NAMIBIA

officially Republic of Namibia, also called (internationally until 1968) South West Africa, Afrikaans Namibi, or Suidwes-Afrika country located on the southwestern coast of Africa astride the Tropic of Capricorn. Originally administered by the government of South Africa, it achieved independence in 1990 under the auspices of the United Nations. Namibia is about 820 miles (1,320 km) long from north to south and about 380 miles (610 km) wide from east to west in its central part; it is bordered by Angola and Zambia in the north, Botswana in the east, South Africa in the southeast and south, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The town, harbour, and environs of Walvis Bay, along the central coast, for many years constituted a South African exclave; administration of the area was transferred to Namibia in 1994. The capital of Namibia is Windhoek. Area 318,580 square miles (825,118 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 1,560,000. officially Republic of Namibia, also called (internationally until 1968) South West Africa, Afrikaans Namibi, or Suidwesafrica country located on the southwestern coast of Africa. It has an area of 318,580 square miles (825,118 square kilometres), nearly all of it empty land. It is bordered by Angola to the north, Zambia to the northeast, Botswana to the east, South Africa to the southeast and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It ranges from arid in the north to desert on the coast and in the east. The landscape is spectacular, but the desert, mountains, canyons, and savannas are perhaps better to see than to occupy. The only permanent rivers are the Kunene (Cunene), the Okavango (Cubango), the Mashi (Kwando), and the Zambezi on the northern border and the Orange on the southern. Only the northern frontierand not all of itis readily passable. The coastal Namib desert, the treacherous reefs and shoals of the coast (half aptly named the Skeleton Coast), the near deserts along the Orange River, and the dry Kalahari region to the east explain the late conquest of Namibia and form a geographic frame around the country. Roughly rectangular (600 by 300 to 450 miles [965 by 480 to 725 kilometres]), Namibia has a long, narrow eastern extension (the Caprivi Strip) based on a German misconception that access to the Zambezidespite the Victoria Fallsmeant access to the Indian Ocean. After 106 years of German and South African rule, Namibia became independent on March 21, 1990, under a democratic multiparty constitution. The capital of the country is Windhoek. Additional reading Brian Wood, Namibia, 18841984: Readings on Namibia's History and Society (1988), is a collection of somewhat uneven chapters on historical, social, and economic aspects. J.H. Van der Merwe (ed.), National Atlas of South West Africa (1983), is a detailed study of all aspects of Namibia's geography. Richard Moorsom, Underdevelopment, Contract Labor, and Worker Consciousness in Namibia, 19151972, Journal of Southern African Studies, 17:7182 (October 1977), analyzes the nature, context, goals, and evolution of Namibian workers. United Nations Institute for Namibia, Namibia: Perspectives for National Reconstruction and Development (1986), brings together data and option analysis on most social, political, and economic aspects, although the policy advice is dated because it did not forecast reconciliation. David Simon and Richard Moorsom, Namibia's Political Economy: A Contemporary Perspective, in Gerhard Ttemeyer, Vezera Kandetu, and Wolfgang Werner (eds.), Namibia in Perspective (1987), pp. 82101, reviews the territorial economy, then approaching its low point. Reginald H. Green, Kimmo Kiljunen, and Marja-Liisa Kiljunen, Namibia: The Last Colony (1981), emphasizes the economy and the political-economic process. Tore Linn Eriksen and Richard Moorsom, The Political Economy of Namibia: An Annotated Critical Bibliography, 2nd ed. (1989), covers and comments on virtually all substantive material through 1988.H. Bley, South-West Africa Under German Rule, 18941914 (1971; originally published in German, 1968), is a major study of the German occupation era with some coverage of the precolonial period. Peter H. Katjavivi, A History of Resistance in Namibia (1988), is a major study of Namibian history, especially from 1860 through the mid-1980s. Reginald H. Green and P. Manning, Namibia: Preparations for Destabilization, in Phyllis Johnson and David Martin, Frontline Southern Africa: Destructive Engagement (1988), pp. 153189, gives an overview of the post-World War II liberation effort to the late 1980s. Swapo Dept. of Information and Publicity, To Be Born a Nation: The Liberation Struggle for Namibia (1981), states the position, goals, and perception of history by the then-main nationalist movement, now the majority party. Colin Leys and John S. Saul, Namibia's Liberation Struggle: The Two-Edged Sword (1995), provides coverage of the liberation war and early years of independence. David Simon, Independent Namibia: One Year On (1991), is a review through early 1991; it may be supplemented by Donald L. Sparks and December Green, Namibia: The Nation After Independence (1992). Reginald Herbold Green The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Administration and social conditions Government Namibia is a multiparty democracy with one legislative house. Legislative power is vested in the National Assembly, which consists of 72 members directly elected to five-year terms under universal adult suffrage. Namibia's constitution, which took effect at independence, is highly rights-conscious and aimed at achieving a durable separation of powers. Arguably the results have a complexity and rigidity (many clauses literally cannot be amended) that may hamper governance. They represent a compromise in which individual (not group) rights and affirmative action are included in return for a series of safeguards against majority legislative or executive abuse of power and entrenchment of property rights. There are an executive president, a prime minister, and a cabinet, responsible to the National Assembly, and an independent judiciary. A second house, the National Council, is constituted to represent regionsnow set at 13 after a commission report. It is constituted to have revising and blocking powers over legislation passed by the National Assembly. The country's armed forces have been formed largely from the military wing of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), the People's Liberation Army of Namibia. The police forces, which are about the same size as the army, remain primarily a holdover institution from preindependence times, which has led both to a certain lack of confidence in them and to a popular reaction of cautionneither attitude being helpful in controlling Namibia's postwar upsurge in crime. Internationally Namibia has hastened to join regional (e.g., the Southern African Development Coordination Conference and the Organization of African Unity) and global (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the EC Lom Conventions, and the Commonwealth) bodies. Its relations with South Africa have been pragmatic and surprisingly noncontentious to date (on the South African side as well). Education The government's policy of expanding education to offer universal primary and lower secondary instruction faces severe problems. Most teachers, for example, are far from qualified (not least in the language of instruction, English). Yet more than 80 percent of all children between the ages of 7 and 18a figure far higher than in most African countriesare enrolled in school. The student-teacher ratio is also comparatively low, even for southern Africa, which tends to have a lower ratio than most other regions of the continent. With more than 70 percent of its adult population literate, Namibia has one of the highest rates of literacy in sub-Saharan Africa. Various informal adult education programs have been implemented to combat the remaining illiteracy. Higher education is provided by four teacher-training colleges and a university. Cultural life Namibian cultures are diverse. Just as the culture of the Afrikaners differs significantly from that of the German-speaking community and as both of those cultures differ from that of the more varied technical-assistance community, so do African and Creole cultures differ. The Rehobothers closely resemble the rural Afrikaner culture of the mid-20th century, while the Nama have more in common with the other pastoral black communities, and the Cape Coloured have a distinct urban culture with both black and European elements. The northern black cultureswhile distinctive as to language and forms of music and danceformed out of a mixed farming context unlike that of the Damara and Herero. The San are a tragic case. Their culture was ruined by ranch serfdom and wartime exploitation as trackers, and efforts to rebuild from the fragments have been limited by lack of knowledge, resources, and space as well as by the paternalism of many of their self-appointed guardians. With the exception of the San, Namibian cultures appear to be alive and evolving, not least in the urban areas. However, rising unemployment may lead to the breakdown of neighbourhood and other social groupings and to the anomie and lawlessness that characterize the townships of many southern African cities, notably in both Zambia and South Africa. The black cultures are not well supported by formal institutions or the government, owing both to doubts as to what would enable rather than smother their development and to a lack of fiscal resources. A number of holidays and festivals are observed, most of which are religious or historic in significance, albeit not necessarily of specific current content. Sports are popular among both spectators and participants. A wide variety of sports are followed by the white communities, but the black communities concentrate on football (soccer). Radio and television broadcasting services are government-owned, as is one daily newspaper. All appear to have substantial intellectual and programmatic freedom. A fluctuating band of party, semiparty, and (in one case) independent newspapers exist and are not subject to censorship, but the survival of most is in doubt for economic reasons. They are supplemented by an array of religious, trade union, and other specialized papers that also have complete freedom of expression. Reginald Herbold Green