Our Namibian Adventure begins!

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It's amazing how many people have never heard of Namibia. So here are a few facts about the country:

• Namibia’s name is derived from the Namib desert, the oldest desert in the world. It is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa.
   
• Namibia shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east.
   
• It is one of the least densely populated countries in the world, with a population of only 2.55 million people. It has been inhabited since pre-historic times by the San, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country.
   
• There are large amounts of archaeological evidence that people inhabited Namibia at least 25,000 years ago. These days, Namibia is a diverse country of hunter gatherers, traditional pastoralists, subsistence and commercial farmers, traders, miners and fisherman belonging to a variety of language and cultural groups.
   
• Agriculture, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver and base metals – form the basis of its economy.
   
• In 1884, the German Empire established rule over most of the territory, forming a colony known as German South West Africa. They established a legal system with separate laws for Europeans and natives.
   
• Throughout its colonial rule, Germany dispossessed the Namibian population, racially oppressed them and deprived them of their rights.
   
• In 1893, skirmishes between German soldiers sent to protect German settlers and the local Herero, Nama and Witbooi clans increased. German Governor Curt von Francois's men attacked Nama Chief Hendrik Witbooi and the village of Hornkranz, massacring women, children and the elderly.
   
• From 1904 to 1907, the Herero and the Namaqua took up arms against the brutal German colonialism. In response to the killing of around 120 German settlers and soldiers by local tribespeople, government officials enacted an extermination order, warning that every Herero found in German-occupied land would be executed. This would become known as the "first genocide of the 20th century".
   
• It is thought up to 80% of the indigenous populations died during the genocide - with a death toll of approximately 10,000 Nama and 65,000 Herero. Unarmed Hereros were routinely shot or hanged, their cattle either stolen or killed and German settlers took over the land.  
   
• Survivors from the Herero and Nama population were forced into the desert and later placed in concentration camps where they were exploited for labour. Many died of disease, exhaustion and starvation with some subject to sexual exploitation and medical experimentation.
   
• When the survivors were finally released from detention, they were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination.
   
• During World War I, South African troops occupied the territory and the German colonial administration was deposed in 1915. At the end of the war, a League of Nations mandate resulted in South Africa maintaining possession of the colony until 1990.
   
• The mandate permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination. However South Africa interpreted the mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy.
   
• South Africa began imposing apartheid, its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during the late 1940s. Black South West Africans were subject to pass laws, curfews, and a host of residential regulations that restricted their movement.
   
• In 1968, the UN declared that South Africa had failed in its obligations to ensure the moral and material well-being of South West Africa's indigenous inhabitants, and had thus disavowed its own mandate. It declared South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia illegal.
   
• On 12 June 1968, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming that, in accordance with the desires of its people, South West Africa be renamed Namibia.
   
• Namibia finally obtained independence in 1990.
   
• Since independence Namibia has completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy. Multiparty democracy was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and national elections held regularly.
   

For more information, click these links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Namibia