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Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in
Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...
. Its western border is the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
. It shares land borders with
Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
and
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
to the north,
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 ...
to the east and
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 ...
to the south and east. Although it does not border
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 ...
, less than 200 metres (660 feet) of the Botswanan right bank of the
Zambezi River 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 ...
separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the
Namibian War of Independence The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...
. Its capital and largest city is
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 ...
. Namibia is a member state of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
(UN), the
Southern African Development Community The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...
(SADC), the
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...
(AU) and the
Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
. The driest country in
sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
, Namibia has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San, Damara and
Nama people Nama (in older sources also called Namaqua) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They traditionally speak the Nama language of the Khoe-Kwadi language family, although many Nama also speak Afrikaans. The Nama Peo ...
. Around the 14th century,
immigrating Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Southern A ...
arrived as part of the
Bantu expansion The Bantu expansion is a hypothesis about the history of the major series of migrations of the original Proto-Bantu-speaking group, which spread from an original nucleus around Central Africa across much of sub-Saharan Africa. In the process, t ...
. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the
Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people * Ovamboland *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilgert's sparrowhawk, (''Accipiter ovampensis'') is a species of sub-Saharan African bird of prey in the famil ...
, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority. Today Namibia is one of the least densely populated countries in the world. It has a population of 2.55 million people and is a stable
multi-party In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in c ...
parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
. Agriculture,
tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
and the
mining industry Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
 – including mining for gem diamonds,
uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
,
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
,
silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
and
base metal A base metal is a common and inexpensive metal, as opposed to a precious metal such as gold or silver. In numismatics, coins often derived their value from the precious metal content; however, base metals have also been used in coins in the past ...
s – form the basis of its
economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
, while the manufacturing sector is comparatively small. In 1884, the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as
German South West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...
. Between 1904 and 1908, it perpetrated a genocide against the Herero and Nama people. German rule ended in 1915 with a defeat by South African forces. In 1920, after the end of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the
League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
mandated administration of the colony to South Africa. As mandatory power, South Africa imposed its laws, including racial classifications and rules. From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, this included South Africa applying
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 ...
to what was then known as
South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...
. In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation by native African political activists seeking independence resulted in the UN assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but the country of
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 ...
maintained rule. In 1973, the UN recognised the South West Africa People's Organisation (
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 ...
) as the official representative of the Namibian people. Following continued guerrilla warfare, Namibia obtained independence in 1990. However,
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The c ...
and the
Penguin Islands The Penguin Islands ( af, Pikkewyn-eilande, german: Pinguininseln) are a historical group of mostly scattered islands and rocks situated along a stretch of along the coastline of Namibia. Not forming a geographic whole, the Namibian governm ...
remained under South African control until 1994.


History


Etymology

The name of the country is derived from the
Namib The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namib ...
desert, the oldest desert in the world.Spriggs, A. (2001) The name ''Namib'' itself is of Nama origin and means "vast place". That word for the country was chosen by
Mburumba Kerina Mburumba Kerina (born William Eric Getzen; 6 June 1932 – 14 June 2021) was a Namibian politician and academic. He was a co-founder of SWAPO, NUDO, and FCN, and the founder of a host of smaller political parties. For independent Namibia, he wa ...
, who originally proposed the name the "Republic of Namib". Before its independence in 1990, the area was known first as
German South-West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...
(''Deutsch-Südwestafrika''), then as South-West Africa, reflecting the colonial occupation by the Germans and South Africans.


Pre-colonial period

The dry lands of Namibia have been inhabited since prehistoric times by the San, Damara, and Nama. Around the 14th century, immigrating
Bantu people The Bantu peoples, or Bantu, are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. They are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Sou ...
began to arrive during the
Bantu expansion The Bantu expansion is a hypothesis about the history of the major series of migrations of the original Proto-Bantu-speaking group, which spread from an original nucleus around Central Africa across much of sub-Saharan Africa. In the process, t ...
from central Africa. From the late 18th century onward,
Oorlam people The Oorlam or Orlam people (also known as Orlaam, Oorlammers, Oerlams, or Orlamse Hottentots) are a subtribe of the Nama people, largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony (today, part of South Africa) to Namaqualand and Dam ...
from Cape Colony crossed the
Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...
and moved into the area that today is southern Namibia. Their encounters with the nomadic Nama tribes were largely peaceful. They received the missionaries accompanying the Oorlam very well, granting them the right to use waterholes and grazing against an annual payment. On their way further north, however, the Oorlam encountered clans of the
OvaHerero The Herero ( hz, Ovaherero) are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting parts of Southern Africa. There were an estimated 250,000 Herero people in Namibia in 2013. They speak Otjiherero, a Bantu language. Though the Herero primarily reside in Namibia, t ...
at Windhoek,
Gobabis , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = Ex Oriente Lux , image_skyline = Gobabis Namibia aerial.jpg , imagesize = 300px , imag ...
, and
Okahandja Okahandja is a city of 24,100 inhabitants in Otjozondjupa Region, central Namibia, and the district capital of the Okahandja electoral constituency. It is known as the ''Garden Town of Namibia''. It is located 70 km north of Windhoek on the ...
, who resisted their encroachment. The Nama-Herero War broke out in 1880, with hostilities ebbing only after the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
deployed troops to the contested places and cemented the status quo among the Nama, Oorlam, and Herero. In 1878, the
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
, then a British colony, annexed the port of
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The c ...
and the offshore
Penguin Islands The Penguin Islands ( af, Pikkewyn-eilande, german: Pinguininseln) are a historical group of mostly scattered islands and rocks situated along a stretch of along the coastline of Namibia. Not forming a geographic whole, the Namibian governm ...
; these became an integral part of the new
Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...
at its creation in 1910. The first Europeans to disembark and explore the region were the Portuguese navigators
Diogo Cão Diogo Cão (; -1486), anglicised as Diogo Cam and also known as Diego Cam, was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most notable navigators of the Age of Discovery. He made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa in the 1480s, explorin ...
in 1485 and
Bartolomeu Dias Bartolomeu Dias ( 1450 – 29 May 1500) was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships lay in the o ...
in 1486, but the Portuguese did not try to claim the area. Like most of the interior of
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
, Namibia was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century. At that time traders and settlers came principally from Germany and Sweden. In the late 19th century, Dorsland Trekkers crossed the area on their way from the
Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...
to
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
. Some of them settled in Namibia instead of continuing their journey.


German rule

Namibia became a German colony in 1884 under
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
to forestall perceived British encroachment and was known as
German South West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...
(''Deutsch-Südwestafrika''). The
Palgrave Commission The Palgrave Commission (1876–1885) was a series of diplomatic missions undertaken by Special Commissioner William Coates Palgrave (1833–1897) to the territory of South West Africa (modern Namibia). Palgrave was commissioned by the Cape Gov ...
by the British governor in Cape Town determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The c ...
was worth occupying and thus annexed it to the Cape province of British South Africa. From 1904 to 1907, the
Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Namaqua Genocide * Herero chat, a species of b ...
and the Namaqua took up arms against brutal German colonialism. In a calculated punitive action by the German occupiers, government officials ordered the extinction of the natives in the OvaHerero and Namaqua genocide. In what has been called the "first genocide of the 20th century", the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Herero (about 80% of the population). The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination in a system that in many ways foreshadowed 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 ...
established by South Africa in 1948. Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which under South African rule after 1949 were turned into "homelands" (
Bantustans A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (n ...
). Some historians have speculated that the German genocide in Namibia was a model for the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s in
the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. The memory of genocide remains relevant to ethnic identity in independent Namibia and to relations with Germany. The German government formally apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004.


South African mandate

During World War I, South African troops under General
Louis Botha Louis Botha (; 27 September 1862 – 27 August 1919) was a South African politician who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa – the forerunner of the modern South African state. A Boer war hero during the Second Boer War, ...
occupied the territory and deposed the German colonial administration. The end of the war and the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
resulted in South West Africa remaining a possession of South Africa, at first as a
League of Nations mandate A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administ ...
, until 1990. The mandate system was formed as a compromise between those who advocated for an Allied annexation of former German and Ottoman territories and a proposition put forward by those who wished to grant them to an international trusteeship until they could govern themselves. It permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination. South Africa interpreted the mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy. As a result of the Conference on International Organization in 1945, the League of Nations was formally superseded by the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
(UN) and former League mandates by a trusteeship system. Article 77 of the
United Nations Charter The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the UN, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the ...
stated that UN trusteeship "shall apply...to territories now held under mandate"; furthermore, it would "be a matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing territories will be brought under the trusteeship system and under what terms". The UN requested all former League of Nations mandates be surrendered to its
Trusteeship Council The United Nations Trusteeship Council (french: links=no, Conseil de tutelle des Nations unies) is one of the organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations, established to help ensure that United Nations Trust Territor ...
in anticipation of their independence. South Africa declined to do so and instead requested permission from the UN to formally annex South West Africa, for which it received considerable criticism. When the UN General Assembly rejected this proposal, South Africa dismissed its opinion and began solidifying control of the territory. The UN Generally Assembly and Security Council responded by referring the issue to the
International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
(ICJ), which held a number of discussions on the legality of South African rule between 1949 and 1966. South Africa began imposing ''
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 ...
,'' its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during the late 1940s. Black South West Africans were subject to
pass laws In South Africa, pass laws were a form of internal passport system designed to segregate the population, manage urbanization and allocate migrant labor. Also known as the natives' law, pass laws severely limited the movements of not only black ...
, curfews, and a host of residential regulations that restricted their movement. Development was concentrated in the southern region of the territory adjacent to South Africa, known as the "Police Zone", where most of the major settlements and commercial economic activity were located. Outside the Police Zone, indigenous peoples were restricted to theoretically self-governing tribal homelands. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accelerated
decolonisation of Africa The decolonisation of Africa was a process that took place in the Scramble for Africa, mid-to-late 1950s to 1975 during the Cold War, with radical government changes on the continent as Colonialism, colonial governments made the transition to So ...
and mounting pressure on the remaining colonial powers to grant their colonies self-determination resulted in the formation of nascent nationalist parties in South West Africa. Movements such as the
South West African National Union 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. The party's president is Charles ...
(SWANU) and the South West African People's Organisation advocated for the formal termination of South Africa's mandate and independence for the territory. In 1966, following the ICJ's controversial ruling that it had no legal standing to consider the question of South African rule, SWAPO launched an armed insurgency that escalated into part of a wider regional conflict known as the
South African Border War The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...
.


Independence

As SWAPO's insurgency intensified, South Africa's case for annexation in the international community continued to decline. The UN declared that South Africa had failed in its obligations to ensure the moral and material well-being of South West Africa's indigenous inhabitants, and had thus disavowed its own mandate. On 12 June 1968, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming that, in accordance with the desires of its people, South West Africa be renamed ''Namibia''.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 269 United Nations Security Council Resolution 269, adopted on August 12, 1969, condemned the government of South Africa for its refusal to comply with resolution 264, deciding that the continued occupation of South West Africa (now Namibia) was an a ...
, adopted in August 1969, declared South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia illegal. In recognition of this landmark decision, SWAPO's armed wing was renamed the
People's Liberation Army of Namibia The People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) was the military wing of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). It fought against the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) during the Sout ...
(PLAN). Namibia became one of several flashpoints for
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
proxy conflicts in southern Africa during the latter years of the PLAN insurgency. The insurgents sought out weapons and sent recruits to the Soviet Union for military training. As the PLAN war effort gained momentum, the Soviet Union and other sympathetic states such as Cuba continued to increase their support, deploying advisers to train the insurgents directly as well as supplying more weapons and ammunition. SWAPO's leadership, dependent on Soviet, Angolan, and Cuban military aid, positioned the movement firmly within the socialist bloc by 1975. This practical alliance reinforced the prevailing perspective of SWAPO as a Soviet proxy, which dominated Cold War ideology in South Africa and the United States. For its part, the Soviet Union supported SWAPO partly because it viewed South Africa as a regional Western ally. Growing war weariness and the reduction of tensions between the superpowers compelled South Africa, Angola, and Cuba to accede to the Tripartite Accord, under pressure from both the Soviet Union and the United States. South Africa accepted Namibian independence in exchange for Cuban military withdrawal from the region and an Angolan commitment to cease all aid to PLAN. PLAN and South Africa adopted an informal ceasefire in August 1988, and a
United Nations Transition Assistance Group The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed from April 1989 to March 1990 in Namibia, known at the time as South West Africa, to monitor the peace process and elections there. Na ...
(UNTAG) was formed to monitor the Namibian peace process and supervise the return of refugees. The ceasefire was broken after PLAN made a final incursion into the territory, possibly as a result of misunderstanding UNTAG's directives, in March 1989. A new ceasefire was later imposed with the condition that the insurgents were to be confined to their external bases in Angola until they could be disarmed and demobilised by UNTAG. By the end of the 11-month transition period, the last South African troops had been withdrawn from Namibia, all political prisoners granted amnesty, racially discriminatory legislation repealed, and 42,000 Namibian refugees returned to their homes. Just over 97% of eligible voters participated in the country's first
parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
held under a
universal franchise Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stanc ...
. The United Nations plan included oversight by foreign election observers in an effort to ensure a
free and fair election A free and fair election is defined by political scientist Robert Dahl as an election in which "coercion is comparatively uncommon". A free and fair election involves political freedoms and fair processes leading up to the vote, a fair count of e ...
. SWAPO won a plurality of seats in the
Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
with 57% of the popular vote. This gave the party 41 seats, but not a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to draft the constitution on its own. The Namibian Constitution was adopted in February 1990. It incorporated protection for human rights and compensation for state expropriations of private property and established an independent judiciary, legislature, and an executive presidency (the constituent assembly became the national assembly). The country officially became independent on 21 March 1990.
Sam Nujoma Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma, (; born 12 May 1929) is a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first President of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005. Nujoma was a founding member and the first ...
was sworn in as the first
President of Namibia The president of the Republic of Namibia is the head of state and the head of government of Namibia. The president directs the executive branch of the Government of Namibia, as chair of the Cabinet and is the commander-in-chief of the armed fo ...
at a ceremony attended by
Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
of South Africa (who had been released from prison the previous month) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state. In 1994, following the first multiracial elections in South Africa, that country ceded
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The c ...
to Namibia.


After independence

Since independence Namibia has completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy.
Multiparty democracy In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coal ...
was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and national elections held regularly. Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although the
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 ...
has won every election since independence. The transition from the 15-year rule of President Nujoma to his successor
Hifikepunye Pohamba Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1936) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 presidential election overwhelmingly as the candidate of SWAPO, and was ...
in 2005 went smoothly. Since independence, the Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation. It issued an amnesty for those who fought on either side during the liberation war. The civil war in Angola spilled over and adversely affected Namibians living in the north of the country. In 1998,
Namibia Defence Force The Namibian Defence Force (NDF) comprises the national military forces of Namibia. It was created when the country, then known as South West Africa, gained independence from South Africa in 1990. Chapter 15 of the Constitution of Namibia establ ...
(NDF) troops were sent to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
as part of a
Southern African Development Community The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...
(SADC) contingent. In 1999, the national government quashed a secessionist attempt in the northeastern
Caprivi Strip The Caprivi Strip, also known simply as Caprivi, is a geographic salient protruding from the northeastern corner of Namibia. It is surrounded by Botswana to the south and Angola and Zambia to the north. Namibia, Botswana and Zambia meet at a sin ...
. The Caprivi conflict was initiated by 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 led by
Mishake Muyongo Albert Mishake Muyongo (born 28 April 1944) is a Namibian politician and former Member of Parliament who is living in exile in Denmark. Muyongo was born into Mafwe Royal House in Linyanti, South West Africa. He received education at the Roman ...
. It wanted the Caprivi Strip to secede and form its own society. In December 2014, Prime Minister
Hage Geingob Hage Gottfried Geingob (born 3 August 1941) is a Namibian politician, serving as the third president of Namibia since 21 March 2015. Geingob was the first Prime Minister of Namibia from 1990 to 2002, and served as prime minister again from 2012 ...
, the candidate of ruling SWAPO, won the
presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pr ...
, taking 87% of the vote. His predecessor, President
Hifikepunye Pohamba Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1936) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 presidential election overwhelmingly as the candidate of SWAPO, and was ...
, also of SWAPO, had served the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution. In December 2019, President Hage Geingob was re-elected for a second term, taking 56.3% of the vote.


Geography

At , Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country (after Venezuela). It lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S (a small area is north of 17°), and longitudes 11° and 26°E. Being situated between the
Namib The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namib ...
and the
Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...
deserts, Namibia has the least rainfall of any country in sub-Saharan Africa. The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation, with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib, the
Great Escarpment The Great Escarpment is a major topographical feature in Africa that consists of steep slopes from the high central Southern African plateauAtlas of Southern Africa. (1984). p. 13. Reader's Digest Association, Cape Town downward in the directio ...
, the
Bushveld The Bushveld (from af, bosveld, af, bos 'bush' and af, veld) is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. It encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of ...
, and the
Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...
. The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the
Skeleton Coast The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The indigenous San p ...
to the northwest, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the southwest, the
Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...
to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east. The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation . The Namib is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline. It varies between in width. Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the
Kaokoveld The Kaokoveld Desert is a coastal desert of northern Namibia and southern Angola. Setting The Kaokoveld Desert occupies a coastal strip covering , from 13° to 21°S and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Namibian savanna woodla ...
in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast. The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over . Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase further inland from the cold
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish. Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is significantly more productive than the Namib Desert. As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation. The Bushveld is found in north-eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the
Caprivi Strip The Caprivi Strip, also known simply as Caprivi, is a geographic salient protruding from the northeastern corner of Namibia. It is surrounded by Botswana to the south and Angola and Zambia to the north. Namibia, Botswana and Zambia meet at a sin ...
. The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around per year. The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water and support agriculture.Cowling, S. 2001. The
Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...
, an arid region that extends into South Africa and
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 ...
, is one of Namibia's well-known geographical features. The Kalahari, while popularly known as a desert, has a variety of localised environments, including some verdant and technically non-desert areas. The
Succulent Karoo The Succulent Karoo is a ecoregion defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature to include regions of desert in South Africa and Namibia, and a biodiversity hotspot. The geographic area chosen by the WWF for what they call 'Succulent Karoo' does no ...
is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
; approximately 10 percent of the world's
succulents In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...
are found in the Karoo. The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation. Namibia's Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world. Because of the location of the shoreline, at the point where the Atlantic's cold water reaches Africa's hot climate, often extremely dense fog forms along the coast. Near the coast there are areas where the dune-hummocks are vegetated. Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored. The
Caprivi Strip The Caprivi Strip, also known simply as Caprivi, is a geographic salient protruding from the northeastern corner of Namibia. It is surrounded by Botswana to the south and Angola and Zambia to the north. Namibia, Botswana and Zambia meet at a sin ...
extends east from the northeastern corner of the country.


Climate

Namibia extends from 17°S to 25°S latitude: climatically the range of the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt. Its overall climate description is arid, descending from the Sub-Humid
ean rain above Ean may refer to: People * Ean Campbell (1856–1921), Anglican bishop in the early 20th century * Ean Elliot Clevenger, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter * Ean Evans (1960–2009), bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd from 2001 until his death ...
through Semi-Arid etween (embracing most of the waterless Kalahari) and Arid
rom Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...
(these three regions are inland from the western
escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...
) to the Hyper-Arid coastal plain
ess than The suffix ''-ess'' (plural ''-esses'') appended to English words makes a female form of the word. ESS or ess may refer to: Education * Ernestown Secondary School, in Odessa, Ontario * European Standard School, in Dhaka, Bangladesh Governmen ...
Temperature maxima are limited by the overall elevation of the entire region: only in the far south, Warmbad for instance, are maxima above recorded. Typically the sub-Tropical High Pressure Belt, with frequent clear skies, provides more than 300 days of sunshine per year. It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the
Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reac ...
cuts the country about in half. The winter (June – August) is generally dry. Both rainy seasons occur in summer: the small rainy season between September and November, the big one between February and April. Humidity is low, and average
rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
fall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert to more than in the
Caprivi Strip The Caprivi Strip, also known simply as Caprivi, is a geographic salient protruding from the northeastern corner of Namibia. It is surrounded by Botswana to the south and Angola and Zambia to the north. Namibia, Botswana and Zambia meet at a sin ...
. Rainfall is highly variable, and droughts are common. In the summer of 2006/07 the rainfall was recorded far below the annual average. In May 2019, Namibia declared a state of emergency in response to the drought, and extended it by additional 6 months in October 2019. Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela Current of the Atlantic Ocean, which accounts for very low
precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
( per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country. In Winter, occasionally a condition known as ' (German for "mountain wind") or ' (
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
for "east weather") occurs, a hot dry wind blowing from the inland to the coast. As the area behind the coast is a desert, these winds can develop into sand storms, leaving sand deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are visible on satellite images. The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have wide diurnal temperature ranges of up to . ''Efundja'', the annual seasonal flooding of the northern parts of the country, often causes not only damage to infrastructure but loss of life. The rains that cause these floods originate in Angola, flow into Namibia's
Cuvelai-Etosha Basin The Cuvelai-Etosha Basin is a transboundary wetland area shared by Angola and Namibia extending over 450 kilometres from north to south. Covering almost 160,000 km2, the widest point of the basin is along the Angola-Namibia border from the Ku ...
, and fill the ''oshanas'' (
Oshiwambo The Ovambo () language is a dialect cluster spoken by the Ovambo people in southern Angola and northern Namibia, of which the written standards are Kwanyama and Ndonga. The native name for the language is ''Oshiwambo'' (also written ''Oshi ...
: flood plains) there. The worst floods occurred in March 2011 and displaced 21,000 people.


Water sources

Namibia is the driest country in
sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
and depends largely on groundwater. With an average rainfall of about per annum, the highest rainfall occurs in the Caprivi in the northeast (about per annum) and decreases in a westerly and southwesterly direction to as little as and less per annum at the coast. The only perennial rivers are found on the national borders with
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 ...
,
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
,
Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
, and the short border with
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 ...
in the Caprivi. In the interior of the country, surface water is available only in the summer months when rivers are in flood after exceptional rainfalls. Otherwise, surface water is restricted to a few large storage dams retaining and damming up these seasonal floods and their run-off. Where people do not live near perennial rivers or make use of the storage dams, they are dependent on groundwater. Even isolated communities and those economic activities located far from good surface water sources, such as mining, agriculture, and tourism, can be supplied from groundwater over nearly 80% of the country. More than 100,000
borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petro ...
s have been drilled in Namibia over the past century. One third of these boreholes have been drilled dry. An
aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...
called Ohangwena II, on both sides of the Angola-Namibia border, was discovered in 2012. It has been estimated to be capable of supplying a population of 800,000 people in the North for 400 years, at the current (2018) rate of consumption. Experts estimate that Namibia has of underground water.


Communal Wildlife Conservancies

Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address
conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
and protection of
natural resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...
in its constitution. Article 95 states, "The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of
ecosystems An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilisation of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future." In 1993, Namibia's newly formed government received funding from the
United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...
(USAID) through its Living in a Finite Environment (LIFE) Project. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism, with financial support from organisations such as USAID,
Endangered Wildlife Trust The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) is a non-governmental, not-for-profit 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 str ...
, WWF, and Canadian Ambassador's Fund, together form a Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) support structure. The project's main goal is to promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism.


Government and politics

Namibia is a
unitary Unitary may refer to: Mathematics * Unitary divisor * Unitary element * Unitary group * Unitary matrix * Unitary morphism * Unitary operator * Unitary transformation * Unitary representation * Unitarity (physics) * ''E''-unitary inverse semigroup ...
semi-presidential A semi-presidential republic, is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of the state. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a ...
representative democratic Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy, is a type of democracy where elected people represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of represe ...
republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
. The
President of Namibia The president of the Republic of Namibia is the head of state and the head of government of Namibia. The president directs the executive branch of the Government of Namibia, as chair of the Cabinet and is the commander-in-chief of the armed fo ...
is elected to a five-year term and is both the
head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...
and the
head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...
. All members of the government are individually and collectively responsible to the legislature. The
Constitution of Namibia The Constitution of Namibia is the supreme law of the Republic of Namibia. Adopted on 9 February 1990, a month prior to Namibia's independence from apartheid South Africa, it was written by an elected constituent assembly. Preamble "Whereas ...
outlines the following as the organs of the country's government: *Executive: executive power is exercised by the President and the
Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
. *Legislature: Namibia has a
bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
with the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
as
lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...
, and the National Council as the
upper house An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...
. *
Judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
: Namibia has a system of courts that interpret and apply the law in the name of the state. While the constitution envisaged a
multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coal ...
for Namibia's government, the
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 has been dominant since independence in 1990.


Foreign relations

Namibia has a largely independent
foreign policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
, with persisting affiliations with states that aided the independence struggle, including
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
. With a small army and a fragile economy, the Namibian government's principal foreign policy concern is developing strengthened ties within the Southern African region. A dynamic member of the
Southern African Development Community The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...
, Namibia is a vocal advocate for greater regional integration. It became the 160th member of the UN on 23 April 1990. On its independence it became the 50th member of the
Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
.


Military

In early 2020, The Global Firepower Index (GFP) reported that Namibia's
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
is ranked as one of the weakest in the world, at 126th out of 137 countries. Among 34 African countries, Namibia is also poorly ranked at the 28th position. Despite this, government spending for the Ministry of Defence stood at N$5,885 million (a 1.2% decrease from the previous financial year). With close to 6 billion Namibian dollars (US$411 million in 2021) the
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
receives the fourth highest amount of money from Government per ministry. Namibia does not have any enemies in the region, though it has been involved in various disputes regarding borders and construction plans. The Namibian
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...
defines the role of the military as "''defending the territory and national interests.''" Namibia formed the
Namibian Defence Force The Namibian Defence Force (NDF) comprises the national military forces of Namibia. It was created when the country, then known as South West Africa, gained independence from South Africa in 1990. Chapter 15 of the Constitution of Namibia establ ...
(NDF), comprising former enemies in a 23-year bush war: the
People's Liberation Army of Namibia The People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) was the military wing of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). It fought against the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) during the Sout ...
(PLAN) and
South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...
n ''Territorial Force'' ( SWATF). The British formulated the plan for integrating these forces and began training the NDF, which consists of a small headquarters and five battalions. The
United Nations Transitional Assistance Group The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed from April 1989 to March 1990 in Namibia, known at the time as South West Africa, to monitor the peace process and elections there. Na ...
(UNTAG)'s Kenyan infantry battalion remained in Namibia for three months after independence to help train the NDF and to stabilise the north. According to the Namibian Defence Ministry, enlistments of both men and women will number no more than 7,500. The chief of the Namibian Defence Force is Air Vice Marshal Martin Kambulu Pinehas (with effect from 1 April 2020). In 2017, Namibia signed the UN
treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. It ...
.


Administrative divisions

Namibia is divided into 14 regions which are subdivided into 121 constituencies. The administrative division of Namibia is tabled by ''Delimitation Commissions'' and accepted or declined by the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...
. Since state foundation four Delimitation Commissions have delivered their work, the last one in 2013 under the chairmanship of Judge Alfred Siboleka. Regional councillors are directly elected through secret ballots (regional elections) by the inhabitants of their constituencies. Local authorities in Namibia can be in the form of municipalities (either Part 1 or Part 2 municipalities), town councils or villages.


Human rights

Namibia is considered one of the most free and democratic countries in Africa, with a government that maintains and protects basic human rights and freedoms. However, significant issues include - Government Corruption and Prison Overcrowding. Also, refugees are not permitted free movement. The law is not enforced, but homosexual acts are illegal in Namibia. Discrimination, as well as intolerance, against
LGBT people The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and social ...
is widespread. Some Namibian government officials and high-profile figures, such as Namibia's Ombudsman John Walters and First Lady Monica Geingos, have called for sodomy and homosexuality to be decriminalised and are in favour of
LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...
. In November 2018, it was reported that 32% of women aged 15–49 have experienced
violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...
and
domestic abuse Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner v ...
from their spouses/partners and 29.5% of men believe that physical abuse towards their wife/partner is acceptable. The Namibian constitution guarantees the rights, freedoms and equal treatment of women in Namibia and SWAPO, the ruling party in Namibia, has adopted a "zebra system", which ensures a fair balance of both genders in government and equal representation of women in the Namibian government.Human Rights In Namibia (November 2021)
2021 Country Report on Human Rights: Namibia
state.gov


Economy

Namibia's economy is tied closely to
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 ...
's due to their shared history.Namibia
''
The World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
''.
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
.
The largest economic sectors are mining (10.4% of the gross domestic product in 2009), agriculture (5.0%), manufacturing (13.5%), and tourism. Namibia has a highly developed banking sector with modern infrastructures, such as online banking and cellphone banking. The
Bank of Namibia The Bank of Namibia (BoN) is the central bank of Namibia, whose establishment is enshrined in Article 128 of the Namibian Constitution. It is located in the capital city of Windhoek. The Bank of Namibia was established in 1990 by the ''Bank of Na ...
(BoN) is the central bank of Namibia responsible for performing all other functions ordinarily performed by a central bank. There are five BoN authorised commercial banks in Namibia: Bank Windhoek, First National Bank, Nedbank, Standard Bank and Small and Medium Enterprises Bank. Namibia's economy is characterised by a divide between the formal and the informal economies, which is in part aggravated by the legacy of
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 ...
town planning. According to the Namibia Labour Force Survey Report 2012, conducted by the Namibia Statistics Agency, the country's unemployment rate is 27.4%. "Strict unemployment" (people actively seeking a full-time job) stood at 20.2% in 2000, 21.9% in 2004 and spiralled to 29.4% in 2008. Under a broader definition (including people who have given up searching for employment) unemployment rose to 36.7% in 2004. This estimate considers people in the
informal economy An informal economy (informal sector or grey economy) is the part of any economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government. Although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developing countrie ...
as employed. Labour and Social Welfare Minister
Immanuel Ngatjizeko Immanuel Ngatjizeko (30 May 1952 – 5 March 2022) was a Namibian politician and member of the ruling SWAPO Party. He held five ministerial portfolios from 2003 until his retirement in 2018. Early life and education Immanuel Ngatjizeko was born ...
praised the 2008 study as "by far superior in scope and quality to any that has been available previously", but its methodology has also received criticism. In 2004 a labour act was passed to protect people from job discrimination stemming from pregnancy and HIV/AIDS status. In early 2010 the Government
tender board A Tender board is a committee or institution involved in the Government procurement procedure. It formulates requirements for the intended purchase of goods or services, compiles these formulations in a tender document, and hands these documents o ...
announced that "henceforth 100 per cent of all unskilled and semi-skilled labour must be sourced, without exception, from within Namibia". In 2013, global business and financial news provider,
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...
, named Namibia the top emerging market economy in Africa and the 13th best in the world. Only four African countries made the Top 20 Emerging Markets list in the March 2013 issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, and Namibia was rated ahead of
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
(19th), South Africa (15th), and
Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
(14th). Worldwide, Namibia also fared better than Hungary, Brazil, and Mexico. Bloomberg Markets magazine ranked the top 20 based on more than a dozen criteria. The data came from Bloomberg's own financial-market statistics, IMF forecasts and the World Bank. The countries were also rated on areas of particular interest to foreign investors: the ease of doing business, the perceived level of corruption and economic freedom. To attract foreign investment, the government has made improvement in reducing red tape resulted from excessive government regulations, making Namibia one of the least bureaucratic places to do business in the region. Facilitation payments are occasionally demanded by customs due to cumbersome and costly customs procedures. Namibia is also classified as an Upper Middle Income country by the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
, and ranks 87th out of 185 economies in terms of ease of doing business. The
cost of living in Namibia The cost of living in Namibia is very high. Namibia imports about 50% of its cereal requirements. Many other items used in daily life also need to be imported. High transportation costs make prices very high and unaffordable. Monopolies in some bu ...
is relatively high because most goods, including cereals, need to be imported. Its capital city, Windhoek, is the 150th most expensive place in the world for expatriates to live. Taxation in Namibia includes personal income tax, which is applicable to the total taxable income of an individual. All individuals are taxed at progressive marginal rates over a series of income brackets. The value-added tax (VAT) is applicable to most of the commodities and services. Despite the remote nature of much of the country, Namibia has seaports, airports, highways, and
railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
(narrow-gauge). It seeks to become a regional transportation hub; it has an important seaport and several landlocked neighbours. The Central Plateau already serves as a transportation corridor from the more densely populated north to South Africa, the source of four-fifths of Namibia's imports.


Income disparity

Namibia is a country with a substantial income disparity. The data indicates that the current income share held by the highest 10% is approximately 51.8%. An additional figure describes the poverty gap: people living on US$2 or less in the country are approximately 17.72% of the population.


Agriculture

About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely
subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...
) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food. Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia's people live in rural areas and have a subsistence way of life. Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cashless economy. The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival. Although arable land accounts for <1% of Namibia, (about .97%), nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.World Almanac. 2004. About 4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land. The United Kingdom offered about $180,000 in 2004 to help finance Namibia's
land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...
process, as Namibia plans to start expropriating land from white farmers to resettle landless black Namibians. Germany has offered €1.1bn in 2021 over 30 years in reparations for the genocides in the early 20th century but the money will go towards infrastructure, healthcare and training programmes not land reform. An agreement has been reached on the
privatisation Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
of several more enterprises in coming years, with hopes that this will stimulate much needed foreign investment, but reinvestment of environmentally derived capital has hobbled Namibian per capita income. One of the fastest growing areas of economic development in Namibia is the growth of wildlife conservancies. These are particularly important to the rural, generally unemployed, population.


Mining and electricity

Providing 25% of Namibia's revenue, mining is the single most important contributor to the economy. Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa and was the world's fourth largest producer of
uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
. There have been significant investment in
uranium mining Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. Over 50 thousand tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account f ...
and Namibia planned to become the largest exporter of uranium by 2015. However, as of 2019 Namibia continued to produce 750 tons Uranium annually making it a smaller than average exporter in the competitive world market. Rich
alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. While Namibia is known predominantly for its gem diamond and uranium deposits, a number of other minerals are extracted industrially such as
lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
,
tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...
,
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
,
tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
,
fluorspar Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scal ...
,
manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...
,
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
,
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
and
zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
. There are offshore gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are planned to be extracted in the future. According to "The Diamond Investigation", a book about the global diamond market, from 1978,
De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...
, the largest diamond company, bought most of the Namibian diamonds, and would continue to do so, because "whatever government eventually comes to power they will need this revenue to survive". Domestic supply voltage is 220 V AC. Electricity is generated mainly by thermal and hydroelectric power plants. Non-conventional methods of electricity generation also play some role. Encouraged by the rich uranium deposits the Namibian government plans to erect its first nuclear power station by 2018, also uranium enrichment is envisaged to happen locally.


Diamonds

Although much of the world's diamond supply comes from what have been called African
blood diamonds ''Blood Diamond'' is a 2006 American political war action thriller film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Hounsou. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds mine ...
, Namibia has managed to develop a diamond mining industry largely free of the kinds of conflict, extortion, and murder that have plagued many other African nations with diamond mines. This has been attributed to political dynamics, economic institutions, grievances, political geography, and the effects of neighbourhoods, and is the result of a joint agreement between the government and
De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...
that has led to a taxable base, strengthening state institutions.


Oil and natural gas

Estimates updated in 2022 suggest that two exploration wells in the offshore Orange Basin could hold 2 and 3 billion barrels of oil, respectively. The expected revenue could transform Namibia's domestic economy and facilitate sustainable development goals.


Tourism

Tourism is a major contributor (14.5%) to Namibia's GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18.2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per year. The country is a prime destination in Africa and is known for
ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...
, which features Namibia's extensive wildlife. There are many lodges and reserves to accommodate ecotourists. Sport and
trophy hunting Trophy hunting is a form of hunting for sport in which parts of the hunted wild animals are kept and displayed as trophies. The animal being targeted, known as the "game", is typically a mature male specimen from a popular species of collectable ...
is also a large and growing component of the Namibian economy, accounting for 14% of total tourism in the year 2000, or 19.6 million U.S. dollars, with Namibia boasting numerous species sought after by international sport hunters. In addition, extreme sports such as
sandboarding Sandboarding is a boardsport and extreme sport similar to snowboarding that involves riding across or down a sand dune while standing on a board, either with both feet strapped in or while standing loose, without bindings. Sandboarding can also ...
,
skydiving Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...
and 4x4ing have become popular, and many cities have companies that provide tours. The most visited places include the capital city of
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 ...
,
Caprivi Strip The Caprivi Strip, also known simply as Caprivi, is a geographic salient protruding from the northeastern corner of Namibia. It is surrounded by Botswana to the south and Angola and Zambia to the north. Namibia, Botswana and Zambia meet at a sin ...
,
Fish River Canyon The Fish River Canyon (Afrikaans: ''Visrivier Canyon'' or'' Visrivier Kuil'', german: Fischfluss Canyon), is located in the south of Namibia. It is the largest canyon in Africa, as well as the second most visited tourist attraction in Namibia.Ma ...
,
Sossusvlei Sossusvlei (sometimes written Sossus Vlei) is a salt and clay pan surrounded by high red dunes, located in the southern part of the Namib Desert, in the Namib-Naukluft National Park of Namibia. The name "Sossusvlei" is often used in an exten ...
, the
Skeleton Coast The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The indigenous San p ...
Park,
Sesriem Sesriem is a small settlement in the Namib Desert, in the Hardap Region of Namibia, close to the southern end of the Naukluft Mountains. It is especially known because the "Sesriem gate" is the main access point to the Namib-Naukluft National Par ...
,
Etosha Pan The Etosha Pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. The 120-kilo ...
and the coastal towns of
Swakopmund Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers ...
,
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The c ...
and
Lüderitz Lüderitz is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It lies on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island. The town is known for its colonial architecture, includi ...
. Windhoek plays a very important role in Namibia's tourism due to its central location and close proximity to
Hosea Kutako International Airport Hosea Kutako International Airport (also known as HKIA) is the main international airport of Namibia, serving the capital city Windhoek. Located well east of the city, , it is Namibia's largest airport with international connections. From it ...
. According to The Namibia Tourism Exit Survey, which was produced by the
Millennium Challenge Corporation The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the U.S. Congress in 2004. It is an independent agency separate from the State Department and USAID. It provides grants to countries that h ...
for the Namibian Directorate of Tourism, 56% of all tourists visiting Namibia in 2012–13 visited Windhoek. Many of Namibia's tourism related parastatals and governing bodies such as Namibia Wildlife Resorts and the
Namibia Tourism Board The Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) is mandated by the Namibian Government as the regulatory and marketing body for tourism activities in Namibia, and is headquartered in Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It i ...
as well as Namibia's tourism-related
trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. An industry tra ...
s such as the
Hospitality Association of Namibia The Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) is a trade association for the hospitality sector in Namibia. It is fully funded by its members and serves as a self-regulating governing body for all aspects of the hospitality industry. It provides m ...
are headquartered in Windhoek. There are also a number of notable hotels in Windhoek, such as
Windhoek Country Club Resort The Windhoek Country Club Resort is a multi-use resort outside of Windhoek, Namibia owned by Legacy Hotels and Resorts International. The Resort was opened in May 1995 and was home to the 1995 Miss Universe Pageant. The resort's golf course is ho ...
, and some international hotel chains, such as
Hilton Hotels and Resorts Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton. The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...
. Namibia's primary tourism related governing body, the
Namibia Tourism Board The Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) is mandated by the Namibian Government as the regulatory and marketing body for tourism activities in Namibia, and is headquartered in Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It i ...
(NTB), was established by an Act of Parliament: the ''Namibia Tourism Board Act, 2000'' (Act 21 of 2000). Its primary objectives are to regulate the tourism industry and to market Namibia as a tourist destination. There are also a number of
trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. An industry tra ...
s that represent the tourism sector in Namibia, such as the Federation of Namibia Tourism Associations (the umbrella body for all tourism associations in Namibia), the
Hospitality Association of Namibia The Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) is a trade association for the hospitality sector in Namibia. It is fully funded by its members and serves as a self-regulating governing body for all aspects of the hospitality industry. It provides m ...
, the Association of Namibian Travel Agents, Car Rental Association of Namibia and the Tour and Safari Association of Namibia.


Water supply and sanitation

Namibia is the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa to provide water through municipal departments. The only bulk water supplier in Namibia is NamWater, which sells it to the respective municipalities which in turn deliver it through their reticulation networks. In rural areas, the Directorate of Rural Water Supply in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is in charge of drinking water supply. The UN evaluated in 2011 that Namibia has improved its water access network significantly since independence in 1990. A large part of the population can not, however, make use of these resources due to the prohibitively high consumption cost and the long distance between residences and water points in rural areas. As a result, many Namibians prefer the traditional wells over the available water points far away. Compared to the efforts made to improve access to safe water, Namibia is lagging behind in the provision of adequate sanitation. This includes 298 schools that have no toilet facilities. Over 50% of child deaths are related to lack of water, sanitation, or hygiene; 23% are due to diarrhoea alone. The UN has identified a "sanitation crisis" in the country. Apart from residences for upper and middle class households, sanitation is insufficient in most residential areas. Private flush toilets are too expensive for virtually all residents in
township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...
s due to their water consumption and installation cost. As a result, access to
improved sanitation Improved sanitation (related to but distinct from a " safely managed sanitation service") is a term used to categorize types of sanitation for monitoring purposes. It refers to the management of human feces at the household level. The term was co ...
has not increased much since independence: in Namibia's rural areas 13% of the population had more than basic sanitation, up from 8% in 1990. Many of Namibia's inhabitants have to resort to "flying toilets", plastic bags to defecate into, which after use are flung into the bush. The use of open areas close to residential land for urination and defecation is very common and has been identified as a major
health hazard A hazard is a potential source of harm. Substances, events, or circumstances can constitute hazards when their nature would allow them, even just theoretically, to cause damage to health, life, property, or any other interest of value. The probabi ...
.


Demographics

Namibia has the second- lowest population density of any sovereign country, after
Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
. In 2017 there were on average 3.08 people per km2. The
total fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...
in 2015 was 3.47 children per woman according to the UN.


Ethnic groups

The majority of the Namibian population is of
Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...
-speaking origin—mostly of the
Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people * Ovamboland *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilgert's sparrowhawk, (''Accipiter ovampensis'') is a species of sub-Saharan African bird of prey in the famil ...
ethnicity, which forms about half of the population—residing mainly in the north of the country, although many are now resident in towns throughout Namibia. Other ethnic groups are the
Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Namaqua Genocide * Herero chat, a species of b ...
and
Himba people The Himba (singular: OmuHimba, plural: OvaHimba) are an indigenous people with an estimated population of about 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene Region (formerly Kaokoland) and on the other side of the Kunene River in sout ...
, who speak a similar language, and the Damara, who, like the Nama, speak
Khoekhoe Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
. In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of
Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...
(such as Nama and San), who are descendants of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. The country also contains some descendants of refugees from Angola. There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "
Coloureds Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...
" and "
Baster The Basters (also known as Baasters, Rehobothers or Rehoboth Basters) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from white European men and black African women, usually of Khoisan origin, but occasionally also enslaved women from the Cape, ...
s", who together make up 8.0% (with the Coloureds outnumbering the Basters two to one). There is a substantial Chinese minority in Namibia; it stood at 40,000 in 2006.
Whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...
(being mainly of
Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...
, German, British and
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
origin) make up between 4.0 and 7.0% of the population. Although their proportion of the population decreased after
independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
due to emigration and lower birth rates, they still form the second-largest population of European ancestry, both in terms of percentage and actual numbers, in
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
(after South Africa). The majority of Namibian whites and nearly all those who are of
mixed race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
speak
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
and share similar origins, culture, and religion as the white and coloured populations of South Africa. A large minority of whites (around 30,000) trace their family origins back to the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
settlers who colonised Namibia prior to the South African invasion during the First World War, and they maintain German cultural and educational institutions. Nearly all Portuguese settlers came to the country from the former
Portuguese colony The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...
of Angola. The 1960 census reported 526,004 persons in what was then South West Africa, including 73,464 whites (14%).


Censuses

Namibia conducts a census every ten years. After independence the first Population and Housing Census was carried out in 1991; further rounds followed in 2001 and 2011. The data collection method is to count every person resident in Namibia on the census reference night, wherever they happen to be. This is called the ''de facto'' method. For enumeration purposes the country is demarcated into 4,042 ''enumeration areas''. These areas do not overlap with constituency boundaries to get reliable data for election purposes as well. The 2011 Population and Housing Census counted 2,113,077 inhabitants. Between 2001 and 2011 the annual population growth was 1.4%, down from 2.6% in the previous ten-year period.


Urban settlements

Namibia has 13 cities, governed by municipalities and 26 towns, governed by town councils. The capital Windhoek is by far the largest urban settlement in Namibia.


Religion

The Christian community makes up 80%–90% of the population of Namibia, with at least 75% being
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
, of which at least 50% are
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
. Lutherans are the largest religious group, a legacy of the German and
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
missionary work during the country's colonial times. 10%–20% of the population hold
indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
beliefs. Missionary activities during the second half of the 19th century resulted in many Namibians converting to Christianity. Today most Christians are
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
, but there also are
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
,
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
,
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
,
African Methodist Episcopal The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal ...
,
Dutch Reformed The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family an ...
,
Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
and
Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
.
Islam in Namibia Namibia is a predominantly Christian country and is home to a small Muslim community. Islam is a minority religion in Namibia, with a small but longstanding presence in the country. Islam first took root during the late 1800s in Namibia in the ...
is subscribed to by about 9,000 people, many of them Nama. Namibia is home to a small
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
community of about 100 people.


Languages

Up to 1990, English,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
, and
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
were official languages. Long before Namibia's independence from South Africa, SWAPO was of the opinion that the country should become officially monolingual, choosing this approach in contrast to that of its neighbour South Africa (which granted all 11 of its major languages official status), which it saw as "a deliberate policy of ethnolinguistic fragmentation." Consequently, SWAPO instituted English as Namibia's sole official language, though only about 3% of the population speaks it as a home language. Its implementation is focused on the civil service, education and the broadcasting system, especially the state broadcaster NBC. Some other languages have received semi-official recognition by being allowed as medium of instruction in primary schools. Private schools are expected to follow the same policy as state schools, and "English language" is a compulsory subject. Some critics argue that, as in other postcolonial African societies, the push for monolingual instruction and policy has resulted in a high rate of school drop-outs and of individuals whose academic competence in any language is low. According to the 2011 census, the most common languages are
Oshiwambo The Ovambo () language is a dialect cluster spoken by the Ovambo people in southern Angola and northern Namibia, of which the written standards are Kwanyama and Ndonga. The native name for the language is ''Oshiwambo'' (also written ''Oshi ...
(the most spoken language for 49% of households),
Khoekhoegowab The Khoekhoe language (), also known by the ethnic terms Nama (''Namagowab'') , Damara (''ǂNūkhoegowab''), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use o ...
(11.3%), Afrikaans (10.4%),
RuKwangali Kwangali, or RuKwangali, is a Bantu language spoken by 85,000 people along the Kavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Angola. It is one of several Bantu languages of the Kavango which have click consonants; these are t ...
(9%), and
Otjiherero Herero (, ''Otjiherero'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in Namibia and Botswana, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern Angola. There were 211,700 speakers in 2014. Distribution Its linguist ...
(9%). The most widely understood national language is
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
, the country's lingua franca. Both Afrikaans and English are used primarily as a second language reserved for public communication. A complete list of languages according to the 2011 census is 48.9%
Oshiwambo The Ovambo () language is a dialect cluster spoken by the Ovambo people in southern Angola and northern Namibia, of which the written standards are Kwanyama and Ndonga. The native name for the language is ''Oshiwambo'' (also written ''Oshi ...
, 11.3%
Khoekhoegowab The Khoekhoe language (), also known by the ethnic terms Nama (''Namagowab'') , Damara (''ǂNūkhoegowab''), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use o ...
, 10.4%
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
, 8.6%
Otjiherero Herero (, ''Otjiherero'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in Namibia and Botswana, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern Angola. There were 211,700 speakers in 2014. Distribution Its linguist ...
, 8.5%
RuKwangali Kwangali, or RuKwangali, is a Bantu language spoken by 85,000 people along the Kavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Angola. It is one of several Bantu languages of the Kavango which have click consonants; these are t ...
, 4.8%
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 ...
, 3.4%
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, 1.2% Other
African Languages The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Southern A ...
, 0.9%
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
, 0.8% San, 0.7% Other
European Languages Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Rom ...
, 0.3%
Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zone ...
, and 0.1%
Asian Languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turk ...
. Most of the white population speaks either Afrikaans or German. More than a century after the end of the German colonial era, German continues to play a role as a commercial language. Afrikaans is spoken by 60% of the white community, German by 32%, English by 7% and Portuguese by 4–5%. Geographical proximity to Portuguese-speaking
Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...
explains the relatively high number of Portuguese speakers; in 2011 these were estimated to number 100,000.


Health

Life expectancy Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, current age, and other demographic factors like sex. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth ...
at birth is estimated to be 64 years in 2017 – among the lowest in the world. Namibia launched a National Health Extension Programme in 2012 deployment 1,800 (2015) of a total ceiling of 4,800 health extension workers trained for six months in community health activities including first aid, health promotion for disease prevention, nutritional assessment and counseling, water sanitation and hygiene practices, HIV testing and community-based antiretroviral treatment. Namibia faces a non-communicable disease burden. The Demographic and Health Survey (2013) summarises findings on elevated blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity: * Among eligible respondents age 35–64, more than 4 in 10 women (44 percent) and men (45 percent) have elevated blood pressure or are currently taking medicine to lower their blood pressure. * Forty-nine percent of women and 61 percent of men are not aware that they have elevated blood pressure. * Forty-three percent of women and 34 percent of men with hypertension are taking medication for their condition. * Only 29 percent of women and 20 percent of men with hypertension are taking medication and have their blood pressure under control. * Six percent of women and 7 percent of men are diabetic; that is, they have elevated fasting plasma glucose values or report that they are taking diabetes medication. An additional 7 percent of women and 6 percent of men are prediabetic. * Sixty-seven percent of women and 74 percent of men with diabetes are taking medication to lower their blood glucose. * Women and men with a higher-than-normal body mass index (25.0 or higher) are more likely to have elevated blood pressure and elevated fasting blood glucose. The
HIV epidemic The global epidemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2021, HIV/AI ...
remains a public health issue in Namibia despite significant achievements made by the Ministry of Health and Social Services to expand HIV treatment services. In 2001, there were an estimated 210,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, and the estimated death toll in 2003 was 16,000. According to the 2011 UNAIDS Report, the epidemic in Namibia "appears to be leveling off." As the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reduced the working-aged population, the number of orphans has increased. It falls to the government to provide education, food, shelter and clothing for these orphans. A Demographic and Health Survey with an HIV biomarker was completed i
2013
and served as the fourth comprehensive, national-level population and health survey conducted in Namibia as part of the global Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) programme. The DHS observed important characteristics associated to the HIV epidemic: * Overall, 26 percent of men age 15–49 and 32 percent of those age 50–64 have been circumcised. HIV prevalence for men age 15–49 is lower among circumcised (8.0 percent) than among uncircumcised men (11.9 percent). The pattern of lower HIV prevalence among circumcised than uncircumcised men is observed across most background characteristics. For each age group, circumcised men have lower HIV prevalence than those who are not circumcised; the difference is especially pronounced for men age 35–39 and 45–49 (11.7 percentage points each). The difference in HIV prevalence between uncircumcised and circumcised men is larger among urban than rural men (5.2 percentage points versus 2.1 percentage points). * HIV prevalence among respondents age 15–49 is 16.9 percent for women and 10.9 percent for men. HIV prevalence rates among women and men age 50–64 are similar (16.7 percent and 16.0 percent, respectively). * HIV prevalence peaks in the 35–39 age group for both women and men (30.9 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively). It is lowest among respondents age 15–24 (2.5–6.4 percent for women and 2.0–3.4 percent for men). * Among respondents age 15–49, HIV prevalence is highest for women and men in Zambezi (30.9 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively) and lowest for women in Omaheke (6.9 percent) and men in Ohangwena (6.6 percent). * In 76.4 percent of the 1,007 cohabiting couples who were tested for HIV in the 2013 NDHS, both partners were HIV negative; in 10.1 percent of the couples, both partners were HIV positive; and 13.5 percent of the couples were discordant (that is, one partner was infected with HIV and the other was not). As of 2015, the Ministry of Health and Social Services and UNAIDS produced a Progres
Report
in which
UNAIDS The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) (, ONUSIDA) is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The mission of UNAIDS is to lead, strengthen and support an e ...
projected HIV prevalence among 15–49-year-olds at 13.3% 2.2–14.5%and an estimated 210,000 00,000–230,000living with HIV. The
malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
problem seems to be compounded by the AIDS epidemic. Research has shown that in Namibia the risk of contracting malaria is 14.5% greater if a person is also infected with HIV. The risk of death from malaria is also raised by approximately 50% with a concurrent HIV infection. The country had only 598 physicians in 2002.


Culture


Sport

The most popular sport in Namibia is
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
. The
Namibia national football team The Namibia national football team represents Namibia in men's international football and is controlled by the Namibia Football Association. They have never qualified for the FIFA World Cup but have made three appearances in the Africa Cup of ...
qualified for the
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
,
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and
2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
editions of the
Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...
, but has yet to qualify for the
World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
. The most successful national team is the Namibian rugby team, having competed in six separate World Cups. Namibia were participants in the
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
,
2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
,
2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
,
2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
,
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
and 2019
Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
s.
Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
is also popular, with the national side having qualified for
2003 Cricket World Cup The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the f ...
,
2021 ICC T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament, with the matches played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The West Indies were the defending champions, but were eventua ...
and
2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the eighth ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament. It was played in Australia from 16 October to 13 November 2022. Although originally scheduled to be held in 2020, in July 2020, the International Cricket Counci ...
. In December 2017, Namibia Cricket reached the final of the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Provincial One Day Challenge for the first time. In February 2018 Namibia hosted the ICC World Cricket League Division 2 with Namibia, Kenya, UAE, Nepal, Canada and Oman to compete for the final two ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier positions in Zimbabwe. Namibia also qualified the qualifiers of ICC T20 World Cup 2021 and entered the super 12 club. The most famous athlete from Namibia is
Frankie Fredericks Frank "Frankie" Fredericks (born 2 October 1967) is a former track and field athlete from Namibia. Running in the 100 metres and 200 metres, he won four silver medals at the Olympic Games (two in 1992 and two in 1996), making him Namibia's only ...
, sprinter in the 100 and 200 m events. He won four Olympic silver medals (1992, 1996) and also has medals from several
World Athletics Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations). Alongside the Ol ...
. Golfer
Trevor Dodds Trevor George Dodds (born 26 September 1959) is a Namibian professional golfer. Dodds was born in Windhoek, South West Africa. He turned pro in 1985. He won the Canadian Tour Order of Merit in 1995 and 1996. Dodds has compiled 13 wins on four d ...
won the
Greater Greensboro Open The Wyndham Championship is a professional golf tournament in North Carolina on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in Greensboro and was originally the Greater Greensboro Open. History Founded in 1938 as the Greater Greensboro Open, it was usua ...
in 1998, one of 15 tournaments in his career. He achieved a career-high world ranking of 78th in 1998. Professional cyclist and Namibian Road Race champion
Dan Craven Dan Craven (born 1 February 1983) is a Namibian racing cyclist, who last rode for Namibian amateur team NCCS Cycling Team. He is the grandson of Danie Craven, the South African rugby union icon. Craven started cycling seriously when he studied ...
represented Namibia at the
2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
in both the road race and individual time trial. Boxer
Julius Indongo Julius Munyelele Indongo (born 12 February 1983) is a Namibian professional boxer. He is a former unified light-welterweight world champion, having held the WBA (Unified), IBF, and IBO titles between 2016 and 2017. As an amateur, Indongo rep ...
is the unified WBA, IBF, and IBO world champion in the
Light welterweight Light welterweight, also known as junior welterweight or super lightweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional boxing In professional boxing, light welterweight is contested between the lightweight and welterweight divisions, ...
division. Another famous athlete from Namibia is ex-professional rugby player
Jacques Burger Jacques Burger (born 29 July 1983 in Windhoek, South West Africa) is a retired Namibian rugby union loose forward who finished his career at Saracens in the Aviva Premiership. Club career He played for Saracens, having joined them in the 2009/ ...
. Burger played for
Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...
and
Aurillac Aurillac (; oc, Orlhac ) is the prefecture of the Cantal department, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Aurillacois'' or ''Aurillacoises''. Geography Aurillac is at above sea leve ...
in Europe, as well as gaining 41 caps for the national team.


Media

Although Namibia's population is fairly small, the country has a diverse choice of media; two TV stations, 19 radio stations (without counting community stations), 5 daily newspapers, several weeklies and special publications compete for the attention of the audience. Additionally, a mentionable amount of foreign media, especially South African, is available. Online media are mostly based on print publication contents. Namibia has a state-owned Press Agency, called
NAMPA The Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA) is the national news agency of the Namibia, Republic of Namibia. It was founded in 1987 under the name Namibia Press Association as a SWAPO partisan press agency, and resuscitated after Namibian War of Independence ...
.Rothe, Andreas (2010): Media System and News Selection in Namibia. p. 14-96 Overall 300 journalists work in the country. The first newspaper in Namibia was the German-language ''Windhoeker Anzeiger'', founded 1898. During German rule, the newspapers mainly reflected the living reality and the view of the white German-speaking minority. The black majority was ignored or depicted as a threat. During South African rule, the white bias continued, with mentionable influence of the Pretoria government on the South West African media system. Independent newspapers were seen as a menace to the existing order, and critical journalists were often threatened.Links, Frederico (2006): ''We write what we like: The role of independent print media and independent reporting in Namibia'' Current daily newspapers are the private publications ''
The Namibian ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' (English and other languages), ''
Die Republikein ''Republikein'' () is an Afrikaans-language newspaper published daily in Namibia and the country's largest Afrikaans-language newspaper in terms of print circulation. Its editor-in-chief is Dani Booysen. History The newspaper was founded by Di ...
'' (Afrikaans), ''
Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Allgemeine Zeitung'' was the leading political daily journal in Germany in the first part of the 19th century. It has been widely recognised as the first world-class German journal and a symbol of the German press abroad. The ''Allgemeine ...
'' (German) and ''
Namibian Sun The ''Namibian Sun'' is a daily tabloid newspaper in Namibia. It was launched on 20 September 2007 as a weekly tabloid newspaper published on Thursdays. The initial print run was planned to be 36,000 copies. The paper publishes mostly in English w ...
'' (English) as well as the state-owned '' New Era'' (predominantly English). Except for the largest newspaper, ''The Namibian'', which is owned by a trust, the other mentioned private newspapers are part of Democratic Media Holdings. Other mentionable newspapers are the tabloid ''Informanté'' owned by TrustCo, the weekly ''
Windhoek Observer The ''Windhoek Observer'' is an English-language Saturday weekly newspaper, published in Namibia by Paragon Investment Holding. It is the country's oldest and largest circulating weekly. it had a circulation of 12,000 to 13,000 copies. The ''Wind ...
'', the weekly ''
Namibia Economist The ''Namibia Economist'' is a Namibian newspaper published digitally that focuses on local business and financial topics. It is published exclusively in English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may a ...
'', as well as the regional ''Namib Times''. Current affairs magazines include ''
Insight Namibia ''insight Namibia'' is a monthly journal published in Namibia. The magazine was first published in September 2004. Its headquarters is in Windhoek. It covers current political, economic and social affairs and is owned and edited by Tangeni Amupadhi ...
'', ''Vision2030 Focus magazine'' and ''Prime FOCUS''. The ''
Sister Namibia Sister Namibia, formerly known as the Sister Namibia Collective, is a feminist nonpartisan non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Windhoek, Namibia. The organization was established in 1989 on the eve of the Namibia's independence from Sout ...
'' magazine stands out as the longest running NGO magazine in Namibia, while ''
Namibia Sport ''Namibia Sport'' is a sport magazine 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, Botswa ...
'' is the only national sport magazine. Furthermore, the print market is complemented with party publications, student newspapers and PR publications. Radio was introduced in 1969, TV in 1981. The broadcasting sector today is dominated by the state-run
Namibian Broadcasting Corporation The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) ( af, Namibiese Uitsaai-Korporasie, ''NUK'') is the public broadcaster of Namibia. It was established in 1979, under the name South West African Broadcasting Corporation (SWABC). History Radio was orig ...
(NBC). The
public broadcaster Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
offers a TV station as well as a "National Radio" in English and nine language services in locally spoken languages. The nine private radio stations in the country are mainly English-language channels, except for Radio Omulunga (Oshiwambo) and Kosmos 94.1 (Afrikaans). Privately held One Africa TV has competed with NBC since the 2000s.One Africa Television
oneafrica.tv. 25 May 2010
Compared to neighbouring countries, Namibia has a large degree of media freedom. Over the past years, the country usually ranked in the upper quarter of the
Press Freedom Index The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002 based upon the organisation's own assessment of the countries' press freedom records in the previous year. It intends to ...
of
Reporters without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
, reaching position 21 in 2010, being on par with Canada and the best-positioned African country. The African Media Barometer shows similarly positive results. However, as in other countries, there is still mentionable influence of representatives of state and economy on media in Namibia. In 2009, Namibia dropped to position 36 on the Press Freedom Index. In 2013, it was 19th, 22nd in 2014 and 23rd in 2019, meaning that it is currently the highest ranked African country in terms of press freedom. Media and journalists in Namibia are represented by the Namibian chapter of the
Media Institute of Southern Africa Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is a non-governmental organisation with members in 11 of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. Officially launched in September 1992, MISA focuses primarily on the need to promote fre ...
and the Editors' Forum of Namibia. An independent media ombudsman was appointed in 2009 to prevent a state-controlled media council.


Education

Namibia has free education for both primary and secondary education levels. Grades 1–7 are primary level, grades 8–12 are secondary. In 1998, there were 400,325 Namibian students in primary school and 115,237 students in secondary schools. The pupil-teacher ratio in 1999 was estimated at 32:1, with about 8% of the GDP being spent on education. Curriculum development, educational research, and professional development of teachers is centrally organised by the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) in Okahandja. Among sub-Saharan African countries, Namibia has one of the highest literacy rates. According to
CIA World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
, as of 2018 91.5% of the population age 15 and over can read and write. Most schools in Namibia are state-run, but there are some private schools, which are also part of the country's education system. There are four teacher training universities, three colleges of agriculture, a police training college, and three universities:
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),
International University of Management The International University of Management (IUM) is a private, state-recognized university based in Windhoek, Namibia. It has campuses in Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, Ongwediva and Nkurenkuru. History The university was founded by David Namwandi i ...
(IUM) and
Namibia University of Science and Technology The Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), formerly known as Polytechnic of Namibia, is a public university located in the city of Windhoek, Namibia. Andrew Niikondo is its acting vice-chancellor. NUST was headed by the founding ...
(NUST). Namibia was ranked 100th in the
Global Innovation Index The Global Innovation Index is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for, and success in, innovation, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. It was started in 2007 by INSEAD and ''World Business'', a British maga ...
in 2021.


See also

*
Index of Namibia-related articles Articles (arranged alphabetically) related to Namibia include: __NOTOC__ 1 * 1980 in Namibia * 1971-72 Namibian contract workers strike A *Ananias Shikongo *Angola B *Basters *Beata Naigambo *Bethanien *Bush encroachment, Bush Encroachme ...
* Outline of Namibia


References


Notes


Literature

; Works cited * * * ; General references * Christy, S. A. (2007). ''Namibian Travel Photography''. * Horn, N/Bösl, A (eds.). ''Human rights and the rule of law in Namibia'', Macmillan Namibia, 2008. * Horn, N/Bösl, A (eds.). ''The independence of the judiciary in Namibia'', Macmillan Namibia, 2008. * KAS Factbook Namibia, Facts and figures about the status and development of Namibia, Ed. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. * Fritz, Jean-Claude. ''La Namibie indépendante. Les coûts d'une décolonisation retardée'', Paris:
L'Harmattan Éditions L'Harmattan, usually known simply as L'Harmattan (), is one of the largest French book publishers. It specialises in non-fiction books with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. It is named after the Harmattan, a trade wind in W ...
, 1991. * ''World Almanac''. 2004. New York, NY: World Almanac Books.


External links


Namibia
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The World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
''.
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
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Key Development Forecasts for Namibia
from
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