Namibia History
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History
Namibia officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence.
Namibia, the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, was inhabited since early times by the San, Damara, and Nama peoples. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, one of which is known as the Ovambo people, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority.
In 1878, the Cape of Good Hope, then a British colony, had annexed the port of Walvis Bay and the offshore Penguin Islands; these became an integral part of the new Union of South Africa at its creation in 1910.
In 1884 the German Empire established rule over most of the territory as a protectorate. It began to develop infrastructure and farming and maintained this German colony until 1915, when South African forces defeated its military. In 1920, after the end of World War I, the League of Nations mandated the country to the United Kingdom, under administration by South Africa.
From 1948, with the National Party elected to power, South Africa applied apartheid also to what was then known as South West Africa. In the later 20th century, uprisings and demands for political representation by native African political activists seeking independence resulted in the UN assuming direct responsibility over the territory in 1966, but South Africa maintained de facto rule.
In 1973 the UN recognized the South West Africa People's Organisation as the official representative of the Namibian people; the party is dominated by the Ovambo, who are a large plurality in the territory. Following continued guerrilla warfare, South Africa installed an interim administration in Namibia in 1985. Namibia obtained full independence from South Africa in 1990. However, Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands remained under South African control until 1994.[1]
Timeline
1884 - Namibia became a German colony and was known as German South West Africa
1904 - 1907 In what has been called the first genocide of the Twentieth Century, the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama, half the population, and approximately 65,000 Herero, about 80% of the population. 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 the apartheid established by South Africa in 1948
1990 - Nambia officially became independent