Namibia

C

International Organizations

Namibia is a member of the United Nations (UN), the Commonwealth of Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the African Union.

VI

History

Cave paintings that may be more than 25,000 years old attest to the presence of hunter-gatherer groups in the country during the late Pleistocene period, but the earliest identifiable inhabitants are the San, who were in the area by the beginning of the 1st century ad. The Nama-speaking Khoikhoi arrived in about ad 500. The Ovambo and the Herero migrated to the area much later.

A

European Presence

Between a landing by Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 and the creation of German South West Africa in 1884, most of the few Europeans who visited the territory were explorers, missionaries, or hunters. The next three decades of German rule were marked by bloody suppression of black Africans in rebellion, notably the once dominant Herero, whose revolt in 1904 was finally crushed four years later at the cost of around 60,000 lives.

In 1915, during World War I, the German colony was conquered by military forces of the Union (now Republic) of South Africa. Germany renounced sovereignty over the region in the Treaty of Versailles, and in 1920 the League of Nations granted South Africa a mandate over the territory. Germany has continued to supply aid in the post-independence period.

In 1946 the UN General Assembly requested South Africa to submit a trusteeship agreement to the UN to replace the mandate of the defunct League of Nations; South Africa refused to do so. In 1949 a South African constitutional amendment extended parliamentary representation to South West Africa. The International Court of Justice, however, ruled in 1950 that the status of the mandate could be changed only with the consent of the UN. South Africa agreed to discuss the trusteeship question with a special committee of the General Assembly, but the negotiations ended in failure in 1951. South Africa subsequently refused to accede to UN demands concerning a trusteeship arrangement, but it permitted a UN committee to enter Namibia in 1962 in order to investigate charges of atrocities committed against the indigenous peoples. The committee found the charges against South Africa to be baseless.

B

Occupation by South Africa

When South Africa began taking steps to establish apartheid in the mandated territory, Ethiopia and Liberia took the case to the International Court of Justice, but the court dismissed the complaint in 1966 on technical grounds. In October of that year the apartheid laws of South Africa were extended to Namibia. The UN continued to debate the question, and in June 1971 the International Court of Justice ruled that the South African presence in Namibia was illegal.

South Africa, however, ignored the ruling and continued to govern the territory, whose mineral resources provided a significant contribution to South Africa’s foreign exchange earnings. As a result, SWAPO, a black African nationalist movement led by Sam Nujoma, escalated its guerrilla campaign to oust the South Africans. The major Western powers, principally the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany), became deeply involved in the Namibian question in the late 1970s.

C

Independence

South Africa continued to resist eviction until December 1988, when it agreed to allow Namibia to become independent in exchange for the removal of Cuban troops from Angola. Open elections for a 72-member constituent assembly were held under UN supervision in November 1989, with SWAPO emerging as the majority party. The assembly approved a new constitution and elected Nujoma as the first president. Namibia attained independence on March 21, 1990, although South Africa continued to administer an enclave containing the principal seaport, Walvis Bay, until February 1994. In Namibia’s second round of free elections in 1994, SWAPO won two thirds of the seats.

Namibia continued to strengthen links with post-apartheid South Africa; Nelson Mandela visited the country in 1994.

In mid-1996 Namibia’s debt to South Africa was cancelled; appeals to South Africa to put further investment into Namibia continued. Also in 1996, Nujoma was accused of refusing to apologize for the detention and torture of people by SWAPO in the 1980s. The government then published a list of people who had died in the struggle for independence, which included detainees.

In presidential elections in May 1997 Nujoma was re-elected as leader of his party, SWAPO. In regional elections held in February 1998 SWAPO polled strongly, capturing 27 of 45 constituencies. Civil unrest increased in 1999 in the north-eastern Caprivi region, where secessionist forces of the Caprivi Liberation Army engaged in guerrilla fighting. In December 1999 Namibia and Botswana brought the Caprivi Strip dispute to the International Court of Justice, which ruled that the disputed Sedudu (also known as Kasikili) Island belongs to Botswana.

Presidential elections in December 1999 brought a landslide victory for President Nujoma and SWAPO. Nujoma won 77 per cent of the vote, easily defeating three rival candidates. SWAPO captured 55 of the 72 seats in the National Assembly. Nujoma was sworn in for his third term in office in March 2000, when Namibia celebrated the first decade of independence. His new Cabinet at this time remained much the same as before, led by Prime Minister Hage Geingob.

The fighting in Angola, which had previously spilled over into Namibia with rebel attacks on Namibians and tourists, produced a large influx of refugees in July 2000. A gay rights row broke out in early 2001 after Nujoma sanctioned the arrest of homosexuals. Another important ongoing issue is the claims for reparations from the Herero people, for crimes, including murder, committed on them in the early 20th century when under German rule. In 2004, Germany formally apologized for crimes committed against the Herero during the colonial era but claims for compensation for the descendants of victims have been dismissed.

Nujoma reshuffled his Cabinet in August 2002, installing Theo-Ben Gurirab as his new prime minister. Nujoma was succeeded as president in December 2004 by fellow SWAPO member, Hifikepunye Pohamba. One of the most pressing issues he faces is the ongoing problem of land reform. Pohamba was previously lands minister, and oversaw the controversial expropriation of white farmers’ lands by black Namibians. Pohamba was sworn in in March 2005 and appointed Nahas Angula as his prime minister. In the National Assembly elections, also held in November 2004, SWAPO maintained its dominance, securing 55 of the 78 available seats.