Katima Mulilo or simply Katima is the capital of the
Zambezi Region in
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
. It is located in the
Caprivi Strip. It had 28,362 inhabitants in 2010,
and comprises two
electoral constituencies,
Katima Mulilo Rural
Katima Mulilo Rural is a constituency in the Zambezi Region of Namibia. It comprises the area south of the town of Katima Mulilo, the regional capital. As of 2020, the constituency had 6,712 registered voters.
Politics
In the 2004 presidential ...
and
Katima Mulilo Urban
Katima Mulilo Urban Constituency is an Electoral district in Namibia. It is situated in the !Zambezi Region. The region's capital, Katima Mulilo, is in this constituency. The constituency has a population of 28,362 people. In the 2020 Regional Cou ...
. It is located on the national road
B8 on the banks of the
Zambezi River in lush riverine vegetation with tropical birds and
monkeys
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
.
The town receives an annual average rainfall of .
The nearest Namibian town to Katima Mulilo is
Rundu, about 500 km away. About 40 km east of Katima Mulilo lies the village of
Bukalo
Bukalo is a village in Namibia. It is situated in the Zambezi Region 43 kilometres away from the region’s capital, Katima Mulilo. It is also the Royal Headquarters of the Subia people. In 2013, it was upgraded from a settlement to a village wit ...
, where the road to
Ngoma branches off that joins Namibia to
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
.
Economy and infrastructure
Established and run as a
garrison
A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a mil ...
for a long time, Katima Mulilo still shows signs of its military role today. In the city centre was the
South African Defence Force military base, almost every house had a bomb shelter. The town benefited from the military presence in terms of infrastructure and employment, and there are still a number of military bases surrounding the town.
Since the opening of the
Katima Mulilo Bridge
The Katima Mulilo Bridge (also known as ''Bridge 508'' in the Namibian Bridge Register) carries the TransCaprivi Highway over the Zambezi River between Katima Mulilo, Namibia and Sesheke, Zambia. It is a road bridge, completed in 2004, 900 met ...
in 2004 that spans the Zambezi River and connects the Zambian
Copperbelt with the Namibian deep sea harbour at
Walvis Bay, Katima Mulilo has become a boom town that attracts significant investment. This development has, however, also fanned illegal business activities, and driven the establishment of
shanty towns to an extent that endangers social stability.
The town features an
Export Processing Zone and the largest open market in Namibia. There is an important international electricity inter–link facility, the ''Caprivi Link Inter–Connector''; its inauguration has improved the power supply to the town. The ''Zambezi Waterfront Tourism'' project is under construction.
[ ]The Caprivi Vision
''The Caprivi Vision'' is a weekly published community newspaper in Namibia with content in English and Lozi. It is sold in the Caprivi Strip now Zambezi Region, Northern Regions of Namibia, in the capital Windhoek and other countries of the Sou ...
, a newspaper from and for the Caprivi, is published in town.
Since being proclaimed a town on 2 October 1999, development has been steady but Katima Mulilo does not yet compare to more established towns and cities in Namibia. Few streets are tarred, and there is a lack of street lights and sewerage. Many residents use the bushes for lack of toilet facilities, and there have been many outbreaks of diseases such as diarrhea
Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin wi ...
.
The town has been affected by corruption, financial mismanagement, and infighting between councillors. Water supply has been unstable because money is owed to the national water supplier, NamWater.
Transport
Katima Mulilo is the terminal town of the Trans–Caprivi Highway, and the highway together with its extension to Zambia is called the Trans-Caprivi Corridor. The Trans–Caprivi Highway was opened in 1999, and the bridge to Sesheke, and with it the entire Trans-Caprivi Corridor, in 2004.
Katima Mulilo is not yet connected to the Namibian railway network. In October 2007, a proposal was announced for a railway connection between Namibia and Zambia which would pass through the town. The line would join Grootfontein to Katima Mulilo then 130 km to Mulobezi
Mulobezi is a small town in the Western Province of Zambia, and the centre of its timber industry. Timber extends into Southern Province with which the town is economically linked.
Extensive forests of Zambian Teak grow on the sandy soils of th ...
with an 80 km upgrade of the line to Livingstone.
The town is served by Katima Mulilo Airport
Katima Mulilo Airport , also known as Mpacha Airport, serves Katima Mulilo, the capital of the Zambezi Region in Namibia. The airport is on the B8 road, about southwest of Katima Mulilo. The Katima Mulilo non-directional beacon (Ident: KL) is l ...
, situated about 18 km to the southwest which is serviced by regular flights from the capital Windhoek
Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...
.[
]
History
The name Katima Mulilo comes from the SiLozi
Lozi, also known as siLozi and Rozi, is a Bantu language of the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho–Tswana branch of Zone S (S.30), that is spoken by the Lozi people, primarily in southwestern Zambia and in surrounding coun ...
for ''quench the fire'', referring to nearby rapids in the Zambezi
The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...
). From early days (and before the advent of fire-lighting matches), there was river transport by barge (propelled by paddlers) along the Zambesi
The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...
from Livingstone
Livingstone may refer to:
* Livingstone (name), a Scottish surname and a given name.
**David Livingstone (1813–1873), Scottish physician, missionary and explorer, after whom many other Livingstones are named
Places
*Livingstone Falls, on the Con ...
to Sesheke, on past the Ngonye Falls at Sioma, where an attempt was made in about 1905 to bypass the Falls with a canal. Barges were unloaded and dragged by oxen round the Falls. The route continued to Mongu, the administrative capital of Barotseland, and on Northwards to the settlement of Balovale (now Zambesi) in the North West of Zambia, at . When the barge reached Katima Mulilo, the fire was extinguished (but embers kept), and the barge was unloaded and then dragged empty up the rapids, and re-loaded before continuing the journey – but not before the fire was re-lit.
On 28 January 1935, the administrative centre of the Caprivi Strip was moved from Schuckmannsburg to Katima Mulilo. This date is assumed as the foundation date of Katima Mulilo. The regional office, the only brick-and-mortar building at Katima Mulilo at this time when the area consisted exclusively of pristine forests, was built under a giant Baobab
''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropic ...
situated near today's SWAPO
The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...
Party regional offices. In present times the tree is known as the ''Toilet Tree'' because of a rest room carved into it.
Katima Mulilo was very sparsely populated at that time. It had a missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
school run by the Seventh-day Adventists
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...
, and the small settlements were connected only by sleigh tracks. Without any roads nor other infrastructure it was difficult to administer the Caprivi Strip from here. The South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n administration therefore decided to shift the regional office again, this time to Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
, in 1939. Given its proximity to important transport routes, particularly the railway bridge at Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and animal ...
, the location of Katima Mulilo became strategically important in the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
which broke out soon afterwards. All military supplies, people, and goods had to be flown in. The town's first car came in 1940 and belonged to the air strip operator.[
In 1940, William "Bill" Finaughty established the first shop in the Caprivi Strip in Katima Mulilo; the settlement that surrounded the shop was subsequently named after him. In the 1950s transport on the Zambezi River was established and allowed connection to the train service at ]Livingstone
Livingstone may refer to:
* Livingstone (name), a Scottish surname and a given name.
**David Livingstone (1813–1873), Scottish physician, missionary and explorer, after whom many other Livingstones are named
Places
*Livingstone Falls, on the Con ...
. The M'pacha Airfield, today Katima Mulilo Airport
Katima Mulilo Airport , also known as Mpacha Airport, serves Katima Mulilo, the capital of the Zambezi Region in Namibia. The airport is on the B8 road, about southwest of Katima Mulilo. The Katima Mulilo non-directional beacon (Ident: KL) is l ...
, was constructed in 1965 at a cost of 65 million Rand, an astronomical amount at that time when 2 Rand roughly equalled 1 Pound sterling
Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...
. A police station was erected in 1961.
Katima Mulilo became a segregated town in 1965 when the erection of the ''Nghweeze'' township began. The South African administration was unhappy with the ''Mafulo'' informal settlement where members of the Caprivi African National Union Caprivi may refer to:
Places
* Caprivi Region, a former name of Zambezi Region, an administrative region of Namibia
* Caprivi Strip, a part of Namibia
* Caprivi conflict, a secession attempt by the Caprivi Liberation Army and the Namibian governmen ...
(CANU) were staying and conducting political activism. As a response to this development, Nghweeze (derived from totela language:which literally means "stab me") township was established to enable some degree of control over Blacks by only allowing local workers and their families to take up residence. At the same time the central parts of Katima Mulilo were declared the ''Katima Mulilo Proper'' residential area and restricted to Whites. Contract workers from the company ''Lewis Construction'' from Salisbury (today's Harare
Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...
) in Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...
(today's Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
) that built Nghweeze camped in an area that for this heritage is named the ''Lewis'' informal settlement. The town had only 575 inhabitants at that time but grew to over 5,000 by 1978.[
In 1971 the area around Katima Mulilo got involved in the South African Border War. As in World War II, it was a strategically important location, this time due to troop transports into and out of Zambia and Angola.]
The settlement also was at the centre of the Caprivi conflict in the 1990s, an armed conflict between the Caprivi Liberation Army
Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA) is a Namibian rebel and separatist group which was established in 1994 to separate the Caprivi Strip, a region mainly inhabited by the Lozi people. It operates only in the Caprivi strip.
Background
The Caprivi Str ...
(CLA), a rebel
A rebel is a participant in a rebellion.
Rebel or rebels may also refer to:
People
* Rebel (given name)
* Rebel (surname)
* Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution
* American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; s ...
group working for the secession of the Caprivi Strip, and the Namibian government. In the early hours of 2 August 1999, CLA launched an attack occupying the state-run radio station and attacking a police station, the Wenela border post, and an army base. A state of emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
was declared in the province, and the government arrested alleged CLA supporters.
Geography
Suburbs
The oldest suburbs are Nghweeze, the former Blacks' township, and Katima Mulilo Proper, the area restricted to Whites during the apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
era. Butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
, Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...
, Choto and Mahohoma are registered informal settlements of Katima, further parts of town are named Nambweza, Soweto (South–Western Townships, a reminiscence of the famous suburb of Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
), New Look, Mabuluma, Lyambai, Bebi, Greenwell Matongo, Macaravan East and West, and NHE (from National Housing Enterprises, a governmental low-cost housing company that drew development here).[
]
People
Katima Mulilo is inhabited by members of the Subia
The Masubia are a tribe in Caprivi Strip whose traditional authority (''ikuta'') is based in Bukalo.
History
They Masubia originate from Central Africa. In Southern Africa they first settled in the Goha Hills of Botswana. Due to the tribal con ...
, Mafwe The Mafwe are one of the tribal peoples of the country of Namibia, and one of the 38 groups that comprise the Lozi people.
Fwe language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fwe_language
Kings and leaders
Leaders since Kabende Sita carry the honorary ti ...
, Mbalangwe, Totela, Yeyi Yeyi may refer to:
*Ye County, Henan, China, formerly known as Yeyi
* Yeyi people
*Yeyi language
Yeyi (autoethnonym ''Shiyɛyi'') is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken by many of the approximately 50,000 Yeyi people along the Okavango Rive ...
and Lozi. The town's coat of arms, still very similar to that used by the Caprivi government, depicts these tribes as two elephants facing each other, symbolising unity and peaceful coexistence of the two tribal chief
A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.
Tribe
The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia.
Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as ...
s.[
]
Climate
Katima Mulilo has a hot semi-arid climate
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
( Köppen ''BSh''), bordering on a dry-winter humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...
(''Cwa''). Almost all rainfall occurs from November to March, when the weather is hot and humid although substantially moderated by altitude. In the long dry season between April and October the weather remains hot although less humid at the beginning and finish, but very warm weather with chilly mornings occurs at the middle of this dry season during the Southern Hemisphere winter.
Politics
Katima Mulilo is governed by a town council that has seven seats.
Zambezi Region, whose administrative capital Katima Mulilo is, is a stronghold of Namibia's ruling SWAPO
The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...
party. It won the 2010 local authority election with 2,197 votes, followed by the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) with 473 votes. SWAPO also won the 2015 local authority election by a landslide, gaining six seats and 1,875 votes. The remaining seat went to the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance
The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...
(DTA) which gained 163 votes.
SWAPO also won the 2020 local authority election. It obtained 1,530 votes and gained four seats and the majority in the town council. One seat each went to the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM, the new name of the DTA), the Independent Patriots for Change
The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) is a political party in Namibia. It was founded by Panduleni Itula in August 2020. As an independent presidential candidate in the 2019 Namibian general election, November 2019 election, Itula won the b ...
(IPC, an opposition party formed in August 2020) and to the National Democratic Party (NDP), which came in at 448, 252, and 147 votes, respectively.
Culture and education
Before Katima Mulilo was officially founded missionaries already ran schools in the area. The Seventh–day Adventists operated one, as did the Capuchin Order
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (; postnominal abbr. O.F.M. Cap.) is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of Three " First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant (OFM Obs., now OFM) ...
.[ Today there are a number of schools in Katima Mulilo such as Katima High School, Caprivi Secondary School, Kizito Secondary School, Ngweze Secondary School, Mavuluma Secondary School and many primary and junior secondary schools.
Katima Mulilo has two institutes of tertiary education, the Zambezi Vocational Center and a campus of the ]University of Namibia
The University of Namibia (UNAM) is a multi-campus public research university in Namibia, as well as the largest university in the country. It was established by an act of Parliament on 31 August 1992.
Background
UNAM comprises the follow ...
(UNAM) for teacher training, formerly the Caprivi College of Education (CCE). At the time of the merger with UNAM, CCE had 400 enrolled students and 70 staff.
The town houses the community-based Caprivi Art Centre and holds an annual Caprivi Cultural Festival.[
]
Notable people
*Ryan Nyambe
Ryan Nyambe (born 4 December 1997) is a Namibian professional footballer who plays as a defender for EFL Championship side Wigan Athletic. He previously played for Blackburn Rovers, making over 150 first team appearances for the club, and is al ...
(born 1997), professional footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
.
*Kenneth Matengu
Kenneth Kamwi Matengu (born 1978 in Katima Mulilo, Namibia) is a Namibian professor and vice-chancellor of the University of Namibia since 2018 after he replaced retired Prof. Lazarus Hangula in August 2018. He was Pro-Vice Chancellor for Resear ...
, Vice Chancellor of the University of Namibia
The University of Namibia (UNAM) is a multi-campus public research university in Namibia, as well as the largest university in the country. It was established by an act of Parliament on 31 August 1992.
Background
UNAM comprises the follow ...
.
*Beatrice Masilingi
Beatrice Masilingi (born 10 April 2003) is a Namibian sprinter. At the age of 18, she placed sixth in the 200 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, having made the final along with fellow Namibian sprinter and eventual silver medallist Christine M ...
, athlete, 2020 Olympics 200m finalist
References
{{Authority control
Towns in Namibia
Regional capitals in Namibia
Populated places in the Zambezi Region
Namibia–Zambia border crossings
Populated places established in 1935
1935 establishments in South West Africa