Country Information : Namibia

Namibia is located in southwest Africa and borders on Angola, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. The 450 km long country finger between Angola and Zambia in the north and Botswana in the south is called Caprivi peak.

The natural boundaries are the Orange River, the Kunene, the Okavango and the South Atlantic.

Namibia's landscape is characterized by two deserts, the Kalahari and the Namib. Between them is up to 2600m high inland highlands, which merges into the lower Kalahari highlands in the east.

The population of Namibia focuses on the few cities, so the rest of the country is sparsely populated. With a population density of just 2.6 inhabitants per km², Namibia is well below the African average. Of the approximately 2 million in total, 300,000 people live in the capital Windhoek.

Only about 7% of the population lives in the south of the country.

There are no people to be found in the west or in the Namib Desert, apart from the isolated little harbor towns.

The vast majority (87%) of the faithful in Namibia are Christians, which is due to the missionary work in the colonial period. A large number of Christians are Lutherans and Catholics, while the rest are members of the Dutch Reformed Church and Anglicans.

The remaining 13% make up the followers of traditional natural religions, which mainly practice ethnic groups such as the San, Himba and the Caprivians.

Unlike many other African countries, Islam does not play a decisive role. There are only a few thousand Muslims in Namibia.

Since 1990, the only official language in Namibia has been English, although it is spoken by only about 7% of the white population.

There are some Bantu languages that have now reached semi-official status because they are used as the language of instruction in primary schools.

The mother tongue of around 50% of the Namibians is Oshiwambo. Afrikaans and German are spoken and understood by a large part of the population, while English is becoming more and more established, especially among the younger people.

German is still the most important commercial language in Namibia 90 years after the end of the colonial period.

The climate of Namibia is called subtropical-continental and is mostly hot and dry. Nevertheless, there are significant climatic differences between the individual geographical zones. Rainfall is rare in the Namib and Kalahari deserts. In summer, temperatures rise to over 30 ° C, while there can be frost at night. Temperature fluctuations of 20 ° C in the evening and in the morning are normal in winter (July and August). The climate in the Caprivi Strip is tropical with lots of rainfall and jungle. It is much cooler on the Atlantic coast in summer, and it can get uncomfortably cold in winter. The water is rarely warmer than 15 ° C. The “tropical summer rain area” geographically makes up the largest part of Namibia. It rains here mainly between November and April and is pleasantly warm.

The first ethnic groups to colonize Namibia came from northern Africa and were called Nama, Herrero, Orlam, and Ovambo.

In the 19th century, Namibia was colonized by German and English missionaries after the German Adolf Lüderitz bought part of what is now Namibia. This part became the "German Protected Area" and was given the name German southwest Africa.

The black population had to submit during the colonization. This started peacefully but ended with military resistance from the Nama and Herrero.

Nevertheless, at the end of World War I, Germany had to hand over power to Namibia to South Africa. The liberation organization SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization) campaigned for the freedom of Namibia and there were renewed clashes, this time between South Africa and SWAPO.

Namibia gained independence in 1990 and SWAPO became the country's strongest party.

Namibia is an “Upper Middle Income Country”, the annual growth of the gross domestic product is around 3.5%, which is mainly due to the favorable conditions for tourism and the wealth of resources (diamonds, uranium, fish and livestock).

Economy:

The service sector is the most pronounced. Nevertheless, income is very unevenly distributed, the unemployment rate is estimated to be up to 50% and over half of the people live below the poverty line.

The expansion of the infrastructure is positive, while the HIV epidemic and the lack of educated workers have a negative impact on economic development.

Political situation:

The strongest party in Namibia is still SWAPO. The president has pronounced executive rights and can be elected twice for 5 years.

Equality between men and women is laid down in the constitution and is supported by active gender equality policies

Comprehensive human and fundamental rights are laid down in the constitution; for example, previously disadvantaged sections of the population are now preferred when filling public positions

It is estimated that around 15% of the total population is infected with the HI virus, which has devastating social and economic effects

The country's foreign policy is multilateral, but especially with regard to the neighboring countries of Namibia

Political and economic relations with South Africa continue to play an important role due to their shared history and import dependency of over 80%.