Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Native name
Conventional long name	Republic of Namibia
Common name	Namibia
Image coat	Coat of Arms of Namibia.svg
National motto	Unity, Liberty, Justice
National anthem	"Namibia, Land of the Brave"
Official languages	English
Regional languages	German, Rukwangali, Silozi, Setswana, Damara/Nama, Afrikaans, Herero, Oshiwambo
Demonym	Namibian
Capital	Windhoek
Largest city	capital
Government type	Republic
Leader title1	President
Leader title2	Prime Minister
Leader title3	Chairperson of the National Council
Leader title4	Speaker of the National Assembly
Leader title5	Chief Justice
Leader name1	Hifikepunye Pohamba
Leader name2	Nahas Angula
Leader name3	Asser Kuveri Kapere
Leader name4	Theo-Ben Gurirab
Leader name5	Peter Shivute
Area rank	34th
Area magnitude	1 E11
Area km2	825,418
Area sq mi	318,696
Percent water	negligible
Population estimate	2,108,665
Population estimate rank	142nd
Population estimate year	2009
Population census	2,088,669
Population census year	2008
Population density km2	2.5
Population density sq mi	6.6
Population density rank	235th
Gdp ppp	$14.596 billion
Gdp ppp year	2010
Gdp ppp per capita	$6,952
Gdp nominal	$11.865 billion
Gdp nominal year	2010
Gdp nominal per capita	$5,651
Legislature	Parliament
Upper house	National Council
Lower house	National Assembly
Sovereignty type	Independence
Established event1	from South Africa
Established date1	21 March 1990
Hdi	0.606
Hdi rank	105th
Hdi year	2010
Hdi category	medium
Currency	Namibian dollar
Currency code	NAD
Time zone	WAT
Utc offset	+1
Time zone dst	WAST
Utc offset dst	+2
Drives on	left
Cctld	.na
Calling code	+264
Gini	70.7
Gini rank	1st
Gini year	2003
Gini category	high }}

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia (, ), is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Commonwealth of Nations.

The dry lands of Namibia were inhabited since early times by Bushmen, Damara, and Namaqua, and since about the 14th century AD by immigrating Bantu who came with the Bantu expansion. It became a German Imperial protectorate in 1884 and remained a German colony until the end of World War I. In 1920, the League of Nations mandated the country to South Africa, which imposed its laws and, from 1948, its apartheid policy.

In 1966, uprisings and demands by African leaders led the UN to assume direct responsibility over the territory. It recognized the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people in 1973. Namibia, however, remained under South African administration during this time. Following internal violence, South Africa installed an interim administration in Namibia in 1985. Namibia obtained full independence from South Africa in 1990, with the exception of Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands, which remained under South African control until 1994.

Namibia has a population of 2.1 million people and a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy. Agriculture, herding, tourism and the mining industry – including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver, and base metals form the backbone of Namibia's economy. After Mongolia it is the second least densely populated country in the world. Approximately half the population live below the international poverty line, and the nation has suffered heavily from the effects of HIV/AIDS, with 15% of the adult population infected with HIV in 2007.

History

The name of the country is derived from the Namib Desert, considered to be the oldest desert in the world. Before its independence in 1990, the area was known first as German South-West Africa (''Deutsch-Südwestafrika''), then as South-West Africa, reflecting the colonial occupation by the Germans and the South Africans (technically on behalf of the British crown reflecting South Africa's dominion status within the British Empire).

Pre-colonial period

The dry lands of Namibia were inhabited since early times by Bushmen, Damara, Nama, and since about the 14th century AD, by immigrating Bantu who came with the Bantu expansion from central Africa. From the late 18th century onwards, Orlam clans from the Cape Colony crossed the Orange River and moved into the area that today is southern Namibia. Their encounters with the nomadic Nama tribes were largely peaceful. The missionaries accompanying the Orlams were well–received by them, the right to use waterholes and grazing was granted against an annual payment. On their way further northwards, however, the Orlams encountered clans of the Herero tribe at Windhoek, Gobabis, and Okahandja which were less accommodating. The Nama-Herero War broke out in 1880, hostilities ebbed only when Imperial Germany deployed troops to the contested places and cementing the status quo between Nama, Orlams, and Herero.

The first Europeans to disembark and explore the region were the Portuguese navigators Diogo Cão in 1485 and Bartolomeu Dias in 1486; still the region was not claimed by the Portuguese crown. However, like most of Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century, when traders and settlers arrived, principally from Germany and Sweden. In the late 19th century Dorsland trekkers crossed the area on their way from the Transvaal to Angola. Some of them settled in Namibia instead of continuing their journey, even more returned to South-West African territory after the Portuguese tried to convert them to Catholicism and forbade their language at schools.

German rule

Namibia became a German colony in 1884 to forestall British encroachment and was known as German South-West Africa (''Deutsch-Südwestafrika''). However, the Palgrave mission by the British governor in Cape Town had determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of Walvis Bay (Walfisch in German, Walvis in Afrikaans, Whale in English) was worth occupying – and this was annexed to the Cape province of British South Africa. From 1904 to 1907, the Herero and the Namaqua took up arms against the Germans and in the subsequent Herero and Namaqua genocide, 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Hereros (about 80% of the population) were killed. The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labor, racial segregation and discrimination in a system that in many ways anticipated apartheid. Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which later under South African rule post-1949 were turned into "homelands" (Bantustans). Indeed, some historians have speculated that the German genocide in Namibia was a model used by Nazis in the Holocaust, but most scholars say that episode was not especially influential for the Nazis, who were children at the time. However, the father of Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring was a one-time German colonial governor of Namibia and has a street named after him in Swakopmund. The memory of genocide remains relevant to ethnic identity in independent Namibia and to relations with Germany.

South African rule and the struggle for independence

South Africa occupied the colony in 1915 after defeating the German force during World War I and administered it as a League of Nations mandate territory from 1919. Although the South African government desired to incorporate 'South-West Africa' into its territory, it never officially did so, although it was administered as the de facto 'fifth province', with the white minority having representation in the whites-only Parliament of South Africa, as well as electing their own local administration the SWA Legislative Assembly. The South African government also appointed the SWA administrator, who had extensive powers.

Following the League's supersession by the United Nations in 1946, South Africa refused to surrender its earlier mandate to be replaced by a United Nations Trusteeship agreement, requiring closer international monitoring of the territory's administration (along with a definite independence schedule). The Herero Chief's Council submitted a number of petitions to the UN calling for it to grant Namibia independence during the 1950s. During the 1960s, when European powers granted independence to their colonies and trust territories in Africa, pressure mounted on South Africa to do so in Namibia. In 1966 the International Court of Justice dismissed a complaint brought by Ethiopia and Liberia against South Africa's continued presence in the territory, but the U.N. General Assembly subsequently revoked South Africa's mandate, while in 1971 the International Court of Justice issued an "advisory opinion" declaring South Africa's continued administration to be illegal.

In response to the 1966 ruling by the International Court of Justice, South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) military wing, People's Liberation Army of Namibia, a guerrilla group began their armed struggle for independence, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its occupation of Namibia, in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire region. During the South African occupation of Namibia, white commercial farmers, most of whom came as settlers from South Africa and represented 0.2% of the national population, owned 74% of arable land. Outside the central-southern area of Namibia (known as the "Police Zone" since the German era and which contained the main towns, industries, mines and best arable land), the country was divided into "homelands", the version of South African bantustan applied to Namibia, although only a few were actually established due to non-cooperation by most indigenous Namibians.

After many unsuccessful attempts by the UN to persuade South Africa to agree to the implementation of UN Resolution 435, which had been adopted by the UN Security Council in 1978 as the internationally-agreed decolonisation plan for Namibia, transition to independence finally started in 1988 under the tripartite diplomatic agreement between South Africa, Angola and Cuba, with the USSR and the USA as observers, under which South Africa agreed to withdraw and demobilise its forces in Namibia and Cuba agreed to pull back its troops in southern Angola sent to support the MPLA in its war for control of Angola with UNITA. A combined UN civilian and peace-keeping force under Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari supervised the military withdrawals, return of SWAPO exiles and the holding of Namibia's first-ever one-person one-vote election for a constituent assembly in October 1989. This was won by SWAPO although it did not gain the two-thirds majority it had hoped for; the South African-backed Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) became the official opposition.

Following the adoption of the Namibian Constitution, including entrenched protection for human rights, compensation for state expropriations of private property, an independent judiciary and an executive presidency (the constituent assembly became the national assembly), the country officially became independent on 21 March 1990. Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the first President of Namibia watched by Nelson Mandela (who had been released from prison shortly beforehand) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state. Walvis Bay was ceded to Namibia in 1994 upon the end of Apartheid in South Africa.

After independence

Since independence Namibia has successfully 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. Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although Swapo Party has won every election since independence. The transition from the 15-year rule of President Sam Nujoma to his successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2005 went smoothly.

Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation and issued an amnesty for those who had fought on either side during the liberation war. The civil war in Angola had a limited impact on Namibians living in the north of the country. In 1998, Namibia Defence Force (NDF) troops were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) contingent. In August 1999, a secessionist attempt in the northeastern Caprivi region was successfully quashed.

Politics and government

The politics of Namibia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president of Namibia is elected to a five-year term and is both the head of state and the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the bicameral Parliament, the National Assembly and the National Council. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The management of the rule of law and the observance of basic human rights in Namibia are constantly scrutinized.

Namibia held Presidential and the National Assembly elections on 27 and 28 November 2009. The Electoral Commission of Namibia published a "Handbook for Election Observers in Namibia" to enable observers (and party agents) to professionally observe the Presidential and National Assembly Elections 2009, the Regional Councils and Local Authorities Elections 2010 and subsequent By-Elections.

Foreign relations

Namibia follows a largely independent foreign policy, with lingering affiliations with states that aided the independence struggle, including Libya and Cuba. With a small army and a fragile economy, the Namibian Government's principal foreign policy concern is developing strengthened ties within the Southern African region. A dynamic member of the Southern African Development Community, Namibia is a vocal advocate for greater regional integration. Namibia became the 160th member of the UN on 23 April 1990. On its independence it became the fiftieth member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Military

The constitution of Namibia defined the role of the military as "''defending the territory and national interests.''" Namibia formed the Namibian Defence Force (NDF), comprising former enemies in a 23-year bush war: the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) and South West African ''Territorial Force'' (SWATF). The British formulated the plan for integrating these forces and began training the NDF, which consists of a small headquarters and five battalions.

The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG)'s Kenyan infantry battalion remained in Namibia for three months after independence to help train the NDF and to stabilize the north. According to the Namibian Defence Ministry, enlistments of both men and women will number no more than 7,500. Defence and security account for approximately 3.7% of government spending.

Geography and climate

At , Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country (after Venezuela). It lies mostly between latitudes 17° and 29°S (a small area is north of 17°), and longitudes 11° and 26°E.

Administrative division

Namibia is divided into 13 regions and subdivided into 107 constituencies. The administrative division of Namibia is tabled by ''Delimitation Commissions'' and accepted or declined by the National Assembly. Since state foundation three Delimitation Commissions have been formed, the last one in 2002 under the chairmanship of Peter Shivute. Regional councillors are directly elected through secret ballots (regional elections) by the inhabitants of their constituencies.

Geographical areas

The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Great Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert.

Central Plateau

The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the Skeleton Coast to the northwest, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the southwest, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east. The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation . Within the wide, flat Central Plateau is the majority of Namibia’s population and economic activity. Windhoek, the nation’s capital, is located here, as well as most of the arable land. Although arable land accounts for only 1% of Namibia, nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.

The abiotic conditions here are similar to those found along the Escarpment; however the topographic complexity is reduced. Summer temperatures in the area can reach , and frosts are common in the winter.

Namib Desert

The Namib Desert is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along Namibia's entire coastline. It varies between 100 to many hundreds of kilometres in width. Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast. The sands that make up the sand sea result from processes of erosion that take place in the Orange River valley and areas further to the south. As sand-laden waters drop their suspended loads into the Atlantic, onshore currents deposit them along the shore. The prevailing south west winds then pick up and redeposit the sand in the form of massive dunes in the widespread sand sea, forming the largest sand dunes in the world. In areas where the supply of sand is reduced because of the inability of the sand to cross riverbeds, the winds also scour the land to form large gravel plains. In many areas of the Namib Desert there is little vegetation aside from lichens found in the gravel plains and in dry river beds where plants can access subterranean water.

Great Escarpment

The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over . Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish. Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is nonetheless significantly more productive than the Namib Desert. As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation. The water, along with rapidly changing topography, is responsible for the creation of microhabitats which offer a wide range of organisms, many of them endemic. Vegetation along the escarpment varies in both form and density, with community structure ranging from dense woodlands to more shrubby areas with scattered trees. A number of Acacia species are found here, as well as grasses and other shrubby vegetation.

Bushveld

The Bushveld is found in north eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip which is the vestige of a narrow corridor demarcated for the German Empire to access the Zambezi River. The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the country, averaging around per year. Temperatures are also cooler and more moderate, with approximate seasonal variations of between . The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water. Located adjacent to the Bushveld in north-central Namibia is one of nature’s most spectacular features: the Etosha Pan. For most of the year it is a dry, saline wasteland, but during the wet season, it forms a shallow lake covering more than . The area is ecologically important and vital to the huge numbers of birds and animals from the surrounding savannah that gather in the region as summer drought forces them to the scattered waterholes that ring the pan. The Bushveld area has been demarcated by the World Wildlife Fund as part of the Angolan Mopane woodlands ecoregion, which extends north across the Cunene River into neighbouring Angola.

Kalahari Desert

The Kalahari Desert is perhaps Namibia’s best known geographical feature. Shared with South Africa and Botswana, it has a variety of localized environments ranging from hyper-arid sandy desert, to areas that seem to defy the common definition of desert. One of these areas, known as the Succulent Karoo, is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; fully one third of the world’s succulents are found in the Karoo.

The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation. The Karoo apparently does not experience drought on a regular basis, so even though the area is technically desert, regular winter rains provide enough moisture to support the region’s interesting plant community. Another feature of the Kalahari, indeed many parts of Namibia, are inselbergs, isolated mountains that create microclimates and habitat for organisms not adapted to life in the surrounding desert matrix.

Coastal Desert

Namibia’s Coastal Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world. Its sand dunes, created by the strong onshore winds, are the highest in the world.

The Namib Desert and the Namib-Naukluft National Park are located here. The Namibian coastal deserts are one of the richest sources of diamonds on earth. The area is divided into the northern Skeleton Coast and the southern Diamond Coast. Because of the location of the shoreline— at the point where the Atlantic's cold water reach Africa— there is often extremely dense fog.

Sandy beach comprises 54% of the shoreline, and mixed sand and rock form another 28%. Only 16% of the total length is rocky shoreline. The coastal plains are "dune fields", gravel plains covered with lichen and some scattered salt pans. Near the coast there are areas where the dunes are vegetated with hammocks. Namibia has rich coastal and marine resources that remain largely unexplored.

Weather and climate

Namibia has more than 300 days of sunshine per year. It is situated at the southern edge of the tropics; the Tropic of Capricorn cuts the country about in half. The winter (June – August) is generally dry, both rainy seasons occur in summer, the small rainy season between September and November, the big one between February and April. Humidity is low, and average rainfall varies from almost zero in the coastal desert to more than 600 mm in the Caprivi Strip. Rainfall is however highly variable, and droughts are common. The bad rainy season with rainfall far below the annual average occurred in summer 2006/07.

Weather and climate in the coastal area are dominated by the cold, north-flowing Benguela current of the Atlantic Ocean which accounts for very low precipitation (50 mm per year or less), frequent dense fog, and overall lower temperatures than in the rest of the country. In Winter, occasionally a condition known as ''Bergwind'' or ''Oosweer'' (Afrikaans: East weather) occurs, a hot dry wind blowing from the inland to the coast. As the area behind the coast is a desert, these winds can develop into sand storms with sand deposits in the Atlantic Ocean visible on satellite images.

The Central Plateau and Kalahari areas have wide diurnal temperature ranges of up to 30C.

Economy

Namibia’s economy is tied closely to South Africa’s due to their shared history. The largest economic sectors are mining (10.4% of the gross domestic product in 2009), agriculture (5.0%), manufacturing (13.5%), and tourism.

Namibia has a highly developed banking sector with modern infrastructure, such as Online Banking, Cellphone Banking etc. The Bank of Namibia (BoN) is the central bank of Namibia responsible to perform all other functions ordinarily performed by a central bank. There are four BoN authorised commercial banks in Namibia: Bank Windhoek, First National Bank, Nedbank & Standard Bank.

Namibia has a high unemployment rate. "Strict unemployment" (people actively seeking a full time job) stood at 20.2% in 2000, 21.9% in 2004 and spiraled to 29.4 per cent in 2008. Under a broader definition (including people that have given up searching for employment) unemployment rose from 36.7% in 2004 to 51.2% in 2008. This estimate considers people in the informal economy as employed. The study that arrived at these results has been hailed "by far superior in scope and quality to any that has been available previously" by Labour and Social Welfare Minister Immanuel Ngatjizeko.

Approximately half the population live below the international poverty line of U.S.$1.25 a day. There is a number of legislative measures in place to alleviate poverty and unemployment. In 2004 a labour act was passed to protect people from job discrimination stemming from pregnancy and HIV/AIDS status. In early 2010 the Government tender board announced that "henceforth 100 per cent of all unskilled and semi-skilled labour must be sourced, without exception, from within Namibia".

Transportation

Despite the remote nature of much of the country, Namibia has seaports, airports, highways, and railways (narrow-gauge). The country seeks to become a regional transportation hub; it has an important seaport and several landlocked neighbors. The Central Plateau already serves as a transportation corridor from the more densely populated north to South Africa, the source of four-fifths of Namibia’s imports.

Agriculture

About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food. Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia's people live in rural areas and exist on a subsistence way of life. Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cash-less economy. The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival.

About 4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land. The governments of Germany and Britain will finance Namibia's land reform process, as Namibia plans to start expropriating land from white farmers to resettle landless black Namibians.

Agreement has been reached on the privatisation of several more enterprises in coming years, with hopes that this will stimulate much needed foreign investment. However, reinvestment of environmentally derived capital has hobbled Namibian per capita income. One of the fastest growing areas of economic development in Namibia is the growth of wildlife conservancies. These conservancies are particularly important to the rural generally unemployed population.

Mining and electricity

Providing 25% of Namibia's revenue, mining is the single most important contributor to the economy. Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa and the world's fourth largest producer of uranium. There has been significant investment in uranium mining and Namibia is set to become the largest exporter of uranium by 2015. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. While Namibia is known predominantly for its gem diamond and uranium deposits, a number of other minerals are extracted industrially such as lead, tungsten, gold, tin, fluorspar, manganese, marble, copper and zinc. There are offshore gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean that are planned to be extracted in the future.

Domestic supply voltage is 220V AC. Electricity is generated mainly by thermal and hydroelectric power plants. Non-conventional methods of electricity generation also play some role. Encouraged by the rich uranium deposits the Namibian government plans to erect its first nuclear power station by 2018, also uranium enrichment is envisaged to happen locally.

Tourism

Tourism is a major contributor (14.5%) to Namibia's GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18.2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per annum. The country is among the prime destinations in Africa and is known for ecotourism which features Namibia's extensive wildlife.

There are many lodges and reserves to accommodate eco-tourists. Sport Hunting is also a large, and growing component of the Namibian economy, accounting for 14% of total tourism in the year 2000, or $19.6 million US dollars, with Namibia boasting numerous species sought after by international sport hunters. In addition, extreme sports such as sandboarding and 4x4ing have become popular, and many cities have companies that provide tours. The most visited places include the Caprivi Strip, Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast Park, Sesriem, Etosha Pan and the coastal towns of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Lüderitz.

Taxation & Cost of Living in Namibia

Personal income tax is applicable to total taxable income of an Individual and all individuals are taxed at progressive marginal rates over a series of income brackets. While the Value added tax (VAT) is applicable to most of the commodities and services.

Cost of living in Namibia is relatively high because most of the goods including cereals need to be imported. Business monopoly in some sectors causes higher profit bookings and further raising of prices. Its capital city, Windhoek is currently ranked as the 150th most expensive place in the world for expatriates to live.

Population

Demographics

Namibia has the second-lowest population density of any sovereign country, after Mongolia. The majority of the Namibian population is black African – mostly of the Ovambo ethnicity, which forms about half of the population – residing mainly in the north of the country, although many are now resident in towns throughout Namibia. Other ethnic groups are the Herero and Himba people, who speak a similar language, and the Damara, who speak the same "click" language as the Nama.

In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of Khoisan (such as Nama and Bushmen), who are descendants of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. The country also contains some descendants of refugees from Angola. There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "Coloureds" and "Basters", who together make up 6.5% (with the Coloureds outnumbering the Basters two to one). There is a large Chinese minority in Namibia.

Whites of Portuguese, Dutch, German, British and French ancestry make up about 7% of the population; they form the second-largest population of European ancestry, both in terms of percentage and actual numbers, in Sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa. Most Namibian whites and nearly all those of mixed race speak Afrikaans and share similar origins, culture, and religion as the white and coloured populations of South Africa. A smaller proportion of whites (around 30,000) trace their family origins directly back to German colonial settlers and maintain German cultural and educational institutions. Nearly all Portuguese settlers came to the country from the former Portuguese colony of Angola. The 1960 census reported 526,004 persons in the South West Africa, including 73,464 whites (14 percent).

Religion

{{bar box |title=Religion in Namibia |titlebar=#ddd |width=300px |left1=religion |right1=percent |float=right |bars= }}

The Christian community makes up more than 90% of the population of Namibia, with at least 50% of these Lutheran. At least 10% of the population hold indigenous beliefs. The faith of the remaining portion of the population is unknown.

Missionary work during the 1800s drew many Namibians to Christianity. While most Namibian Christians are Lutheran, there also are Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal, Dutch Reformed Christians and Mormon (Latter-Day Saints) represented, as well as some Jewish people.

Language

The official language is English. Until 1990, German and Afrikaans were also official languages. Long before Namibia's independence from South Africa, SWAPO had decided that the country should become officially monolingual, consciously choosing this approach in contrast to that of its neighbour, which was regarded as "a deliberate policy of ethnolinguistic fragmentation." Consequently, English became the sole official language of Namibia. Some other languages have received semi-official recognition by being allowed as medium of instruction in primary schools.

Half of all Namibians speak Oshiwambo as their first language, whereas the most widely understood language is Afrikaans. Among the younger generation, the most widely understood language is English. Both Afrikaans and English are used primarily as a second language reserved for public communication, but small first-language groups exist throughout the country.

While the official language is English, most of the white population speaks either German or Afrikaans. Even today, 90 years after the end of the German colonial era, the German language plays a leading role as a commercial language. Afrikaans is spoken by 60% of the white community, German is spoken by 32%, English is spoken by 7% and Portuguese by 1%. Geographical proximity to Portuguese-speaking Angola explains the relatively high number of lusophones.

Health

The AIDS epidemic is a large problem in Namibia. Though its rate of infection is substantially lower than that of its eastern neighbor, Botswana, approximately 15% of the adult population infected with HIV. In 2001, there were an estimated 210,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, and the estimated death toll in 2003 was 16,000. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is considered as a killer disease and as it has reduced the number of working class people, the number of orphans has increased. It falls to the government to provide education, food, shelter and clothing for these orphans.

The malaria problem seems to be compounded by the AIDS epidemic. Research has shown that in Namibia the risk of contracting malaria is 14.5% greater if a person is also infected with HIV. The risk of death from malaria is also raised by approximately 50% with a concurrent HIV infection. Given infection rates this large, as well as a looming malaria problem, it may be very difficult for the government to deal with both the medical and economic impacts of this epidemic. The country had only 598 physicians in 2002.

Culture

Education

Namibia has compulsory free education for 10 years between the ages of 6 and 16. Grades 1–7 are primary level, grades 8–12 secondary. In 1998, there were 400,325 Namibian students in primary school and 115,237 students in secondary schools. The pupil-teacher ratio in 1999 was estimated at 32:1, with about 8% of the GDP being spent on education.

Most schools in Namibia are state-run, but a few private schools are also part of the country's education system. Among these are St. Pauls College, Windhoek Afrikaanse Privaatskool, Deutsche Höhere Privatschule, Windhoek International School and Windhoek Gymnasium. Curriculum development, educational research, and professional development of teachers is centrally organised by the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) in Okahandja.

There are four teacher training colleges, three colleges of agriculture, a police training college, a Polytechnic at university level, and a National University.

Communal Wildlife Conservancies

Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address conservation and protection of natural resources in its constitution. Article 95 states, “The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilization of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future.” In 1993, the newly formed government of Namibia received funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Living in a Finite Environment (LIFE) Project. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism with the financial support from organizations such as USAID, Endangered Wildlife Trust, WWF, and Canadian Ambassador’s Fund, together form a Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) support structure. The main goal of this project is promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism.

Sport

The most popular sport in Namibia is football (soccer). The Namibia national football team qualified for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. Rugby union and cricket are also popular. Namibia were participants in the 1999, 2003 and 2007 Rugby World Cups. They also played in the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Inline Hockey was first played in 1995 and has also become more and more popular in the last years. The Women's Inline Hockey National Team participated in the 2008 FIRS World Championships. Namibia is the home for one of the toughest footraces in the world, the Namibian ultra marathon. The most famous athlete from Namibia is certainly Frankie Fredericks, sprinter (100 and 200 m). He won 4 Olympic silver medals (1992, 1996) and also has medals from several World Athletics Championships. He is also known for humanitarian activities in Namibia and further.

Gallery

See also

Communications in Namibia

Cost of Living in Namibia

German South-West Africa

Music of Namibia

Namibia Breweries Limited

Scouts of Namibia

Taxation in Namibia

Transport in Namibia

United Nations Commissioner for Namibia

Wildlife of Namibia

Sport

Namibian cricket team

Namibia Football Association

Rugby union in Namibia

Lists

List of cities and towns in Namibia

List of villages and settlements in Namibia

List of national parks of Namibia

List of Namibians

List of South-African Administrators-General in South West Africa

References

Footnotes

Literature

General references

AIDSinAfrica.net Web Publication (2007), Retrieved 20 May 2007. From Aidsinafrica.net

Christy, S.A. (2007) Namibian Travel Photography

Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Programme Details (n.d.). Met.gov.na

Cowling, S. 2001. Succulent Karoo (AT 1322) World Wildlife Fund Website: Worldwildlife.org

Horn, N/Bösl, A (eds), Human rights and the rule of law in Namibia, Macmillan Namibia 2008.

Horn, N/Bösl, A (eds), The independence of the judiciary in Namibia, Macmillan Namibia 2008.

KAS Factbook Namibia, Facts and figures about the status and development of Namibia, Ed. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V.

Korenromp, E.L., Williams, B.G., de Vlas, S.J., Gouws, E., Gilks, C.F., Ghys, P.D., Nahlen, B.L. (2005). Malaria Attributable to the HIV-1 Epidemic, Sub-Saharan Africa. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 11, 9, 1410–1419.

Lange, Glenn-marie. Wealth, Natural Capital, and Sustainable Development: Contrasting Examples from Botswana and Namibia. Environmental & Resource Economics; Nov 2004, Vol. 29 Issue 3, pp. 257–83, 27 p.

Fritz, Jean-Claude . La Namibie indépendante. Les coûts d'une décolonisation retardée, Paris, L'Harmattan, 1991.

Spriggs, A. 2001. Namib Desert (AT1315) World Wildlife Fund Website: Worldwildlife.org

Spriggs, A. 2001. Namibian Savannah Woodlands (AT1316) World Wildlife Fund Website: Worldwildlife.org

Spriggs, A. 2001. Namibian Savannah Woodlands (AT0709) World Wildlife Fund Website: Worldwildlife.org

Stefanova K. 2005. Protecting Namibia’s Natural Resources. EjournalUSA.

UNEP, UNDP, WRI, and World Bank. 2005. Nature in Local Hands: The Case for Namibia’s Conservancies. Wri.org

World Almanac. 2004. World Almanac Books. New York, NY

External links

Namibia from ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''

; Government

Republic of Namibia Government Portal

Chief of State and Cabinet Members

; Education

Polytechnic of Namibia

}}

Category:African countries Category:Member states of the African Union Category:Countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean Category:English-speaking countries and territories Category:German-speaking countries Category:Liberal democracies Category:Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations Category:Republics Category:States and territories established in 1990 Category:Member states of the United Nations

ace:Namibia af:Namibië als:Namibia am:ናሚቢያ ang:Namibia ar:ناميبيا an:Namibia frp:Namibie ast:Namibia az:Namibiya bm:Namibia bn:নামিবিয়া bjn:Namibia zh-min-nan:Namibia be:Намібія be-x-old:Намібія bcl:Namibya bar:Namibia bo:ན་མི་བྷི་ཡ། bs:Namibija br:Namibia bg:Намибия ca:Namíbia ceb:Namibia cs:Namibie cy:Namibia da:Namibia de:Namibia nv:Namííbya dsb:Namibija et:Namiibia el:Ναμίμπια es:Namibia eo:Namibio ext:Namibia eu:Namibia fa:نامیبیا hif:Namibia fr:Namibie fy:Namybje ga:An Namaib gv:Yn Nameeb gd:Naimibia gl:Namibia hak:Na̍p-mí-pí-â xal:Намибмудин Орн ko:나미비아 hy:Նամիբիա hi:नामीबिया hsb:Namibija hr:Namibija io:Namibia ilo:Namibia bpy:নামিবিয়া id:Namibia ia:Namibia ie:Namibia os:Намиби zu:INamibhiya is:Namibía it:Namibia he:נמיביה jv:Namibia kn:ನಮೀಬಿಯ pam:Namibia krc:Намибия ka:ნამიბია ks:नमीबिया kk:Намибия kw:Namibi rw:Namibiya sw:Namibia kg:Namibia ht:Namibi ku:Namîbya lad:Namibia la:Namibia lv:Namībija lb:Namibien lt:Namibija lij:Namibia li:Namibië ln:Namibia jbo:namibias lmo:Namibia hu:Namíbia mk:Намибија mg:Namibia ml:നമീബിയ mt:Namibja mr:नामिबिया arz:ناميبيا ms:Namibia mn:Намиби my:နမီးဘီးယားနိုင်ငံ nah:Namibia nl:Namibië ja:ナミビア no:Namibia nn:Namibia nov:Namibia oc:Namibia uz:Namibiya pnb:نامیبیا pap:Namibia ps:نېمبيا pms:Namibia nds:Namibia pl:Namibia pt:Namíbia kaa:Namibiya crh:Namibiya ro:Namibia rm:Namibia qu:Namiwya ru:Намибия sah:Намибия se:Namibia sa:नमीबिया sg:Namibùii sc:Namìbia sco:Namibie stq:Namibia st:Namibia tn:Namibia sq:Namibia scn:Namibbia simple:Namibia ss:INamibiya sk:Namíbia sl:Namibija szl:Namibijo so:Nambiya ckb:نامیبیا sr:Намибија sh:Namibija fi:Namibia sv:Namibia tl:Namibya ta:நமீபியா tt:Намибия te:నమీబియా th:ประเทศนามิเบีย ti:ናሚቢያ tg:Намибия ve:Namibia tr:Namibya uk:Намібія ur:نمیبیا ug:نامىبىيە vec:Namibia vi:Namibia vo:Namibiyän fiu-vro:Namiibia zh-classical:納米比亞 war:Namibia wo:Namibi ts:Namibia yo:Nàmíbíà diq:Namibya zea:Namibië bat-smg:Namibėjė zh:纳米比亚

The Herero and Namaqua Genocide is considered to have been the first genocide of the 20th century. It took place between 1904 and 1907 in German South-West Africa (modern day Namibia), during the scramble for Africa.

On January 12, 1904, the Herero people, led by Samuel Maharero, rebelled against German colonial rule. In August, German general Lothar von Trotha defeated the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of thirst. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans only to suffer a similar fate.

In total, from 24,000 up to 100,000 Herero perished along with 10,000 Nama. The genocide was characterized by widespread death by starvation and thirst because the Herero who fled the violence were prevented from returning from the Namib Desert. Some sources also claim that the German colonial army systematically poisoned desert wells.

In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South-West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest attempts of genocide in the 20th century. The German government recognized and apologized for the events in 2004, but has ruled out a financial compensation for the victims' descendants.

Background

The Herero were originally a tribe of cattle herders living in a region of German South West Africa, presently modern Namibia. The area occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland.

In 1883, during the scramble for Africa, Franz Adolf Eduard Lüderitz purchased land from the Nama and, in August 1884, it was declared a German protectorate, despite the German government's knowledge that their means of acquisition were fraudulent; at that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for white settlement.

Chief of the neighbouring Hereros, Kamaharero had made himself great by uniting all the Herero . Faced with repeated attacks by the ǀKhowesin, a subtribe of the Khoikhoi under Hendrik Witbooi, he signed a protection treaty with Imperial Germany's colonial governor Göring on 21 October 1885 but did not cede the land of the Herero. This treaty was renounced in 1888 due to lack of German support against Witbooi but it was reinstated in 1890.

The Herero leaders repeatedly complained about violation of this treaty, as Herero women and girls were raped by Germans, a crime that the German authorities were reluctant to punish.

In 1890 Kamaharero's son Samuel signed a great deal of land over to the Germans in return for helping him to ascend to the Ovaherero throne, and to subsequently be established as paramount chief. German involvement in tribal fighting ended in tenuous peace in 1894 . In that year, Theodor Leutwein became governor of the territory, which underwent a period of rapid development, while the German government sent the ''Schutztruppe'', imperial colonial troops, to pacify the region.

Under German colonial rule natives were routinely used as slave labourers, and their lands were frequently confiscated and given to colonists, who were encouraged to settle on land taken from the natives, that was stocked with cattle stolen from the Hereros and Namas, causing a great deal of resentment.

Eventually the area was to be inhabited predominantly by whites and become "African Germany". Over the next decade, the land and the cattle that were essential to Herero and Nama lifestyles passed into the hands of German settlers arriving in South-West Africa.

Revolts

In 1903, some of the Nama tribes rose in revolt under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi. A number of factors led the Herero to join them in January 1904.

One of the major issues was land rights. The Herero had already ceded over a quarter of their to German colonists by 1903, prior to the completion of the Otavi railroad line running from the African coast to inland German settlements. Completion of this line would have rendered the German colonies much more accessible and would have ushered a new wave of Europeans into the area.

Historian Drechsler states that there was discussion of the possibility of establishing and placing the Herero in native reserves and that this was further proof of the German colonists' sense of ownership over the land. Drechsler illustrates the gap between the rights of a European and an African; the German Colonial League held that, in regards to legal matters, the testimony of seven Africans was equivalent to that of one white man. Bridgman writes about racial tensions underlying these developments; the average German colonist viewed native Africans as a lowly source of cheap labour, and others welcomed their extermination. In the absence of hard cash, traders often seized cattle, or whatever objects of value they could get their hands on, in order to recoup their loans as quickly as possible. This fostered a feeling of resentment towards the Germans on the part of the Herero people, which escalated to hopelessness when they saw that German officials were sympathetic to the traders who were about to lose what they were owed.

The Herero judged the situation intolerable, and revolted in early 1904, killing between 123 and 150 Germans, including seven Boers and three women, in what Nils Ole Oermann calls a "desperate surprise attack".

The timing of their attack was carefully planned. After successfully asking a large Herero tribe to surrender their weapons, Governor Leutwein was convinced that they and the rest of the native population were essentially pacified and half the German troops stationed in his colony had been withdrawn. Led by Chief Samuel Maharero, they surrounded Okahandja and cut links to Windhoek, the colonial capital. Maharero issued a manifesto in which he forbid his troops the killing of Englishmen, Boers, uninvolved tribes as well as women and children in general and German missionaries.

Leutwein was forced to request reinforcements and an experienced officer from the German government in Berlin. Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha was appointed Supreme Commander () of South-West Africa on 3 May, arriving with an expeditionary force of 14,000 troops on 11 June.

Leutwein was subordinate to the Colonial Department of the Prussian Foreign Office, which reported to Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow while general Trotha reported to the military German General Staff, which was only subordinate to Emperor Wilhelm II.

Leutwein wanted to defeat the most determined Herero rebels and negotiate a surrender with the remainder to achieve a political settlement. Trotha, however, planned to crush the native resistance through military force. He stated that:

He also wrote that : and that ''Only following this cleansing''/''Only from this seed something new will emerge, which will remain''.

Genocide

General Trotha stated his proposed solution to end the resistance of the Herero people in a letter, before the Battle of Waterberg: Trotha's troops defeated 3,000–5,000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg on 11–12 August 1904 but were unable to encircle and eliminate the retreating survivors.

The pursuing German forces prevented groups of Herero to break from the main body of the fleeing force and pushed them further into the desert and as exhausted Herero fell to the ground unable to go on, German soldiers acting on orders killed men, women and children. Jan Cloete, acting as a guide for the Germans, witnessed the atrocities committed by the German troops and deposed the following statement:

A portion of the Herero escaped the Germans and went to Omaheke Desert, hoping to reach British territory of Bechuanaland; less than 1,000 managed to reach the British protectorate where they were granted asylum. In order to prevent them from returning Trotha ordered the desert to be sealed off. German patrols later found skeletons around holes 13 m (approx. 40 ft) deep that were dug up in a vain attempt to find water. Maherero and between 500 to 1,500 men crossed the Kalahari into Bechuanaland where he was accepted as a vassal of the batswana chief Sekgoma.

On 2 October, Trotha issued a warning to the Hereros :

Trotha gave orders that captured Herero males were to be executed, while women and children were to be driven into the desert where their death from starvation and thirst was to be certain; Trotha argued that there was no need to make exceptions for Herero women and children, since these would "infect German troops with their diseases", the insurrection Trotha explained "is and remains the beginning of a racial struggle". German soldiers regularly raped young Herero women before killing them or letting them die in the desert After the war, von Trotha argued that his orders were necessary writing in 1909 that "If I had made the small water holes accessible to the womenfolk, I would run the risk of an African catastrophe comparable to the Battle of Beresonia"

The German general staff was aware of the atrocities that were taking place; its official publication, named Der Kampf, noted that:

Alfred von Schlieffen who served as Chief of the Imperial German General Staff approved of von Trotha's intentions in terms of a "racial struggle" and the need to "wipe out the entire nation or to drive them out of the country", but had doubts about his strategy, preferring their surrender.

Governor Leutwein, later relieved of his duties, complained to Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow about Trotha's actions, seeing the general's orders as intruding upon the civilian colonial jurisdiction and ruining any chance of a political settlement. According to Professor Mahmood Mamdani from Columbia University, opposition to the policy of annihilation was largely the consequence of the fact that colonial officials looked at the Herero people as potential source of labor, thus economically important. For instance, Governor Leutwein wrote that: Having no authority over the military, Chancellor Bülow could only advise Wilhelm II that Trotha's actions were "contrary to Christian and humanitarian principle, economically devastating and damaging to Germany's international reputation."

Upon the arrival of new orders at the end of 1904, prisoners were herded into concentration camps and given by the German state to private companies as slave labourers, and exploited as human guinea pigs in medical experiments

Concentration camps

Survivors, majority of whom were women and children, were eventually put in concentration camps, such as that at Shark Island, where the German authorities forced them to work as slave labor for German military and settlers, all prisoners were categorized into groups fit and unfit for work, and pre-printed death certificates indicating "death by exhaustion following privation" were issued The British government published their well-known account of the German genocide of the Nama and Herero peoples in 1918.

Many Herero died later of disease, overwork and malnutrition.

In 1906, the Shark Island registered an annual death rate of 227% for the Nama, and 86% for the Herero; other camps, such as Windhoek, showed mortality rates as high as 61% The mortality rate in the camps in 1908 reached 45%. The death rates are calculated at between 69 and 74%.

Food in the camps was extremely scarce, consisting of rice without any additions. As the prisoners lacked pots the rice they received was uncooked and indigestible; horses and oxen that died in the camp were later distributed to the inmates as food. As a result dysentery spread, in addition to lung diseases, despite those conditions the Herero ware taken outside the camp every day for labour under harsh treatment by the German guards, while the sick were left without any medical assistance or nursing care.

Shootings, hangings and beatings were common, and the sjambok was used by guards who treated prisoners forced to work harshly ; a September 28, 1905, article in the South African newspaper ''Cape Argus'' detailed some of the abuse, with the heading: "In German S. W. Africa: Further Startling Allegations: Horrible Cruelty". In an interview with Percival Griffith, "an accountant of profession, who owing to hard times, took up on transport work at Angra Pequena, Lüderitz", related his experiences.

During the war, a number of people from the Cape (in modern day South Africa) sought employment as transport riders for German troops in Namibia. Upon their return to the Cape, some of these people recounted their stories, including those of the imprisonment and genocide of the Herero and Namaqua people. Fred Cornell, a British aspirant diamond prospector, was in Lüderitz when the Shark Island camp was being used. Cornell wrote of the camp:

The concentration camp on Shark Island, in the coastal town of Lüderitz, was the worst of the five Namibian camps.Lüderitz lies in southern Namibia, flanked by desert and ocean. In the harbour lies Shark Island, which then was connected to the mainland only by a small causeway. The island is now, as it was then, barren and characterised by solid rock carved into surreal formations by the hard ocean winds. The camp was placed on the far end of the relatively small island, where the prisoners would have suffered complete exposure to the strong winds that sweep Lüderitz for most of the year.

German Commander Von Estorff wrote in a report that approximately 1,700 prisoners had died by April 1907, 1,203 of them Nama. In December 1906, four months after their arrival, 291 Nama died (a rate of more than nine people a day). Missionary reports put the death rate at between 12 and 18 a day; as many as 80% of the prisoners sent to the Shark Island concentration camp never left the island.

There are accusations of Herero women having agreed to sex slavery as a means of survival.

Trotha was opposed to contact between natives and settlers, believing that the insurrection was "the beginning of a racial struggle" and fearing that the colonists would be infected by native diseases.

Benjamin Madley argues that it would be more accurate to describe Shark Island not as a concentration camp or work camp, but as an extermination camp or death camp.

Medical experiments

Eugen Fischer, a German scientist, came to the concentration camps to conduct medical experiments on race,

Those experiments included sterilization, injection of smallpox, typhus as well as tuberculosis. According to Clarence Lusane, an Associate Professor of Political Science at American University School of International Service, Fischer's experiments can be seen as testing ground for later medical procedures used during Nazi Holocaust.

The numerous cases of mixed offspring upset the German colonial administration and the obsession with racial purity. Eugen Fischer studied 310 mixed-race children, calling them "Rehoboth bastards" of "lesser racial quality". Fischer also subjected them to numerous racial tests such as head and body measurements, eye and hair examinations. In conclusion of his studies he advocated genocide of alleged "inferior races" stating that "whoever thinks thoroughly the notion of race, can not arrive at a different conclusion".

Fischer's (at the time considered) scientific actions and torment of the children were part of wider history of abusing Africans for experiments, and echoed earlier actions by German anthropologists who stole skeletons and bodies from African graveyards and took them to Europe for research or sale.

Fischer later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he taught medicine to Nazi physicians. One of his prominent students was Josef Mengele, the doctor who made genetic experiments on Jewish children at Auschwitz.

Influence upon Nazi Germany

The Herero genocide has commanded the attention of historians who study complex issues of continuity between this event and the Nazi Holocaust, with some having argued that the Herero genocide set a precedent in Imperial Germany to be later followed by Nazi Germany's establishment of death camps, such as the one at Auschwitz.

Mahmood Mamdani argues that the links between the Holocaust and the Herero Genocide are beyond the execution of an annihilation policy and the establishment of concentration camps. Focusing on a written statement by General Trotha translated as:

:Mamdani takes note of the similarity between the aims and desires of the General and the Nazis. According to Mamdani in both cases there was a Social Darwinist notion of "cleansing" after which "something new" would "emerge".

According to Benjamin Madley, the German experience in Namibia was a crucial precursor to Nazi colonialism and genocide. He writes that personal connections, literature, and public debates served as conduits for communicating colonialist and genocidal ideas and methods from the colony to Germany.

Tony Barta, honorary research associate at La Trobe University Melbourne, argues that Herero Genocide was an inspiration for Hitler for his war against Jews.

Ben Kiernan, a professor and director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University notes that besides Eugen Fischer also Franz Ritter von Epp, who was later responsible for liquidation of all Bavarian Jews and Roma as governor of Bavaria, took part in the genocide.

Number of victims

A census performed in 1905 revealed that 25,000 Herero remained in German South-West Africa.

According to the 1985 United Nations' Whitaker Report, the population of 80,000 Herero was reduced to 15,000 "starving refugees" between 1904 and 1907 In ''Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st Century'': ''The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia'' by Jeremy Sarkin-Hughes a number of 100,000 victims is given. German author Walter Nuhn states that in 1904 only 40,000 Herero lived in German South-West Africa, and therefore "only 24,000" could have been killed.

Aftermath

With the closure of concentration camps all surviving Herero were distributed as labourers for settlers in the German colony, and from that time on, all Herero's over the age of seven were forced to wear a metal disc with the their labour registration number.,

About 19,000 German troops were engaged in conflict, of which 3,000 saw combat, the rest were used for upkeep and administration; the German losses were 676 soldiers killed in fighting, 76 missing and 689 dead from disease. The costs of the campaign were 600 million marks, the normal subsidy of the colony was usually 14.5 million marks At about the same time, diamonds were discovered in the territory, and this did much to boost its prosperity. However, it was short-lived. In 1915, at the start of World War I, the German colony was taken over and occupied in the South-West Africa Campaign by the Union of South Africa, acting on behalf of the British Imperial Government. South Africa received a League of Nations Mandate over South-West Africa in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles.

Recognition

In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South-West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest attempts of genocide in the 20th century

In 1998, German President Roman Herzog visited Namibia and met Herero leaders. Chief Munjuku Nguvauva demanded a public apology and compensation. Herzog expressed regret but stopped short of an apology. He also pointed out that special reparations were out of the question .

The Hereros filed a lawsuit in the United States in 2001 demanding reparations from the German government and the Deutsche Bank, which financed the German government and companies in Southern Africa.

On August 16, 2004, at the 100th anniversary of the start of the genocide, a member of the German government, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation, officially apologized and expressed grief about the genocide, declaring amidst a speech that:

}} She ruled out paying special compensations, but promised continued economic aid for Namibia which currently amounts to $14m a year.

The von Trotha family travelled to Omaruru in October 2007 by invitation of the royal Herero chiefs and publicly apologized for the actions of their relative. Wolf-Thilo von Trotha said: }}

Peter Katjavivi, a former Namibian ambassador to Germany, demanded in August 2008 that the skulls of Herero and Nama prisoners of the 1904-08 uprising, which were taken to Germany for scientific research to "prove" the superiority of white Europeans over Africans, be returned to Namibia. Katjavivi was reacting to a German television documentary which reported that its investigators had found over 40 of these skulls at two German universities, among them probably the skull of a Nama chief who had died on Shark Island near Luederitz.

Revisionism

Brigitte Lau has challenged the analyse of DDR historian Horst Drechsler (''Let Us Die Fighting'', London, 1988 translation). She considers that his work contains important factual errors, pointing amongst other things to his and other's reliance on First World War British propaganda.

Werner Hillebrecht, who criticised Brigitte Lau's work at great length, agrees that there was no plot to commit genocide, and that von Trotha "initially planned to take prisoners". However as the logistical impossibility of dealing with tens of thousands of prisoners became apparent he let the desert deal with the problem. He considers the German high command guilty of genocide because "They let it happen".

Some studies have analyzed the motivations to plan and instigate a genocide upon the Herero. It has been pointed out that although German colonists did seize and exploit much Herero/Nama soil, diamonds can't have been a motive as reports of their discovery do not begin until 1908.

Media

A BBC Documentary Namibia - Genocide & the second reich explores the Herero/Nama genocide and the circumstances surrounding it.

A short documentary in production, ''From Herero To Hitler: Planting the Seeds of a Future Genocide'', will examine how events in German South-West Africa relate to the actions of Nazi Germany.

Fictional representations

One chapter of Thomas Pynchon's novel ''V.'' (1963) is about the Herero genocide. A group of characters of Herero descent are also present in his ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (1974), which hints more than once at the Herero massacre.

See also

Genocides in history

Original German texts

References

Bibliography and documentaries

Rachel Anderson, ''Redressing Colonial Genocide Under International Law: The Hereros' Cause of Action Against Germany'', 93 California Law Review 1155 (2005).

''Exterminate all the Brutes'', Sven Lindqvist, London, 1996.

"A Forgotten History-Concentration Camps were used by Germans in South West Africa", Casper W. Erichsen, in the ''Mail and Guardian'', Johannesburg, 17 August 2001.

''Genocide & The Second Reich'', BBC Four, David Olusoga, October 2004

German Federal Archives, Imperial Colonial Office, Vol. 2089, 7 (recto)

"The Herero and Nama Genocides, 1904-1908", J.B. Gewald, in ''Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity'', New York, Macmillan Reference, 2004.

''Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia 1890 - 1923'', J.B. Gewald, Oxford, Cape Town, Athens, OH, 1999.

''Let Us Die Fighting: the Struggle of the Herero and Nama against German Imperialism, 1884-1915'', Horst Drechsler, London, 1980.

"The Revolt of the Hereros", Jon M. Bridgman, ''Perspectives on Southern Africa'', Berkeley, University of California, 1981.

A probable source for much of this information is Isabell Hull's ''Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany'' (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005). Parts of this entry are nearly word-for-word summaries of Hull's analysis.

Hull, Isabell (2005) "The Military Campaign in German Southwest Africa, 1904-1907. ''Bulletin of the German Historical Institute'' Issue 37, pp. 39-49.

Zimmerer, Jürgen (2005) "Annihilation in Africa: The 'Race War' in German Southwest Africa (1904-1908) and its Significance for a Global History of Genocide." ''Bulletin of the German Historical Institute'' Issue 37, pp. 51–57.

Absolute Destruction: Military Culture And the Practices of War in Imperial Germany by Isabel V. Hull Cornell University Press 2006

Mohamed Adhikari, "'Streams Of Blood And Streams Of Money': New Perspectives on the Annihilation of the Herero and Nama Peoples Of Namibia, 1904-1908," Kronos: Journal Of Cape History 2008 34: 303-320

Further reading

Official German apologies

The resistance struggle culminates in genocide: 1904-1906

The tribe Germany wants to forget, ''Mail & Guardian'', 13 March 1998

news.from.africa: Genocide and the history of violent expansionism

Category:German South-West Africa Category:Conflicts in 1904 Category:Guerrilla wars Category:Wars involving Germany Category:Ethnic cleansing Category:Genocides Category:Herero people Category:1904 in Africa Category:1904 in Namibia Category:History of Namibia Category:History of colonialism Category:Germany–Namibia relations Category:German colonisation in Africa

af:Namibiese volksmoord 1904-1908 az:Herero və Namaka qətliamı da:Folkedrabet på Herero- og Namaquafolkene de:Aufstand der Herero und Nama es:Genocidio herero y namaqua fr:Massacre des Hereros it:Guerre herero he:רצח העם של ההררו והנאמה nl:Namibische genocide ja:ヘレロ・ナマクア虐殺 no:Herero-oppstanden pl:Ludobójstwo Herero i Namaqua pt:Genocídio dos hererós e namaquas ru:Геноцид племён гереро и нама sv:Folkmordet på herero- och namafolken tr:Herero ve Namaka Soykırımı vi:Diệt chủng người Herero và Namaqua

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Group	The San
Poptime	90,000 +
Popplace	Botswana (55,000), Namibia (27,000), South Africa (10,000), Angola (<5,000)
Rels	San Religion
Langs	various Khoisan languages
Related	Khoikhoi, Xhosa, Basters, Griqua }}

The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe. These people were traditionally hunter-gatherers, part of the Khoisan group and are related to the traditionally pastoral Khoikhoi. Starting in the 1950s, and lasting through the 1990s, they switched to farming as a result of government-mandated modernization programs as well as the increased risks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle in the face of technological development. There is a significant linguistic difference between the northern Bushmen living between Okavango (Botswana) and Etosha (Namibia), extending into southern Angola on the one hand and the southern group in the central Kalahari towards the Molopo, who are the last remnant of the extensive autochthonous San of South Africa.

The Bushmen have provided a wealth of information for the fields of anthropology and genetics, even as their lifestyles change. One broad study of African genetic diversity completed in 2009 found the San people were among the five populations with the highest measured levels of genetic diversity among the 121 distinct African populations sampled.

Naming

The terms ''San'', ''Khwe'', ''Sho'', ''Bushmen'' and ''Basarwa'' have all been used to refer to the hunter-gatherer peoples of southern Africa. Each of these terms has a problematic history, as they have been used by outsiders to refer to them, often with pejorative connotations. The individual groups identify by names such as Ju/'hoansi and !Kung (the punctuation characters representing different click consonants), and most call themselves by the term ''Bushmen'' when referring to themselves collectively.

The different San language groups of Namibia met in late 1996 and agreed to allow the general term ''San'' to designate them externally. This term was historically applied by their ethnic relatives and historic rivals, the ''Khoikhoi''. This term means ''outsider'' in the Nama language, and was derogatory because it distinguished the Bushmen from what the Khoikhoi called themselves, namely, the ''First People''. Western anthropologists adopted ''San'' extensively in the 1970s, where it remains preferred in academic circles. The term ''Bushmen'' is widely used, but opinions vary on whether it is appropriate because it is sometimes viewed as pejorative.

In South Africa, the term ''San'' has become favored in official contexts, and is included in the blazon of the new national coat-of-arms; ''Bushman'' is considered derogatory by some groups. Angola does not have an official term for the San, but they are sometimes referred to as Bushmen, ''Kwankhala'', or ''Bosquímanos'' (the Portuguese term for ''Bushmen''). In Lesotho they're referred to as ''Baroa'', which is where the Sesotho name for ''south'', ''Boroa'', comes from. Neither Zambia nor Zimbabwe have official terms, although in the latter case the terms ''Amasili'' and ''Batwa'' are sometimes used. In Botswana, the officially used term is ''Basarwa'', where it is partially acceptable to some Bushmen groups, although Basarwa, a Tswana label derived from ''Twa'', also has negative connotations. The term is a class 2 noun (as indicated by the "ba-" class marker), while an older class 6 variant, ''Masarwa'', is now almost universally considered offensive.

Ancestral land conflict with Botswana government

Since the mid 1990s, the central government of Botswana has implemented a relocation policy, aiming to move the Bushmen out of their ancestral land on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve into newly created settlements. Although the government has categorically denied that relocation has been forced, a recent court ruling confirmed that the removal was unconstitutional and residents were forcibly removed.

The government's official reasons for adopting the policy is:

"Over time it has become clear that many residents of the CKGR already were or wished to become settled agriculturists, raising crops and tending livestock as opposed to hunting-gathering when the reserve was established in 1961.

"In fact, hunting-gathering had become obsolete to sustain their living conditions. These agricultural land uses are not compatible with preserving wildlife resources and not sustainable to be practiced in the Game Reserve.

"This is the fundamental reason for government to relocate the CKGR residents."

Opponents to the relocation policy claim that the government's intent is to clear the area — an area the size of Denmark — for the lucrative tourist trade and diamond mining. This is strenuously denied on the government's official web site, stating that although exploration had taken place, it concluded that mining activity would not be viable and that the issue was not related to the relocation policy.

It is further claimed that the group as a whole has little voice in the national political process and is not one of the tribal groups recognized in the constitution of Botswana. Over the generations, the Bushmen of Southern Africa have continued to be absorbed into the African population, particularly the ''Griqua'' sub-group, which is an Afrikaans-speaking people of predominantly Khoisan that has certain unique cultural markers which set them apart from other Africans.

Court decision

On December 13, 2006, the Bushmen won a historic ruling in their long-running court case against the government. By a 2-1 majority, the court ruled the refusal to allow the Basarwa into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) without a permit, and the refusal to issue special game licenses to allow the Bushmen to hunt, was "unlawful and unconstitutional". It also found that the Bushmen were "forcibly and wrongly deprived of their possessions" by the government. However, the court did not compel the government to provide services such as water to any Bushmen who returned to the reserve. As of 2006, more than 1,000 Bushmen intended to return to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, one of Africa's largest protected nature reserves. However, only limited numbers of Bushmen have been allowed to return to this land. In April 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) criticised Botswana's government for not allowing certain Bushmen to return.

High Court appeal

On January 27, 2011, the Bushmen won an appeal against the Government in the Botswana High Court after they were initially prohibited from accessing drinking water inside the Reserve through bore holes. Barrister Gordon Bennett represented the Bushmen in court as the judges declared the Botswana government guilty of ‘degrading treatment’ and described the case as ‘a harrowing story of human suffering and despair’. Furthermore, the Government were ordered to pay the costs of the Bushmen's appeal

''Hoodia'' traditional knowledge agreement

''Hoodia gordonii'', used by the San Bushmen, was patented by the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1998. Without the knowledge of the San, the CSIR patented this plant for its appetite suppressing quality. A license was granted to Phytopharm, for development of the active ingredient in the ''Hoodia'' plant, p57 (glycoside), to be used as a pharmaceutical drug for dieting. Once this patent was brought to the attention of the San, a benefit-sharing agreement was reached between them and the CSIR in 2003. This would award royalties to the San for the benefits of their indigenous knowledge. The San were represented by a regional organisation formed under San leadership, the Working group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA).

This benefit-sharing agreement is one of the first to give royalties to the holders of traditional knowledge used for drug sales. The terms of the agreement are contentious, because of their apparent lack of adherence to the Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, as outlined in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The San have yet to profit from this agreement, as P57 has still not yet been legally developed and marketed.

Society

The Bushman kinship system reflects their interdependence as traditionally small mobile foraging bands. The kinship system is also comparable to the eskimo kinship system, with the same set of terms as in Western countries, but also employing a name rule and an age rule. The age rule resolves any confusion arising from kinship terms, as the older of two people always decides what to call the younger. Relatively few names circulate (approximately only 35 names per gender), and each child is named after a grandparent or another relative.

Children have no social duties besides playing, and leisure is very important to Bushmen of all ages. Large amounts of time are spent in conversation, joking, music, and sacred dances. Women have a high status in the San society, are greatly respected, and may be leaders of their own family groups. They make important family and group decisions and claim ownership of water holes and foraging areas. Women are mainly involved in the gathering of food, but may also take part in hunting.

The most important thing in the lives of the San people is water. Droughts can last for many months and waterholes may dry up. When this happens, they use sip wells. To get water this way, a San will scrape a deep hole where the sand is damp. Into this hole will be put a long hollow grass stem. An empty ostrich egg is used to collect the water. Water is sucked into the straw from the sand, into the mouth, and then travels down another straw into the ostrich egg.

Traditionally, the San were an egalitarian society. Although they did have hereditary chiefs, the chiefs' authority was limited. The bushmen instead made decisions among themselves by consensus, with women treated as relatively equal. In addition, the San economy was a gift economy, based on giving each other gifts on a regular basis rather than on trading or purchasing goods and services.

Subsistence

Villages range in sturdiness from nightly rain shelters in the warm spring (when people move constantly in search of budding greens), to formalized rings, wherein people congregate in the dry season around permanent waterholes. Early spring is the hardest season: a hot dry period following the cool, dry winter. Most plants are still dead or dormant, and supplies of autumn nuts are exhausted. Meat is particularly important in the dry months when wildlife can't range far from the receding waters.

Bushmen women gather fruit, berries, tubers, bush onions, and other plant materials for the band's consumption. The eggs of ostriches are gathered, and the empty shells are used as water containers. In addition to plants, insects furnish perhaps ten percent of animal proteins consumed, most often during the dry season. Depending on location, the Bushmen consume 18 to 104 species including grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and termites.

The women's traditional gathering gear is simple and effective: a hide sling, a blanket, a cloak called a ''kaross'' to carry foodstuffs, firewood, smaller bags, a digging stick, and perhaps a smaller version of the kaross to carry a baby.

Bushmen men traditionally hunted using poison arrows and spears in laborious, long excursions. Kudu, antelope, deer, ''dikdik'', and buffalo were important game animals. The Bushmen offered thanks to the animal's spirit after it had been killed. The liver was eaten only by men and hunters, because it was thought to contain a poison unsafe for women.

In the 1990s, a portion of the population switched to livestock farming as a result of government-mandated modernization programs, as well as the increased risks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle in the face of technological development.

Early history

Historical evidence shows that certain Bushmen communities have always lived in the desert regions of the Kalahari. But nearly all of the Bushmen communities in southern Africa were eventually forced into this region. The Kalahari Bushmen remained in poverty where their richer neighbours denied them rights to the land. Before long, in both Botswana and Namibia, they found their territory drastically reduced.

Media presentation

The Bushmen of the Kalahari were first brought to the Western world's attention in the 1950s by South African author Laurens van der Post. In 1955, Van der Post was commissioned by the BBC to go the Kalahari desert with a film crew in search of the Bushmen. The filmed material was turned into a very popular six-part television documentary a year later. Driven by a lifelong fascination with this "vanished tribe", Van der Post published a 1958 book about the same expedition, entitled ''The Lost World of the Kalahari''. It was to be his most famous book. In 1961 he published ''The Heart of the Hunter'', a narrative derived from 19th-century Bushmen stories by Wilhelm Bleek. Van der Post's work is largely discredited, as it is the subjective view of a European in the 1950s and 60s. His opinions branded the San as simple "children of Nature" or even "mystical ecologists". In the 1970s, South African writers such as R.O. Pearse stated that the Bushmen were somewhere between animals and mankind.

John Marshall, brother of Harvard anthropologist Lorna Marshall, documented the lives of Bushmen in the Nyae Nyae region of Namibia over a more than fifty year period. His early film ''The Hunters'', released in 1957, shows a giraffe hunt during the 1950s. ''N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman'' (1980) is the account of a woman who grew up while the Bushmen were living as autonomous hunter-gatherers, but who was later forced into a dependent life in the government-created community at Tsumkwe. ''A Kalahari Family'' (2002) is a five-part, six-hour series documenting fifty years in the lives of the ''JuǀʼHoansi'' of Southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000. Marshall was a fierce and vocal proponent of the Bushman cause throughout his life, in part due to strong kinship ties, and his marriage to a Bushman wife in his early 20s.

The BBC series ''How Art Made the World'' compares San cave paintings from 200 years ago to Paleolithic European paintings which are 14,000 years old. Because of their similarities, the San works may illustrate the reasons for ancient cave paintings. In this programme, Nigel Spivey draws largely on the work of Professor David Lewis-Williams. Drawing parallels between modern hunter-gatherers in southern Africa (Bushmen) and the Americas, Lewis-Williams shows that healers, or ritual specialists, deliberately force themselves into a trance in which they travel to the spirit world. The visions they experience on these journeys of the mind are terrifying and complex, and the activity itself is undertaken for the good of the community. The Kalahari Bushmen go to the spirit world to entreat with their god for the lives of the sick, to make rain, and to control the movements of the game animals.

In the lightest stages of trance states, all humans have the capacity to see geometric shapes known as form constants. They are hard-wired in the brain. As the trance deepens, and the subject tries to make sense of the shapes, so they change into things which are governed by that person's particular culture. The geometries are found all over the world and throughout history. Coupled to this are experiences such as changing into animals: the rock art traditions of hunter-gatherers the world over — including Ice Age Europe — contain images of figures which are half human and half animal . Going into deep caves is likened to going into a deep trance. Some images in France and Spain are over 1 km into the caves. Native Americans would call this 'Vision Questing' — going to barely accessible places such as mountain tops to perform rock art making, the images likely derived from visions they had experienced at special ceremonies.

Spencer Wells' 2003 book ''The Journey of Man'' — in connection with National Geographic's Genographic Project — discusses a genetic analysis of the San and asserts their blood contains some of the oldest genetic markers found on Earth. The Bushmen's Y-chromosomal DNA haplogroup (type A) is one of the oldest, splitting off around 70,000 years ago from those found in the rest of humanity (type BT). Therefore, the Bushmen likely represent one of the oldest existing populations. Genetic markers present on the y chromosome are passed down through thousands of generations in a relatively pure form. The PBS documentary based on the book follows these markers throughout the world, demonstrating that all of humankind can be traced back to the African continent and that the San are one of the oldest, most genetically unadulterated, remnants of humankind's ancient ancestors. More recent analysis suggests that the San may have been isolated from other original ancestral groups for as much as 100,000 years and then rejoined at a later date, re-integrating the human gene pool.

Films and music

The 1980 comedy movie ''The Gods Must Be Crazy'' portrays a Kalahari Bushman tribe's first encounter with an artifact from the outside world (a Coke bottle). By the time this movie was made, the ǃKung had recently been forced into sedentary villages, and the Bushmen hired as actors were confused by the instructions to act out inaccurate exaggerations of their almost abandoned hunting and gathering life. The director of this movie, Jamie Uys, had also directed ''Lost in the Desert'' in 1969, in which a small boy, stranded in the desert, encounters a group of wandering Bushmen, who help him and then abandon him as a result of a misunderstanding created by the lack of a common language and culture. Coca-Cola has sponsored a documentary of San hunting entitled ''The Great Dance: A Hunter's Story'' (2000) directed by Craig and Damon Foster.

South African film-maker Richard Wicksteed has produced a number of documentaries on San/Bushman culture, history and present situation; these include "In God's Places/Iindawo ZikaThixo" (1995) on the Bushman cultural legacy in the southern Drakensberg; "Death of a Bushman" (2002) on the murder of Bushman tracker Optel Rooi by South African police; "The Will To Survive" (2009) which covers the history and situation of Bushman communities in southern Africa today; and "My Land is My Dignity" (2009) on the San's epic land rights struggle in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

"Eh Hee" by Dave Matthews Band was written as an evocation of the music and culture of the San. In a story told to the Radio City audience (an edited version of which appears on the DVD version of ''Live at Radio City''), Matthews recalls hearing the music of the San and, upon asking his guide what the words to their songs were, being told that "there are no words to these songs, because these songs, we've been singing since before people had words". He goes on to describe the song as his "homage to meeting... the most advanced people on the planet".

The BBC's The Life of Mammals series includes video footage of an indigenous bushmen of the Kalahari desert undertaking a persistence hunt of a kudu through harsh desert conditions. It provides an illustration of how early man may have pursued and captured prey with minimal weaponry.

Fiction

James A. Michener's ''The Covenant'' (1980), is a work of historical fiction centered on South Africa. The first section of the book concerns a San tribe's journey set roughly in 13,000 BCE.

In Wilbur Smith's ''The Burning Shores'', the San people are portrayed through two major characters, O'wa and H'ani, and the Bushmen's struggles, history, and beliefs are touched upon in great detail. ''The Burning Shores'' is a volume in the ''Courtneys of Africa'' series.

Tad Williams' epic ''Otherland'' series of novels features !Xabbu, a South African bushman and includes many references to their mythology and culture. He acknowledges that the character is highly fictionalised and apologises for any misrepresentation.

In 2007, author David Gilman published ''The Devil's Breath'', a novel partly based on the Bushmen. One of the main characters, a small bushman boy named !Koga, uses traditional bushman methods to help the character Max Gordon travel across Namibia.

In Peter Godwin's biography ''When A Crocodile Eats the Sun'' he mentions his time spent with the San, the Kalahari Bushmen, for an assignment. His title comes from the San's belief that a solar eclipse occurs when a crocodile eats the sun. In the May 2011 edition of the Scientific American, the DNA sequence first reported to be the precursor for all human beings was confirmed.

Notable Bushmen

Nǃxau starred in several films based on and including ''The Gods Must Be Crazy''.

The "negro of Banyoles", a controversial piece of taxidermy, was a bushman.

Genetic studies

Various Y-chromosome studies demonstrated that the San carry some of the most divergent (oldest) Y-chromosome haplogroups. These haplogroups are specific sub-groups of haplogroups A and B, the two earliest branches on the human Y-chromosome tree.

Similar to findings from Y-Chromosome studies, mitochondrial DNA studies also showed evidence that the San people carry high frequencies of the earliest haplogroup branches in the human mitochondrial DNA tree. The most divergent (oldest) mitochondrial haplogroup, L0d, have been identified at its highest frequencies in the southern African San groups.

Neoteny

Ashley Montagu noted that Bushmen have the following neotenous traits relative to Caucasoids: "large brain", light skin pigment, less hairy, round-headed, bulging forehead, small cranial sinuses, flat roof of the nose, small face, small mastoid processes, wide eye separation, median eye fold, short stature and horizontal penis.

Notes

References

External links

Kalahari Peoples Fund

Survival International

I want 2 go home - Kgeikani Kweni (First People of the Kalahari)

National Geographic

Bleek and Lloyd Archive of |xam and !kun texts online

Specimens of Bushmen folklore - tales collected by Bleek and Lloyd

The San Trickster God meets the Ideology of the West: Exploring the Implications of Interpretation among San and European Relations in Southern Africa

The myth of ritual origins? Ethnography, mythology and interpretation of San rock art by Dr Anne Solomon (South African Archaeological Bulletin, June 1997)

The Kalahari Peoples Fund

Scientific American - Offerings to a Stone Snake Provide the Earliest Evidence of Religion by J. R. Minkel 01/12/06

Les bushmen, an excerpt of 'The Gods must be Crazy' narrated in French, on YouTube

video of persistence hunting

The Kuru Family of Organizations

Sos bushmen: everything about the Bushmen. In several languages

The San Bushmen of southern Africa

Khwattu - South African based centre for preservation of the original SAN culture

Photo gallery of Bushmen in Botswana

Southern African Foragers on the Hunter-Gatherer Wiki of the Department of Anthropology at the Ohio State University

Category:Ethnic groups in Botswana Category:Ethnic groups in Namibia Category:Ethnic groups in South Africa Category:Indigenous peoples of Southern Africa Category:African nomads Category:Hunter-gatherers Category:Modern nomads

af:Boesman ar:بوشمن ast:San bg:Бушмени ca:San cs:Křováci cy:San da:Buskmand de:San (Volk) es:San eo:Boŝmanoj eu:San herria fa:بوشمن fr:Bochimans fy:Boskjemannen ko:부시먼족 hi:बुशमैन hr:Bušmani it:San (popolo) he:בושמנים lv:Bušmeņi lt:Bušmėnai ml:ബുഷ്‌മെൻ arz:بوشمن nl:San (volk) ja:サン人 no:San nn:Sanfolk oc:San pl:Buszmeni ro:San (popor) ru:Бушмены tn:Basarwa sk:Krováci sl:Grmičarji sr:Бушмани sh:Bušmani fi:Sanit sv:Sanfolket kab:Ibucmanen tr:Buşmanlar uk:Бушмени vec:Bosìmani yo:Bushmen zh-yue:閃族 zh:布希曼人

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Lady May
background	solo_singer
birth name	Rhonda Robinson
alias	Mae West
genre	Hip hop
occupation	Rapper, actress, model
years active	2001–present
label	Crazy Cat, Arista }}

Lady May (born Rhonda Robinson) is an American rapper from New York City's suburbs.

May was born in the 1980s and grew up listening to Elton John, Duran Duran and Michael Jackson. At the age of fifteen, May stopped attending high school and became a hip hop dancer in music videos for artists such as LL Cool J and Jodeci, but was left unsatisfied, eventually turning to rap music.

She began rapping in the late '90s under her stage name, Mae West; her rapping skills would eventually gain notice from fellow producer/rapper, Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie, who introduced her via his 2000 solo debut album, ''Tell 'Em Why U Madd'', on the track "Shysty Broads" alongside with former Timbaland protégé, Babe Blue. He later renamed her, Lady May, introduced her to Crazy Cat Productions and she eventually landed a contract deal with Arista Records in 2001.

May released her debut single in 2002, "Round Up", which featured R&B singer and former label-mate Blu Cantrell. Her next selected single was to be "Dick & the Doe"; a music video was shot for the single but in the midst of the pushbacks for ''May Day'', which was first scheduled for a release in May 2002, then to July 16, 2002, then finally to August 2002, the single and video as well as the album were altogether shelved after the poor reception gained from "Round Up" - the album eventually leaked onto P2P sites. She was also featured on former label-mate Rob Jackson's 2002 single "Boom Boom Boom", which was slated to appear on his debut album, ''For the People'', but was eventually shelved as well. In 2003, she was featured on Willa Ford's "A Toast to Men", also appearing in its video.

The same year she appeared on DJ Kayslay's ''Streetsweeper Vol. 1'' on the song "Seven Deadly Sins", which also featured Vita, Angie Martinez, Duchess, Amil, Sonja Blade, and Remy Ma.

May contributed on Jennifer Lopez's 2007 ''Brave'' album credited as a song-writer on several tracks.

Discography

Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions		Album
					! width="80"	! width="80"
	"Round Up" (featuring Blu Cantrell)
"Dick & the Doe"
2003	"A Toast to Men" (Willa Ford featuring Lady May)

References

External links

VH1 Bio

MTV News: You Hear It First

Category:American musicians of Asian descent Category:Female rappers Category:American rappers of Jamaican descent Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people)