Namibia

I

Introduction

Namibia, formerly South-West Africa, republic in southwestern Africa, bounded on the north by Angola and Zambia, on the east by Botswana and South Africa, on the south by South Africa, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. The area of Namibia is 824,269 sq km (318,252 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Windhoek.

II

Land and Resources

Namibia can be divided into three physical regions: a low-lying coastal belt, a central plateau, and the Kalahari Desert. The coastal belt consists of the Namib Desert. It extends along the entire Atlantic coast and ranges from 100 to 160 km (about 60 to 100 mi) in width. On the east, the central plateau rises abruptly at the Great Escarpment. The plateau averages about 1,100 m (about 3,600 ft) in elevation, but climbs to elevations of more than 1,800 m (5,900 ft) in several mountainous areas. Along the eastern border is the Kalahari Desert. It is a highland area containing vast sandy tracts. The only permanent rivers are the Orange, Cunene (Kunene), Okavango, and Zambezi, all of which form boundaries. The territory has virtually no other surface water. The climate is generally hot and dry. The average annual rainfall in the Namib Desert along the coast is about 50 mm (about 2 in). Inland, annual rainfall increases from 150 mm (6 in) in the south to about 560 mm (about 22 in) in the north. Average temperature extremes in Walvis Bay on the coast are 15° to 23°C (59° to 73°F) in January during the summer and 8° to 21°C (47° to 70°F) in July. What little rain occurs falls from February through May. In Windhoek, in the interior, average temperature extremes are 17° to 29°C (63° to 85°C) in January and 6° to 20°C (43° to 68°F) in July. Most precipitation occurs from October through April. Vegetation is sparse in both the Namib and Kalahari deserts. A woodland savanna is found in the central plateau. True forests are found only in the northeast. Wildlife is abundant and includes elephants, rhinoceroses, lions, giraffes, zebras, and hartebeests. Namibia is rich in mineral resources, among which are diamonds, uranium, copper, zinc, and lead.

A

Environmental Issues

Despite Namibia’s low population density, excessive farming pressure on a fragile ecology has resulted in environmental damage in the north. Much of the woodlands and perennial grasses have disappeared, leaving the soil degraded and subject to desertification. Game herds have suffered depletion from drought and intensive hunting.

Through the 1970s Namibia’s wildlife was vulnerable to high levels of poaching by the country’s rural inhabitants, who needed both the food that wild animals provided and the money from their skins. In the 1980s the government hit upon a creative solution for the problem. The administration began employing people from local communities to scout for and report poachers and, later, to act as guides for tourists—all within close range of their homes. In return for a few months of work each year, a rural person received a monthly food ration and a cash stipend. By making the preservation of wildlife a boon to the livelihood of rural people without significantly disrupting their traditional ways of life, this program made wildlife conservation more effective and directly beneficial to the country’s rural inhabitants. Wildlife populations have rebounded somewhat, and ecotourism has expanded.

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Namibia has one of the highest ratios of protected land to population in the world, at 65.1 sq km (25.1 sq mi (1996)) per 1,000 people. About 4 percent (2004) of the country’s total land area is protected. The government has ratified international environmental agreements pertaining to biodiversity, climate change, desertification, endangered species, hazardous wastes, law of the sea, ozone layer protection, and wetlands.

III

Population

The population of Namibia at the 1981 census was 1,033,196. The 2007 estimated population was 2,055,080, giving the country an overall population density of 3 persons per sq km (6 per sq mi). The only city of significant size is Windhoek (population, 1999 estimate, 202,000). Only 32 percent of the people were classified as urban residents in 2003. The population is estimated to be growing at 0.5 percent a year. Life expectancy at birth is 43 years.

Black Africans constitute about 86 percent of the population of Namibia; whites, about 6.6 percent; and people of mixed descent, about 7.4 percent. The principal nonwhite group is the Ovambo, an agricultural people who live primarily in the north and make up about one-half of the population. The Ovambo speak a Bantu language. Other nonwhite groups include the Kavango, the Herero, the Damara, the Khoikhoi, and the San. English is the official language, but Afrikaans and German are widely spoken. In addition, each African ethnic group has its own language. The white population and a majority of the black population are Christian; the remainder mostly adheres to traditional faiths.

Education is officially compulsory between the ages of 6 and 15. The government has initiated programs to improve adult literacy, which stands at only 85 percent. In 2000 some 389,400 students attended primary schools and 124,200 attended secondary schools.

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