Namibia | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Namibia lies in southwestern Africa. Although two-thirds of the size of neighboring South Africa and twice the size of California, most of the country is extremely arid, which helps explain the small population, estimated in 2004 to be between 750,000 and 1.5 million. The Namib Desert lies along the coast, and the Kalahari Desert in the east. Much of the southern two-thirds of the country is not suitable for arable agriculture. The only well-watered area is the relatively narrow northern strip, where over half the country's population live, the Ovambo-speaking people.

The boundaries of the country were demarcated in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The German government established a protectorate in 1884, some six years after the British had annexed the only significant port on the coast, Walvis Bay. The Germans sought an outlet to the Zambezi River in the northeast, which explains the very unusual Caprivi Strip. The other boundaries were agreed on, with the Portuguese in the north and the British in the east, and in the south the Orange River formed a natural boundary between German South West Africa and the Cape Colony. With German settlers encroaching on their lands, the Herero people in the central part of the territory rose in rebellion in 1904, and the Germans suppressed them in a genocidal war that resulted in perhaps two-thirds of the Herero and half the Nama people of the south losing their lives.

In World War I (1914–1918) the Germans were ousted from Namibia by the South Africans, allies of the British, and South African occupation then continued from 1915 until the independence of Namibia in March 1990. For this extended period the territory was ruled as a de facto colony of South Africa, which would have annexed the territory had it been allowed to do so. Instead, Namibia became a mandate under the League of Nations in 1921, and from 1946, when the new United Nations (UN) refused to allow South Africa to incorporate the territory, the UN assumed some responsibility for it.

When South Africa refused to withdraw, the issue went to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. When the court there did not find in favor of South Africa's withdrawal, the UN General Assembly terminated the mandate in 1966 and began a process that led to the Namibian issue being taken up by the Security Council, which referred the matter back to the ICJ. In 1971 the ICJ ruled that South African rule was illegal and South Africa must withdraw. It took almost two decades for that to be accomplished, during which a major liberation war was fought by the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO).

Not only was the South African rule extremely oppressive and brutal, and its last phase highly militaristic, but the majority of the population lived in great poverty. In 1978 South Africa was persuaded to agree to a plan for a transition to independence involving the UN, and a decade later—by which time the war with SWAPO had extended far into Angola—finally agreed to its implementation. A UN presence helped ensure that the first democratic election held in the territory in November 1989 was reasonably free and fair.

When a SWAPO government took office at independence, it faced the problems left by over a century of colonialism and decades of apartheid rule and war. The main port, Walvis Bay, remained under South African rule until it was incorporated in 1994. Although SWAPO was not known for commitment to democratic practice, under the influence of the international community, which had played a very important role in bringing Namibia to independence, the constitution approved by the elected Constituent Assembly prior to independence was a liberal democratic one, providing for an elected president and multiparty system. However, after taking office, the SWAPO government has tended to rule in an authoritarian manner, in part a legacy of the years of exile and armed struggle. SWAPO has not been challenged by any effective opposition because the main opposition party, the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, was regarded by many as having been a South African puppet, and the great majority of the Ovambo-speaking people support SWAPO.

Although the original constitution limited the presidency to two terms, the first president, the founder of SWAPO, Sam Nujoma (b. 1929), persuaded his party to allow him to continue for a third term, and the constitution was changed to permit this. In March 2005, Hifikepunye Pohamba (b. 1935), also a founding member of SWAPO and Nujoma's handpicked successor, was sworn in as the country's second president.

The opposition remains small and divided between the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance and the Congress of Democrats, and parliament is ineffective. A group of people from the northeastern Caprivi region who tried to stage an uprising in 1998 in support of secession was quickly detained and in 2004 remained on trial for treason. Some allege that they were tortured.

Although its mineral wealth brings the country considerable revenue, the bulk of the population remains very impoverished and the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is one of the highest in the world. Nevertheless the country is known for its free press, which has recently criticized aspects of the government's policy to redress the unequal land distribution by embarking on a land reform program involving expropriation of white-owned farms. The judicial system remains independent of government and committed to the upholding of the basic freedoms enshrined in the constitution. Whether a democratic culture is taking root among the mass of the people remains to be seen, but compared to the repression and lack of freedom under the apartheid regime, the country since independence has enjoyed an era of great stability in which citizens have by and large enjoyed a large measure of freedom.

The Caprivi Strip is a finger of land in northeast Namibia that was annexed to the country to allow the German rulers to access to the Zambezi River.

Peacekeeping Forces; South Africa; United Nations.

Hopwood, Graham. Guide to Namibian Politics. Windhoek, Namibia: Institute for Public Policy Research, 2004.

Melber, Henning ed. Re-examining Liberation in Namibia: Political Culture Since Independence. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2003.

Nujoma, Sam. Where Others Wavered. London: Panaf Books, 2003.

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