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Namibia

Wedged between the Kalahari and the South Atlantic, Namibia enjoys both vast potential

and promise as one of the youngest countries in Africa. In addition to a striking diversity

of cultures and national origins, Namibia is also a photographer’s dream – it boasts wild

seascapes, rugged mountains, lonely deserts, stunning wildlife, colonial cities and nearly

unlimited elbow room.

A predominantly arid country, Namibia can be divided into four main topographical re-

gions: the Namib Desert and coastal plains in the west, the eastward-sloping Central Plateau,

the Kalahari along the borders with South Africa and Botswana, and the densely wooded

bushveld of the Kavango and Caprivi regions. Despite its harsh climate, Namibia has some

of the world’s grandest national parks, ranging from the wildlife-rich Etosha National Park

to the dune fields and desert plains of the Namib-Naukluft Park.

The Namib is one of the oldest and driest deserts in the world, and is the result of the

Benguela Current sweeping north from Antarctica, which captures and condenses humid air

that would otherwise be blown ashore. Its western strip is a sea of sand comprised mainly

of apricot-coloured dunes interspersed with dry pans. However, the barren and inhospitable

landscapes of the Namib are markedly different from those present in the Kalahari. Unlike

the Namib, the Sahara and other ‘true’ deserts, the Kalahari is a semi-arid landscape that is

covered with trees and crisscrossed by ephemeral rivers and fossil watercourses. It is one of

the continent’s most prominent geographical features, and stretches across parts of Congo,

Angola, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

FAST FACTS

Area:

825,000 sq km

Capital:

Windhoek

Country code:

264

Famous for:

Namib Desert, Kalahari,

Etosha Pan

Languages:

English, Afrikaans, German,

Oshivambo, Herero, Nama

Money:

Namibian dollar (N$)

Phrase:

Howzit? (How are you?)

Population:

1.83 million

NAMIBIA

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N A M I B I A • • H i g h l i g h t s

305

HOW MUCH?

Dune surfing

US$25

Foreign newspaper

US$1.70

Night in a budget hotel

US$12.50

Package of kudu biltong

US$1

Traditional German dinner

US$6

extreme sports in

Swakopmund

(p360),

take a safari through

Etosha

(p332), hike

the

Fish River Canyon

(p385) and go on an

expedition through the northwest and

along the

Skeleton Coast

(p354).

CLIMATE & WHEN TO GO

Namibia’s climatic variations correspond

roughly to its geographical subdivisions. In

the arid Central Namib, summer daytime

temperatures may climb to over 40°C, but

can fall to below freezing during the night.

Rainfall is heaviest in the northeast, which

enjoys a subtropical climate, and along the

Okavango River, rainfall reaches over 600mm

annually. The northern and interior regions

experience the ‘little rains’ between October

and December, while the main stormy period

occurs from January to April.

Note that accommodation is frequently

booked out in national parks and other tour-

ist areas, especially during public holidays.

The busiest times are consistently during the

Namibian, South African (see p585) and Euro-

pean school holidays. See p742 for more on

the climate in Southern Africa.

LONELY PLANET INDEX

1L of petrol

US$0.75

1L of bottled water

US$0.50-1

Bottle of beer

US$1

Souvenir T-shirt

US$5-10

Snack

US$1-2

HIGHLIGHTS

Sossusvlei

(p371) Watch the sun rise from

the tops of flaming red dunes on the edge

of ephemeral salt pans.

Etosha National Park

(p332) Go on a self-

drive safari in one of the continent’s

premier wildlife venues.

Swakopmund

(p355) Get your adrenaline fix

at this popular extreme-sports capital of

Namibia.

Fish River Canyon

(p385) Test your endur-

ance on the five-day hike through one of

the world’s largest canyons.

Off the beaten track

(p354) Leave the sealed

road along the Skeleton Coast, a desolate

strip of fog-covered coastline.

HISTORY

For information on the general history of

Southern Africa, see p37.

The Scramble for Africa

The Germans, under chancellor Otto von Bis-

marck, were late entering the European scram-

ble for Africa. Bismarck had always been against

colonies; he considered them an expensive il-

lusion, famously stating, ‘My map of Africa

is here in Europe. Here is Russia and here is

France and here we are in the middle. That is

my map of Africa.’ But he was to be pushed into

an ill-starred colonial venture by the actions

of a Bremen merchant called Adolf Lüderitz.

Having already set up a trading station in

Lagos in 1881, Lüderitz convinced the Nama

chief, Joseph Fredericks, to sell Angra Pequena,

where Lüderitz established his second station

trading in the stinking guano of thousands

of cormorants who nest along the coast. He

then petitioned the German chancellor for

protection. Bismarck, still trying to stay out of

Africa, politely requested the British at Walvis

Bay to say whether they had any interest in the

matter but they never bothered to reply and in

1884 the newly named Lüderitz was officially

declared part of the German Empire.

ITINERARIES

Three Days

Namibia’s tourist highlight is

the expansive sand sea of the

Namib

(see

p373), and if you have only a few days to

visit, this is where you’ll want to focus.

From

Sesriem

(p371), spend a day hik-

ing through the dunes, or arrange for

a scenic flyover from the beach town of

Swakopmund

(p355).

One Week

Combine a visit to the Namib

with a safari through

Etosha National Park

(p332), one of the continent’s most dis-

tinctive safari experiences. Splurge on a

rental car, and get ready for some hair-

raising, self-driven good times.

One Month

With a month, you can hire a

4WD or use a reputable safari company

and see the best of the country: take a

tour of the

Namib

(p373), splurge on some

NAMIBIA

306

N A M I B I A • • H i s t o r y

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WHAT’S YOUR BUDGET?

If you’re camping or staying in backpackers’ hostels, cooking your own meals and hitching or

using local minibuses, you’ll get by on as little as US$15 per day. A plausible midrange budget,

which would include B&B or doubles in backpackers’ accommodation, public transport and at

least one restaurant meal daily, would be around US$50 to US$80 per person (if accommodation

costs are shared between two people). In the upper range, accommodation at hotels, meals in

restaurants and escorted tours will cost upwards of US$300 per person per day.

To reach Namibia’s most popular tourist sites, you’ll have to take an organised tour or hire

a vehicle (see p395). Car hire may be expensive for budget travellers, but if you can muster a

group of four people and share costs, you can squeak by on an additional US$20/50 per day for

a 2WD/4WD vehicle, including petrol, tax, insurance and 200 free kilometres per day.

Initially, German interests were minimal,

and between 1885 and 1890 the colonial ad-

ministration amounted to three public admin-

istrators. Their interests were served largely

through a colonial company (along the lines

of the British East India Company in India

prior to the Raj), but the organisation couldn’t

maintain law and order.

So in the 1880s, due to renewed fighting

between the Nama and Herero, the German

government dispatched Curt von François

and 23 soldiers to restrict the supply of arms

from British-administered Walvis Bay. This

seemingly innocuous peacekeeping regiment

slowly evolved into the more powerful Schutz-

truppe (Imperial Army), which constructed

forts around the country to aid its efforts to

put down opposition.

At this stage of its history, Namibia became

a fully fledged protectorate, known as German

South-West Africa. The first German farm-

ers arrived in 1892 to take up expropriated

land on the Central Plateau, and were soon

followed by merchants and other settlers. In

the late 1890s, the Germans, the Portuguese

in Angola and the British in Bechuanaland

agreed on Namibia’s boundaries.

Colonial Atrocities

Once the Germans had completed their in-

ventory of Namibia’s natural resources, it is

difficult to see how they could have avoided

the stark picture that presented itself. Their

new colony was a drought-afflicted land en-

veloped by desert, with a nonexistent trans-

port network, highly restricted agricultural

opportunities, unknown mineral resources

and a sparse, well-armed indigenous popu-

lation. It was hardly the stuff of empirical

dreams. In fact, the only option that readily

presented itself was to follow the example of

the Herero and pursue a system of semino-

madic pastoralism. The problem with this

was that all the best land fell within the ter-

ritories of either the Herero or the Nama

and they weren’t about to give it up without

a fight.

In 1904, the paramount chief of the Herero

invited his Nama, Baster and Owambo coun-

terparts to join forces with him to resist the

growing German presence. This was an un-

likely alliance between traditional enemies,

especially considering that warring between

the Herero and Nama had been a catalyst for

increased involvement by the colonial pow-

ers. Driven almost all the way back to Wind-

hoek, the German Schutztruppe brought in

reinforcements and under the ruthless hand of

General von Trotha went out in force to meet

the Herero forces at their Waterberg camp.

On 11 August 1904 the Battle of Water-

berg commenced. The general’s plan was to

surround the Herero position and with their

massively superior firepower ‘annihilate these

masses with a simultaneous blow’. Although

the casualties on the day were fairly light,

Von Trotha ordered the pursuit and exter-

mination of some 65,000 survivors over the

following four weeks, only desisting when

his troops began to die from exhaustion and

typhoid, which they contracted from polluted

water holes littered with human bodies. In all,

some 80% of the entire Herero population

was wiped out.

At this stage, the Nama, under Hendrik

Witbooi, took up the resistance cause and

launched a large-scale rebellion, but after their

defeat at the Battle of Vaalgras on 29 October

1905, the 68-year-old Witbooi died of his

wounds. Still, it was to be another three years

before the Germans had fully defeated the

remaining guerrilla forces in the south.

NAMIBIA

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N A M I B I A • • H i s t o r y

307

Reaping the Whirlwind

Meanwhile, in the south of the country, dia-

monds had been discovered at Grasplatz, east

of Lüderitz, by a South African labourer,

Zacharias Lewala. Despite the assessment

of De Beers that the find probably wouldn’t

amount to much, prospectors flooded in to

stake their claims. By 1910, the German au-

thorities had branded the entire area between

Lüderitz and the Orange River a

Sperrgebiet

(closed area), threw out the prospectors and

granted exclusive rights to Deutsche Dia-

manten Gesellschaft.

But for all the devastation visited upon the

local populace Germany was never to benefit

from the diamond riches they found. The

advent of WWI in 1914 was to mark the end

of German colonial rule in Southwest Africa.

By this time, though, the Germans had all but

succeeded in devastating the Herero tribal

structures and taken over all Khoikhoi and

Herero lands. The more fortunate Owambo,

in the north, managed to avoid German

conquest, but were subsequently overrun

during WWI by Portuguese forces fighting

on the side of the Allies.

In 1914, at the beginning of WWI, Britain

pressured South Africa into invading Na-

mibia. Under the command of Prime Minis-

ter Louis Botha and General Jan Smuts, the

South Africans pushed northwards, forcing

the outnumbered Schutztruppe to retreat.

In May 1915, the Germans faced their final

defeat at Khorab, near Tsumeb, and a week

200 km

120 miles

NAMIBIA

Epupa

Falls

ANGOLA

Uutapi/

Ombalantu

Ruacana

Oshakati

Oshikango

Riv

ZAMBIA

Katima

Mulilo

Bwabwata

Ruacana

Falls

Opuwo

Owambo Country

Ondangwa

ava

Kaokoveld

Cabo

Frio

Skeleton

Coast

Park

Damaraland

Terrace Bay

Petrified

Forest

Khorixas

Torra Bay

Twyfelfontein

Kalkfeld

Burnt Mountain

Brandberg

(2573m)

Rietfontein

Omaruru

Spitzkoppe

(1728m)

Usakos

Okahandja

Mamuno

Karibib

Henties Bay

National West Coast

Daan Viljoen

Gobabis

Buitepos

WINDHOEK

Swakopmund

Arnhem Cave

Walvis Bay

Dordabis

Leonardville

Rehoboth

Sandwich Harbour

Aminuis

LEGEND

GR Game Reserve

GP Game Park

NP National Park

NR Nature Reserve

RA Recreational Area

Transfrontier Park

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Lüderitz

Kolmanskop

Warmbad

Upington

Oranjemund

Richtersveld

Noordoewer

Orange

Riv

Prieska

Kimberley

To Cape Town (550km)

Springbok

ngo

Rundu

Rive

Divundu

Popa

Mudumu

Falls

Shakawe

Capri

Str

Kongola

Etosha

Okaukuejo

Namutoni

Halali

Otavi

Tsumeb

Grootfontein

Khaudom

iver

Kasane

Mamili

Okavango

Delta

Tsumkwe

Maun

Kombat

Waterberg

Outjo

Plateau Park

Otjiwarongo

Riv

Okakarara

Otjozondjupa

Region

Ghanzi

BOTSWANA

Solitaire

Naukluft

Mountains

Namib-

(1973m)

Naukluft Park

Mariental

Sesriem

Maltahöhe

Sossusvlei

Gibeon

Namib Rand

Helmeringhausen

Aus

Aranos

Stampriet

Gochas

To Gaborone

(110km)

Kanye

Kgalagadi

Tshabong

To Johannesburg

(390km)

Vryburg

Koës

Brukkaros

(1586m)

Bethanie

Keetmanshoop

Aroab

DIAMOND AREA 1

(Prohibited Area)

Fish River Canyon

Rosh Pinah

Ai-Ais

Grünau

Karasburg Ariamsvlei

SOUTH

FRICA

NAMIBIA

308

N A M I B I A • • H i s t o r y

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later a South African administration was set

up in Windhoek.

By 1920, many German farms had been

sold to Afrikaans-speaking settlers and the

German diamond-mining interests in the

south were handed over to the South Africa–

based Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM),

which retains the concession rights to the

present day.

better-watered tribal areas to the north. Per-

haps the only positive result of this effective

imposition of tribal boundaries was the pre-

vention of territorial disputes between previ-

ously mobile groups now forced to live under

the same political entity. This arrangement

was retained until Namibian independence

in 1990, and to some extent continues up to

the present day.

South African Occupation

Under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Ger-

many was required to renounce all its colonial

claims, and in 1921 the League of Nations

granted South Africa a formal mandate to

administer Namibia as part of the Union.

After a brief rebellion in 1924, the Basters at

Rehoboth, who were descendants of liaisons

between the Cape Colony Dutch and indig-

enous African women, were granted some

measure of autonomy, and the following year

the territorial constitution was amended to

permit South Africa to set up a territorial

legislature.

The mandate was renewed by the UN fol-

lowing WWII. However, South Africa was

more interested in annexing Southwest Africa

as a full province in the Union and decided

to scrap the terms of the mandate and re-

write the constitution. In response, the Inter-

national Court of Justice determined that

South Africa had overstepped its boundaries

and the UN established the Committee on

South West Africa to enforce the original

terms of the mandate. In 1956, the UN de-

cided that South African control should be

terminated.

Undeterred, the South African government

tightened its grip on the territory, and in 1949

granted the white population parliamentary

representation in Pretoria. The bulk of Na-

mibia’s viable farmland was parcelled into

some 6000 farms for white settlers, while

other ethnic groups were relegated to newly

demarcated ‘tribal homelands’. The official

intent was ostensibly to ‘channel economic

development into predominantly poor rural

areas’, but it was all too obvious that it was, in

fact, simply a convenient way of retaining the

majority of the country for white settlement

and ranching.

As a result, a prominent line of demarca-

tion appeared between the predominantly

white ranching lands in the central and south-

ern parts of the country, and the poorer but

Swapo

Throughout the 1950s, despite mounting

pressure from the UN, South Africa refused to

release its grip on Namibia. This intransigence

was based on its fears of having yet another

antagonistic government on its doorstep and

of losing the income that it derived from the

mining operations there.

Forced labour had been the lot of most

Namibians since German annexation, and

was one of the main factors that led to mass

demonstrations and the increasingly na-

tionalist sentiments during the late 1950s.

Among the parties was the Owamboland

People’s Congress, founded in Cape Town

under the leadership of Samuel Daniel Shafi-

ishuna Nujoma and Adimba Herman Toivo

ja Toivo.

In 1959, the party’s name was changed

to the Owamboland People’s Organisation

and Nujoma took the issue of South African

occupation to the UN in New York. By 1960,

his party had gathered the support of several

others and they eventually coalesced into the

South West African People’s Organisation

(Swapo) with its headquarters located in Dar

es Salaam (Tanzania). Troops were sent to

Egypt for military training and the organis-

ation prepared for war.

In 1966, Swapo took the issue of South

African occupation to the International Court

of Justice. The court upheld South Africa’s

right to govern South West Africa, but the

UN General Assembly voted to terminate

South Africa’s mandate and replace it with

a Council for South West Africa (renamed

the Commission for Namibia in 1973) to

administer the territory.

In response, on 26 August 1966 (now called

Heroes’ Day), Swapo launched its campaign

of guerrilla warfare at Ongulumbashe in the

Owambo region of northern Namibia. The

next year, one of Swapo’s founders, Toivo ja

Toivo, was convicted of terrorism and impris-

oned in South Africa, where he would remain

NAMIBIA

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