Traditional leadership of Namibia is a governing structure in

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

based on the ethnicity of the

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

of the territory. Acceptance of a traditional authority is vested in the

Government of Namibia The government of Namibia consists of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary branches. The Cabinet is the executive organ of government, implementing the laws of the country. It consists of the president, the prime minister and his dep ...

. There are 51 recognised traditional authorities and a further 40 pending applications. The list of currently recognised traditional authorities only appears in the print version. Traditional authorities cover the entire Namibian territory. Leaders and their administrative staff are not paid by the state. Instead the traditional group's members are expected to sustain their leadership. Government did, however, give one car each to the recognised authorities, and awards allowances for fuel and administrative work. The parallel existence of traditional authorities and the Namibian government in Namibia is controversial. The traditional rulers and leaders are represented through the Council of Traditional Leaders, established by Act 13 of 1997 (GG 1706) and amended by Act 31 of 2000 (GG 2462).

Functions

Traditional leaders are entrusted with the allocation of communal land and the formulation of the traditional group's customary laws. They also take over judicial work through traditional courts, offering a way to access compensation through civil law that does not require fees or lawyers. Crime in Namibia is treated by the classical courts solely as a

criminal procedure Criminal procedure is the adjudication process of the criminal law. While criminal procedure differs dramatically by jurisdiction, the process generally begins with a formal criminal charge with the person on trial either being free on bail o ...

, and ends in punishment of the offender; To seek material compensation a civil case has to be opened after the criminal verdict. Traditional fines are thus, in the words of justice minister

Yvonne Dausab Yvonne Dausab is a Namibian lawyer and politician who has been the Minister of Justice of Namibia since March 2020. Early life and career Dausab grew up in Katutura, a segregated area for Blacks in Windhoek. She completed A Shipena Secondary Sch ...

, meant "to wipe off tears", and not to replace criminal proceedings. Typical punishments are in money or in livestock. For instance, the traditional courts of the

Ovambo people The Ovambo people (), also called Aawambo, Ambo, Aawambo (Ndonga, Nghandjera, Kwambi, Kwaluudhi, Kolonghadhi, Mbalantu), or Ovawambo (Kwanyama) the biggest of the Aawambo sub-tribes are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Afric ...

in Namibia's north fine ten cows or 15,000 N$ for murder, two cows or 3,000N$ for impregnating a child, and up to six cows for theft, depending on severity. The traditional court of the

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 D ...

Vaalgras Vaalgras ( af, pale grass) is a village in Namibia's ǁKaras Region. Located northeast of Keetmanshoop, the village is also home of the ''Vaalgras Traditional Authority''. It is home to a community of the Oorlam people, a group descends from the ...

in Namibia's south, where there are few communal cattle farmers, fines three goats for theft.

Recognised traditional authorities

References

{{Ethnic groups in Namibia Ethnic groups in Namibia Namibian culture History of Namibia Politics of Namibia