Hereroland

Name of two districts in eastern Namibia, Hereroland East and Hereroland West. Until the 1960s, when the South African administration defined ethnic ‘homelands’, Hereroland had no formal boundary and was simply known as the area where the Herero people lived. Prior to this time Hereroland occupied much of northern Namibia. The Hereroland homeland stretched from east of Grootfontein in the west to the Botswana border in the east. This was split into two districts following Namibian independence, with a separate part of Hereroland East located along the Botswana border southeast of Gobabis.

The Herero arrived in two waves from Botswana in the 16th century, the first group settling in what is now known as Kaokoland district, and the second wave settling in the east of present-day Namibia.