Otjinene is a village in the

Omaheke Region Omaheke ( hz, Sandveld) is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, the least populous region. Its capital is Gobabis. It lies in eastern Namibia on the border with Botswana and is the western extension of the Kalahari desert. The self-governed vil ...

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

. It is the district capital of

Otjinene Constituency Otjinene Constituency is an electoral constituency in the Omaheke Region of Namibia. It had 7,400 inhabitants in 2011 and 5,619 registered voters . Its district capital is the village of Otjinene. Villages and settlements in Otjinene Constitue ...

. Otjinene is connected via a tarred road to the regional capital

Gobabis , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = Ex Oriente Lux , image_skyline = Gobabis Namibia aerial.jpg , imagesize = 300px , imag ...

, and via a road which was tarred in 2017 from Otjinene to

Grootfontein , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = Fons Vitæ , image_skyline = Grootfontein grass.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_si ...

. Otjinene is surrounded by a communal area, where there are many villages. There are more or less 20 households in each village. The majority of the people around Otjinene are communal farmers, farming with cattle, goats and sheep. There is one health clinic which operates under the Ministry of Health and Social Services, and a number of retail stores. to the Northeast is the Ozombuzovindimba heritage site. This is the place where in 1904

Lothar von Trotha General Adrian Dietrich Lothar von Trotha (3 July 1848 – 31 March 1920) was a German military commander during the European new colonial era. As a brigade commander of the East Asian Expedition Corps, he was involved in suppressing the Boxe ...

issued the extermination order against 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 ...

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 ...

, starting the

Herero and Namaqua Genocide The Herero and Namaqua genocide or the Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa (now Namibia). ...

which would kill about 80% of all OvaHerero.

and

OvaMbanderu The Mbanderu (''Ovambanderu'') are a population inhabiting eastern parts of Namibia and western parts of Botswana. They speak Herero language, Mbanderu (''Otjimbanderu)'' a Bantu language History and Culture Etymology While earlier theories of ...

people gather annually here to commemorate lives and deaths of their ancestors.

Politics

Otjinene was proclaimed a village by the government in 2011. Since then it is governed by a village council that has five seats. Otjinene is one of the few local authorities where Namibia's ruling

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...

party is in the opposition. In the 2015 local authority election it only gained one seat (488 votes). The election was won by the

National Unity Democratic Organisation The National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) is a political party in Namibia. It has been represented in the National Assembly of Namibia and in the National Council of Namibia since it split from the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (now PDM) ...

(NUDO) which gained three seats (787 votes). The remaining seat went to the

Democratic Turnhalle Alliance The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...

(DTA, 204 votes). NUDO also won the 2020 local authority election. It obtained 823 votes and gained three village council seats. One seat each went to the

Popular Democratic Movement The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...

(PDM), formerly DTA, with 351 votes and to SWAPO (319 votes).

References

{{reflist, 30em Populated places in the Omaheke Region Villages in Namibia