literacy (84.5% in 2015) is actually higher than for men (79.2%), but maternal mortality remains high (265 per 100,000 live births, compared to 129 in Botswana and 138 in South Africa).

Religion

About 80% to 90% of Namibians profess Christianity, and German Lutheranism is the dominant sect in most of the country. As a result of early missionary activity and Portuguese influence from Angola, there is also a substantial Roman Catholic population, mainly in the central and northern areas.

Most non-Christian Namibians – mainly Himba, San and some Herero – live in the north and continue to follow animist traditions. In general, their beliefs are characterised by ancestor veneration, and most practitioners believe that deceased ancestors continue to interact with the living, and serve as messengers between their descendants and the gods.

Muslims make up just 1% to 3% of the population.

Economy

The country’s economy is dominated by the extraction and processing of minerals for export. Although mining only accounts for 11.5% of the GDP, it provides more than half of foreign-exchange earnings. Most famously, Namibia’s large alluvial diamond deposits have earned it the enviable reputation as one of the world’s primary sources for gem-quality stones. However, the country is also regarded as a prominent producer of uranium, lead, zinc, tin, silver and tungsten.

The Namibian economy continues to perform strongly, with growth rates falling slightly in recent years, but still an extremely healthy 4.5% in 2015. Unemployment, however, remains high, with an official rate of 28.1% in 2014 – unofficially, the figure stands closer to 50%, with close to three-quarters of 15- to 19-year-olds unemployed.

The mining sector employs only about 2% of the population, while about half the population depends on subsistence agriculture for its livelihood. Namibia normally imports about 50% of its cereal requirements, and in drought years, food shortages are a major problem in rural areas. Although the fishing industry is also a large economic force, catches are typically canned and marked for export.

In recent years, tourism has grown considerably throughout the country, though white Namibians still largely control the industry.

The Namibian economy is closely linked to the regional powerhouse of South Africa, and the Namibian dollar is pegged one-to-one to the South African rand.

Literature

Dogged by centuries of oppression, isolation, lack of education and poverty, it is hardly surprising that prior to independence there was a complete absence of written literature in Namibia, though there was a rich tradition of oral literature. What written literature there was boils down to a few German colonial novels – most importantly Gustav Frenssen’s Peter Moor’s Journey to Southwest Africa (original 1905, English translation 1908) ­– and some Afrikaans writing. The best-known work from the colonial period is undoubtedly Henno Martin’s The Sheltering Desert (1956, English edition 1957), which records two and a half years spent by the geologist author and his friend Hermann Korn avoiding internment as prisoners of war during WWII.

Only with the independence struggle did an indigenous literature begin to take root. One of contemporary Namibia’s most significant writers is Joseph Diescho (b 1955), whose first novel, Born of the Sun, was published in 1988, when he was living in the USA. To date, this refreshingly unpretentious work remains the most renowned Namibian effort. As with most African literature, it’s largely autobiographical, describing the protagonist’s early life in a tribal village, his coming of age and his first contact with Christianity. It then follows his path through the South African mines and his ultimate political awakening. Diescho’s second novel, Troubled Waters (1993), focuses on a white South African protagonist, who is sent to Namibia on military duty and develops a political conscience.

Namibia also has a strong culture of women writers. Literature written by Namibian women after independence deals primarily with their experiences as women during the liberation struggle and in exile, as well as with the social conditions in the country after independence. Thus, the writing of Ellen Namhila (The Price of Freedom; 1998), Kaleni Hiyalwa (Meekulu’s Children; 2000) and Neshani Andreas (The Purple Violet of Oshaantu; 2001) gives us a great insight into the sociopolitical world of postcolonial Namibia.

A New Initiation Song (1994) is a collection of poetry and short fiction published by the Sister Namibia collective. This volume’s seven sections cover memories of girlhood, body image and heterosexual and lesbian relationships. Among the best works are those of Liz Frank and Elizabeth !Khaxas. The most outstanding short stories include ‘Uerieta’ by Jane Katjavivi, which describes a white woman’s coming to terms with African life, and ‘When the Rains Came’ by Marialena van Tonder, in which a farm couple narrowly survives a drought. One contributor, Nepeti Nicanor, along with Marjorie Orford, also edited another volume, Coming on Strong (1996).

Those who read German will appreciate the works of Giselher Hoffmann (b 1958), which address historical and current Namibian issues. His first novel, Im Bunde der Dritte (Three’s Company; 1984), is about poaching. Die Erstgeboren (The Firstborn; 1991) is told from the perspective of a San group that finds itself pitted against German settlers. Similarly, the Nama-Herero conflict of the late 19th century is described from the Nama perspective in Die Schweigenden Feuer (The Silent Fires; 1994). It’s also concerned with the impact of modernisation on indigenous cultures.

Cinema

Since 2002, the Namibian Film Commission has been encouraging local film production and promoting the country as a film location. In the same year, a little-known film called Beyond Borders, about the Ethiopian famine in 1984, was shot in the country – and the film’s star, Angelina Jolie, returned in 2006 to give birth to her daughter. On a more serious note, the annual Wild Cinema Festival is gaining impressive ground, attracting thousands of theatregoers every autumn.

After a few hiccups, the story of Namibia’s first president, Sam Nujoma, was turned into a film in the form of Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation, which received mixed critical acclaim. In July 2011 the filming of the on-again-off-again fourth Mad Max movie was moved to Namibia, after unexpected rain turned the Australian desert into a very un–Mad Max carpet of flowers.

Music

Namibia’s earliest musicians were the San, whose music probably emulated the sounds of animals, and was sung to accompany dances and storytelling. The early Nama, who had a more developed musical technique, used drums, flutes and basic stringed instruments, also to accompany dances. Some of these were adopted and adapted by the later-arriving Bantu, who added marimbas, gourd rattles and animal-horn trumpets to the range. Nowadays drums, marimbas and rattles are still popular, and it isn’t unusual to see dancers wearing belts of soft-drink (soda) cans filled with pebbles to provide rhythmic accompaniment to their steps.

A prominent European contribution to Namibian music is the choir. Early in the colonial period, missionaries established religious choral groups among local people, and both school and church choirs still perform regularly. Namibia’s most renowned ensembles are the Cantare Audire Choir and the Mascato Coastal Youth Choir (www.mascatoyouthchoir.com), the country’s national youth choir. The German colonists also introduced their traditional ‘oompah’ bands, which feature mainly at Oktoberfest and other German-oriented festivals.

If you need some music to keep you company on those long, lonely Namibian roads, check out the soulful tunes of Hishishi Papa, a storyteller musician whose Aantu Aantu album is perfect driving music.

Architecture

While most visitors to Namibia have already set their sights on the country’s natural wonders, there are a surprising number of architectural attractions to discover as well. Striking German colonial structures continue to stand as testament to the former European occupation of Namibia.

While most of Windhoek has modernised with the chock-a-block concrete structures that typify most African cities, there are a few remaining colonial gems. Towering over the city is the German Lutheran Christuskirche, which masterfully uses local sandstone in its European-leaning neo-Gothic construction. Another notable structure is the Alte Fest (Old Fort), which was constructed in 1890 by Curt von François and his men to serve as the barracks for the German army. It remains the oldest surviving building in the city, and now serves a much more peaceful function as the National Museum.

If you truly want to experience the shining jewels in Namibia’s architectural crown, you’re going to need to head out to the coast. Here, improbably squeezed between the icy waters of the South Atlantic and the overbearing heat of the Namib Desert, are the surreal colonial relics of Swakopmund and Lüderitz. Walking the streets of either town, you’d be easily forgiven for thinking that you were in a Bavarian dorfchen (small village) transplanted onto the shores of southwestern Africa. Somewhat forgotten by time and history, both towns are characterised by a handsome blend of German imperial and art nouveau styles, which become all the more bizarre when viewed against the backdrop of soaring dunes and raging seas.

Dance

Each group in Namibia has its own dances, but common threads run through most of them. First, all dances are intended to express social values to some extent, and many dances reflect the environment in which they’re performed.

Dances of the Ju/'hoansi (!Kung) men (a San group in northeastern Namibia) tend to mimic the animals they hunt, or involve other elements that are important to them. For example, the ‘melon dance’ involves tossing and catching a tsama melon according to a fixed rhythm. The Himba dance ondjongo must be performed by a cattle owner, and involves representing care and ownership.

Specific dances are also used for various rituals, including rites of passage, political events, social gatherings and spiritual ceremonies. For example, the Ju/'hoansi male initiation dance, the tcòcmà, may not even be viewed by women. In the Kavango and Caprivi region, dances performed by traditional healers require the dancer to constantly shake rattles held in both hands. Most festive dances, such as the animated Kavango epera and dipera, have roles for both men and women, but are performed in lines with the genders separated.

Visual Arts

The majority of Namibia’s established modern painters and photographers are of European origin, and concentrate largely on the country’s colourful landscapes, bewitching light, native wildlife and, more recently, its diverse peoples. Well-known names include François de Necker, Axel Eriksson, Fritz Krampe and Adolph Jentsch. The well-known colonial landscape artists Carl Ossman and Ernst Vollbehr are exhibited in Germany. The work of many of these artists is exhibited in the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery in Windhoek, which also hosts changing exhibitions of local and international artists.

Non-European Namibians who have concentrated on three-dimensional and material arts have been developing their own traditions. Township art – largely sculpture made out of reclaimed materials such as drink cans and galvanised wire – develops sober themes in an expressive and colourful manner. It first appeared in the townships of South Africa during the apartheid years. Over the past decade or two, it has taken hold in Namibia, and is developing into a popular art form.

In an effort to raise the standard and awareness of the visual arts in Namibia, a working group of artists, including Joseph Madesia and François Necker, established the Tulipamwe International Artists’ Workshop in 1994. Since then they have held a long list of workshops in farms and wildlife lodges around Namibia where Namibian, African and international artists can come together and share ideas and develop their skills base.

Staples & Specialities

Traditional Namibian food consists of a few staples, the most common of which is oshifima, a doughlike paste made from millet, usually served with a stew of vegetables or meat. Other common dishes include oshiwambo, a rather tasty combination of spinach and beef, and mealie pap, an extremely basic porridge.

As a foreigner you’ll rarely find such dishes on the menu. Most Namibian restaurants in big towns such as Windhoek, Swakopmund and Lüderitz serve a variation on European-style foods, such as Italian or French, alongside an abundance of seafood dishes. Outside these towns you’ll rapidly become familiar with fried-food joints.

Whatever the sign above the door, you’ll find that most menus are meat-oriented, although you might be lucky to find a few vegetarian side dishes. The reason for this is pretty obvious – Namibia is a vast desert, and the country imports much of its fresh fruit and vegetables from South Africa. What is available locally is the delicious gem squash and varieties of pumpkin such as butternut squash. In season, Namibian oranges are delicious; in the Kavango region, papayas are served with a squeeze of lemon or lime.

More than anything else, German influences can be found in Namibia’s konditoreien (cake shops), where you can pig out on Apfelstrudel (apple strudel), Sachertorte (a rich chocolate cake layered with apricot jam), Schwartzwälder Kirschtorte (Black Forest cake) and other delicious pastries and cakes. Several places in Windhoek and Swakopmund are national institutions. You may also want to try Afrikaners’ sticky-sweet koeksesters (small doughnuts dripping with honey) and melktart (milk tart).

Cooked breakfasts include bacon and boerewors (farmer’s sausage), and don’t be surprised to find something bizarre – curried kidneys, for example – alongside your eggs. Beef in varying forms also makes an occasional appearance at breakfast time.

Evening meals feature meat, normally beef or game. A huge beef fillet steak or a kudu cutlet will set you back no more than N$100. In some lodges, expect to find eland and oryx (gemsbok) on the menu. Fish and seafood are best represented by kingklip, kabeljou and several types of shellfish. These are available all over Namibia, but are best at finer restaurants in Windhoek, Swakopmund and Lüderitz, where they’ll normally be fresh from the sea.

Drinks

In the rural Owambo areas, people socialise in tiny makeshift bars, enjoying local brews such as oshikundu (beer made from mahango–millet), mataku (watermelon wine), tambo (fermented millet and sugar) or mushokolo (a beer made from a small local seed) and walende, which is distilled from the makalani palm and tastes similar to vodka. All of these concoctions, except walende, are brewed in the morning and drunk the same day, and they’re all dirt cheap.

For more conventional palates, Namibia is awash with locally brewed lagers. The most popular drop is the light and refreshing Windhoek Lager, but the brewery also produces Tafel Lager, the stronger and more bitter Windhoek Export and the slightly rough Windhoek Special. Windhoek Light and DAS Pilsener are both drunk as soft drinks (DAS is often called ‘breakfast beer’!), and in winter Namibia Breweries also brews a 7% stout known as Urbock. South African beers such as Lion, Castle and Black Label are also widely available.

Although beer is the drink of choice for most Namibians, the country also has a few wineries, including the Kristall Kellerei, 3km east of Omaruru. It produces Paradise Flycatcher, which is a red blend of ruby cabernet, cabernet sauvignon and tinta barocca, as well as colombard and a prickly-pear-cactus schnapps (a good blast). South African wines are also widely available. Among the best are the cabernet and pinot varieties grown in the Stellenbosch region of Western Cape province. A good bottle of wine will set you back between N$100 and N$250.

The Landscape

The Namib, the desert of southwestern Africa that so appropriately gives its name to the driest country south of the Sahara, is the oldest desert on the planet. It is a scorched earth of burned and blackened-red basalt that spilled from beneath the earth 130 million years ago, hardening to form what we now know as Namibia. Precious little can grow or thrive in this merciless environment. That anything survives out here owes everything to the sheer ingenuity of the natural world and the resilience of its human population.

Wildlife

If you're here to see wildlife, you'll want to spend most of your time in the north, in the country's three main wildlife areas: Kaokoveld, where elusive desert elephants and black rhinos follow the river courses running to the Skeleton Coast; the Caprivi Strip and Khaudum National Park, where Namibia’s last African wild dogs find refuge and lions are making a comeback; and, best of all, Etosha National Park, one of the world’s finest wildlife reserves.

Further south is one of the largest wildlife reserves in Africa, the Namib-Naukluft Park, which covers an astonishing 6% of Namibian territory. Much of it is true desert, and large mammals occur in extremely low densities, though local species include Hartmann’s mountain zebras as well as more widespread Southern African endemics such as springboks and gemsboks. For aficionados of smaller life, the Namib is an endemism hotspot – on the dunes, desert-adapted birdlife flickers into view, alongside reptiles and desert-specialist insects.

The severe Namibian coast is no place to expect abundant big wildlife, although it’s the only spot in the world where massive fur-seal colonies are patrolled by hunting brown hyenas and black-backed jackals. The coast also hosts flamingos and massive flocks of summer waders, including sanderlings, turnstones and grey plovers, while Heaviside’s and dusky dolphins can often be seen in the shallow offshore waters.

In 2009 the Namibian government opened Sperrgebiet National Park, a vast 16,000 sq km expanse of land home to the threatened desert rain frog, dramatic rock formations and disused diamond mines. The area’s haunting beauty, which is highlighted by shimmering salt pans and saffron-coloured sand dunes, provides one of the world’s most dramatic backdrops for adventurous wildlife watchers. The Sperrgebiet fringe is also home to one of Africa's only populations of wild horses.

Environmental Issues

As you might expect in a country that is the driest in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia faces some of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time.

According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), 99% of Namibia's land mass is at risk of desertification. Cattle outnumber people in Namibia and overgrazing is considered a driving force behind the desertification process, which can result in soil erosion, declining groundwater reserves, reduced soil fertility and deforestation. The related issue of water scarcity is another massive concern, both in terms of the country's agricultural output and in the provision of drinking water to a growing population.

Plants

Because Namibia is mostly arid, much of the flora is typical African dryland vegetation: scrub brush and succulents, such as euphorbia. Along the coastal plain around Swakopmund are the world’s most extensive and diverse fields of lichen. They remain dormant during dry periods, but with the addition of water they burst into colourful bloom.

Most of the country is covered by tree-dotted, scrub-savannah grasses of the genera Stipagrostis, Eragrostis and Aristida. In the south, the grass is interrupted by ephemeral watercourses lined with tamarisks, buffalo thorn and camelthorn. Unique floral oddities here include the kokerboom (quiver tree), a species of aloe that grows only in southern Namibia.

In the sandy plains of southeastern Namibia, raisin bushes (Grewia) and candlethorn grow among the scrubby trees, while hillsides are blanketed with green-flowered Aloe viridiflora and camphor bush.

The eastern fringes of Namib-Naukluft Park are dominated by semidesert scrub-savannah vegetation, including some rare aloe species (Aloe karasbergensis and Aloe sladeniana). On the gravel plains east of the Skeleton Coast grows the bizarre Welwitschia mirabilis, a slow-growing, ground-hugging conifer that lives for more than 1000 years.

In areas with higher rainfall, the characteristic grass savannah gives way to acacia woodlands, and Etosha National Park enjoys two distinct environments: the wooded savannah in the east and thorn-scrub savannah in the west. The higher rainfall of Caprivi and Kavango sustains extensive mopane woodland, and the riverine areas support scattered wetland vegetation, grasslands and stands of acacias. The area around Katima Mulilo is dominated by mixed subtropical woodland containing copalwood, Zambezi teak and leadwood, among other hardwood species.

National Parks & Reserves

Despite its harsh climate, Namibia has some of Southern Africa’s grandest national parks, ranging from the world-famous, wildlife-rich Etosha National Park to the immense Namib-Naukluft Park, which protects vast dune fields, desert plains, wild mountains and unique flora. There are also the smaller (but ecologically significant) reserves of the Caprivi region, the renowned Skeleton Coast and the awe-inspiring Fish River Canyon in |Ai- |Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Park, which ranks among Africa’s most spectacular natural wonders.

Around 15% of Namibia is designated as national park or conservancy.