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Sub Saharan Africa

Namibia

 Flag of Namibia

Map of Namibia Last reviewed: 10 March 2009

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History

Germany declared a protectorate over the area in 1884. Colonial settlement provoked a series of uprisings at the beginning of the 20th century, in which the Herero and the Nama peoples were almost wiped out. During the First World War South Africa, in pursuit of its own colonial ambitions, invaded and occupied German South-West Africa and was awarded a League of Nations Mandate. The territory was administered as a de facto South African colony; many Afrikaners settled there and, after 1948, elements of apartheid were introduced.

The UN terminated South Africa's Mandate in 1966. One year later, the UN changed the name of the territory from South West Africa to Namibia. In 1971, the International Court of Justice declared in a landmark advisory opinion that South Africa's presence in the territory was 'illegal' and that it should withdraw. South Africa ignored the Court. Angola's independence in late 1975 created the opportunity for SWAPO, which was founded in 1960, to step up its armed struggle for independence from bases in neighbouring Angola. A UN Plan for Namibian independence was adopted in 1978. But, fearful of 'communist' domination of the region, South Africa refused to implement its terms for another decade. Finally, in 1988, under US pressure and after a series of major cross-border campaigns by the South African military (ostensibly intended to destroy SWAPO bases) the South Africans conceded independence in return for a Cuban withdrawal from Angola. In the pre-independence election to the Constituent Assembly, SWAPO won 41 of the 72 seats. This body drew up the independence constitution, elected Sam Nujoma to be the country's first President, and became Namibia's first National Assembly when formal independence was achieved on 21 March 1990. Namibia joined the Commonwealth on the same day.

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