Nyangana is a village in the

Ndiyona Constituency Ndiyona is a constituency in the Kavango East region of Namibia. The district centre is the settlement of Ndiyona. It had a population of 20,633 in 2011, up from 19,565 in 2001. the constituency had 6,210 registered voters. Ndiyona constituenc ...

Kavango East Kavango East is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Rundu, its governor is Bonifatius Wakudumo. The Region was created in 2013 when the Kavango Region was split into Kavango East and Kavango West. The only self-governed settle ...

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

of north-eastern

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, situated east of

Rundu Rundu is the capital and largest city of the Kavango-East Region in northern Namibia. It lies on the border with Angola on the banks of the Kavango River about above sea level. Rundu's population is growing rapidly. The 2001 census counted 36,9 ...

. The Roman Catholic mission of Nyangana is located in the village.

History

The settlement is named after

Nyangana Nyangana is a village in the Ndiyona Constituency in Kavango East Region of north-eastern Namibia, situated east of Rundu. The Roman Catholic mission of Nyangana is located in the village. History The settlement is named after Nyangana, king ...

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of the Gciriku tribe. Catholic fathers of the organization

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, ...

founded the Nyangana Mission in 1910, after they had been forced to leave the

Andara Andara is a village in Mukwe Constituency in the Kavango East region of north-eastern Namibia. Located east of Rundu, it is inhabited primarily by the Hambukushu people. Founding of the Catholic mission Catholic fathers of the organization Mi ...

Mission in 1908, as a result of a misfiring of a gun. King Libebe had turned hostile to the missionaries there. Nyangana was founded as a mission station by father Joseph Gotthardt during the seventh Catholic mission expedition to Kavango. The previous six expeditions had not been successful. Nyangana became the

bridgehead In military strategy, a bridgehead (or bridge-head) is the strategically important area of ground around the end of a bridge or other place of possible crossing over a body of water which at time of conflict is sought to be defended or taken over ...

position for the Catholics in Kavango. Even Andara was founded soon, in 1913, by Gotthardt. Gotthardt later became the Archbishop of

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 ...

Nyangana today

Within the village, there are one Combined School and a private Roman Catholic hospital. The hospital was founded in 1936 by German sisters of the

Order of Saint Benedict , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Tutzing Tutzing is a municipality in the district of Starnberg in Bavaria, Germany, on the west bank of the Starnberger See. Just 40 km south-west of Munich and with good views of the Alps, the town was traditionally a favorite vacation spot for thos ...

, this was then the only hospital for the whole Kavango Region. The village features a hotel and a Youth Center. The vegetation type is thorn bush dominated by acacia trees.

Notable people from Nyangana

* John Mutorwa, Namibian Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry since 2010John Mutorwa
at Namibia Institute for Democracy

References

Populated places in Kavango East Catholic missions in Kavango {{namibia-geo-stub