|
The country of
Namibia is situated in south-western Africa, with the Atlantic Ocean as
its western border. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia in the north,
Botswana in the east and South Africa in the south. Namibia is a sparsely
populated country full of wide-open spaces including the spectacular Namib
Desert and the bleak Skeleton Coast. Namibia is also rich in wildlife and
has the magnificent Etosha National Park - one of Africa's best game
reserves. An appendage called the Caprivi Strip juts out of its
north-eastern corner into central Africa.
South Africa occupied the
German colony of South-West Africa during World War I and administered it
as a mandate until after World War II, when it annexed the territory. In
1966 the Marxist South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla
group launched a war of independence for the area that was soon named
Namibia, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its
administration in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire region.
Namibia won its independence in 1990 and has been governed by SWAPO since.
Hifikepunye POHAMBA was elected president in November 2004 in a landslide
victory replacing Sam NUJOMA who led the country during its first 14 years
of self rule.
Namibia is 823 680
kmē in extent, the fifth largest of 19 African countries south of the
equator but the least populated, with a population density of only 2,2
people per square kilometre. The
offiial language is English the other 2 common used languages are German
and Afrikaans. There also is a varieaty of local languages like Herero,
Nama and Oshivambo.It
ranks 15th in size out of 50 countries in Africa as a whole. Within
southern Africa*, only South Africa is bigger.
Namibia is twice
the size of Germany and slightly larger than Britain and France together.
It is as big again as California, somewhat bigger than Texas and half the
size of Alaska, the largest state of the US. In addition to the land area,
its territorial waters extend 200 nautical miles out to sea from the
coastline, over an area of 526 000 kmē.
|
|
