NAMA

also called Naman, Namakwa, or Namaqua, Khoikhoin (Hottentot) people living in southern Namibia. They constitute by far the largest Khoikhoin ethnic group, perhaps larger than all the others combined, but many Nama now have admixtures of white, Owambo (Ovambo), or Herero ancestry. The Nama were formerly reasonably prosperous sheep or cattle pastoralists, but intertribal warfare and nearly continuous fighting with the Herero and the Germans from the 19th to the early 20th century decimated their numbers. Some Nama still graze sheep, cattle, or goats where the groundwater of their arid countryside is not too highly mineralized for their stock to drink; many more work as migrant labourers on nearby white farms herding sheep, tending gardens, or working in homes.