Namibia - History


LOCATION: 11°44′ to 25°16′ E; 16°58′ to 28°58′ S. BOUNDARY LENGTHS: Angola, 1,376 kilometers (855 miles); Zambia, 233 kilometers (144 miles); Botswana, 1,360 kilometers (850 miles); South Africa, 966 kilometers (600 miles); Atlantic Ocean, including Walvis Bay, 1,489 kilometers (921 miles). TERRITORIAL SEA LIMIT: 12 miles.



After World War II, South Africa refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the UN over Namibia as a successor organization to the League of Nations. Instead, it progressively integrated Namibia into the Union. In the 1950s, senators from South West Africa sat in the South African parliament. The UN took South Africa before the International Court of Justice, that gave ambiguous verdicts in 1962 and 1966, but in 1971 it decisively declares South Africa's occupation of Namibia illegal. In 1978, the UN Security Council rejected South Africa's annexation of Walvis Bay.





Elections, held 7–11 November 1989, were certified as free and fair. This transitional period involved the return some 42,000 refugees and the return of SWAPO politicians and PLAN fighters in exile. SWAPO took 57% of the vote, just short of the twothirds necessary to allow it a free hand in drafting a constitution. The main opposition Democratic Turnahalle Alliance (DTA) received 29%. By 9 February 1990 the constituent assembly had drafted and adopted a constitution based on the 1982 constitutional principles. Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990. Nujoma was sworn in as president by UN Sec. Gen. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. Namibia's independence shines as a UN success story.



By the late 1990s, secessionist sentiments were growing among the 92,000 Lozi of the Caprivi Strip in northeastern Namibia. They formed the Caprivi Liberation Front, led by Mishake Muyongo, former SWAPO executive secretary and DTA leader. On 2 August 1998, Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA) rebels attacked military, police, and other government installations around Katima Mulilo in Caprivi. Namibia declared a state of emergency that lasted three weeks. Six soldiers and police officers, and several civilians died in the attack. Many rebels were capturing or killed by security forces. By December 1998, 2,250 Namibians from the Caprivi region had crossed into Botswana, allegedly fleeing persecution by the Namibian Defense Force, and 2,232 of them were given asylum in Botswana. Mushoke and Chief Boniface Maunili got asylum in Denmark. In 2002, 128 Caprivians were being held for trial on charges of treason. By March 2003, despite assurances for their safety, none of the Caprivian refugees in Botswana had signed up for the next round of repatriations by the UNHCR and the government.

In November 1998, SWAPO used its two-thirds majority in Parliament to change the constitution to allow Nujoma a third term of office. This move attracted wide national and international criticism in what some observers called a "torpedoing of democracy" to suit certain individuals. Namibia's ambassador to Britain and high-ranking SWAPO member, Ben Ulenga, resigned in protest over this. In March 1999, he formed his own party, the Congress of Democrats (CoD). Nujoma went on to win the (substantially free and fair) elections held on 30 November and 1 December 1999, taking 77% of the vote and three-quarters (55) of the 72 parliamentary seats. The CoD (tied with DTA at 7 seats) won the highest number of opposition votes (10.5%). At its Congress in 2002, Nujoma was reelected head of SWAPO, which he has led for nearly 40 years. In June 2003, Nujoma declared that he would not stand for a fourth term— implying that a new party head would have to be chosen before the 2004 elections.


In June 2003, Namibia was included in free trade talks with the United States as part of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). It had also received $113 million over five years in assistance from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, and announced that local production of anti-AIDS drugs would soon begin—a measure that was expected to make life-prolonging drugs available and affordable to thousands of infected persons. The HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate stood at 22%.

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