Namibia

The sand dunes of the Namib Desert, which stretches 1,290 km/800 mi along the coast and covers one-third of Namibia. It is barren except for succulents that survive by absorbing moisture from the fog that often rolls in from the Atlantic Ocean.

A Cape penguin sunning itself on the Rocky Islands of Namibia, southwest Africa. Although flightless, the penguin is an excellent swimmer and is more agile in water than on land.

Country in southwest Africa, bounded north by Angola and Zambia, east by Botswana and South Africa, and west by the Atlantic Ocean.

Government

Under its 1990 constitution, Namibia has a democratic multiparty system, with an executive president who is both head of state and government, an independent judiciary, and a bill of fundamental human rights. Executive power is held by the president, who is popularly elected for a five-year term. The parliament has two chambers. The main chamber, the national assembly, comprises 72 members popularly elected for five years and up to six additional non-voting members nominated by the president. There is also a 26-member advisory national council, indirectly elected by the regions for a six-year term. The president appoints a prime minister as head of government and a cabinet. The 1990 constitution states that Namibia should have a mixed economy and encourage foreign investment.

History

Originally inhabited by the Damara people, there was gradual immigration by Bantu from the 14th century. It was annexed, with the exception of the British/Cape Colony enclave of Walvis Bay, by Germany as South West Africa in 1884. During World War I, South African forces under Louis Botha occupied it, and in 1920 the League of Nations mandated it for South Africa to administer. After World War II, South Africa effectively annexed the area, but without international recognition.

Opposition to South African rule

Sam Nujoma, an Ovambo, led a political (from 1958) and then (from the mid 1960s) an armed resistance campaign for independence, forming the Marxist South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) and the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). Following harassment, he was forced into exile in 1960, establishing guerrilla bases in Angola and Zambia. In 1966, South Africa extended its apartheid laws of racial discrimination against non-whites to the colony in 1966. This provoked an escalation in SWAPO's guerrilla war and led to the United Nations (UN) terminating South Africa's ‘mandate’ over the area, and to the UN, in 1968, renaming it Namibia. In 1971, the International Court of Justice ruled that South Africa's presence in Namibia was illegal.

Military conflict in Namibia escalated as the South African government attempted to topple the Marxist government in neighbouring Angola, which came to power in 1975 and provided SWAPO with bases in southern Angola. In 1978, South Africa briefly accepted the principle of ultimate independence as set out in UN Security Council Resolution 435, which called for the cessation of hostilities and the holding of UN-supervised elections. Discussions with the UN Commissioner for Namibia and with the USA continued during the 1980s. In 1985 South Africa installed a puppet regime in Namibia, the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGNU), a multiracial body, but which included only one Ovambo minister. This government attempted to reform the apartheid system but was internally divided between moderate reformist and conservative wings, and failed to secure UN recognition.

Peace settlement

In 1988 progress was finally made towards a peace settlement in Namibia as a result of both South Africa and the USSR (via Cuba) tiring of the cost of their proxy military involvement in the civil wars of both the colony and neighbouring Angola. In August 1988 the South African and Angolan governments agreed an immediate ceasefire, followed by the rapid withdrawal of South African forces from Angola and, during 1989, the phased withdrawal of Cuba's troops from Angola and South Africa's from Namibia, and the return of more than 40,000 refugees. From April 1989, a UN peacekeeping force was stationed in Namibia to oversee the holding of multiparty elections in November 1989. These were won by SWAPO, but its 57% share of the seats in the constituent assembly, which had the task of framing a new ‘independence constitution’, fell short of the two-thirds majority required for it to dominate the proceedings. As a consequence, a moderate multiparty constitution was adopted in February 1990 and the assembly elected SWAPO's leader, Sam Nujoma, to become Namibia's first president on independence, in March 1990. In 1993 a Namibia dollar was launched with South African rand parity.

Walvis Bay recovered

The retention of the commercially important Walvis Bay (and 12 offshore islands) by South Africa on Namibia's independence caused tension between the two countries. In September 1991, however, South Africa and Namibia agreed to joint administration of the coastal enclave, and in August 1993 South Africa waived its claim to sovereignty. The enclave was transferred to Namibia in 1994, fulfilling the provisions of UN Resolution 432, of 1978.

Land reform and neighbouring conflicts

On independence, 75% of Namibia's land was held by 20% of the population (mainly the white minority). A key SWAPO policy was to redistribute land from the white minority to ex-combatants and the landless. However, this process has been slow because, under the constitution, land can only be bought from farmers willing to sell and cannot be forcibly confiscated.

Namibia was affected by the civil war in neighbouring Angola, which led to Angolan refugees fleeing to Namibia, with the numbers peaking at 30,000 in 2001. In 1999, Namibia signed a mutual defence pact with Angola and it allowed Angolan troops to use Namibian territory to attack the UNITA rebel movement.

Leadership changes

In 1998, with SWAPO holding a two-thirds majority in parliament, the constitution, which had restricted the president to two terms, was amended to allow Nujoma to run for a third presidential term. He and his SWAPO party easily won the 1999 elections. Nujoma decided not to stand for a fourth term, but his nominee Hifikepunye Pohamba won the presidential elections of November 2004 and became president in March 2005.

Namibia (redirected from Namibian)