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Namibië
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Een snelle surf doorheen de .na-domeinnamen levert helaas niet zo veel op. Waarmee ik niet wil zeggen dat het een achterlijk land is, de mensen vinden er begrijpelijk meer heil in het beheren van kuddes dan in het beheren van een website. Dat maakt voor mij Namibië juist de meest interessante bestemming op de reisroute. Toch enkele dingen opgemerkt :
>> The Namibian, online gazet die een vergelijking met De Standaard gerust kan doorstaan.
>> The National Museum, heel nuttig als je iets meer wil weten over oude en hedendaagse kunst en cultuur in Namibië. Vooral hun online fototentoonstelling is leuk.
>> Namib.com, een portaalsite waar helaas nogal veel dooie links uit de kast vallen.
Mocht er iemand op andere vernoemenswaardige links vallen, sta dan terug recht en laat het mij weten via het vertrouwde pascal@zemir.org. |
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Mensen met een fris opmerkingsvermogen zullen al snel constateren dat er in Namibië meer zand dan poen te scheppen valt. Er is in het land dan ook een grotere variatie aan zandsoorten dan aan plantensoorten. Lastig voor de Namibische volken, voor mij de favoriete bestemming. |
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In Windhoek (spreek uit : Vindhoek) is aan het nalatenschap van de Duitse kolonisator niet te ontsnappen. Dat de Namibiërs niet vies zijn van hun verleden blijkt uit de manier waarop ze het koloniaal patrimonium onderhouden. Niet alleen architecturaal, maar ook de straten dragen nog vaak de naam van een voorname Duitse heer. Als ik een klankfragment had van een autochtone Namibiër die in Windhoek de weg wijst, zou ik het zeker met u delen. |
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het station in de Bahnhof Street
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By 1500, the Herero and Ovambo peoples had already settled in northern Namibia. Pastoralist Herero communities gradually extended southwards in search of new grazing areas. Nama groups were similarly moving northwards into the grasslands of central Namibia. European exploration of the southwestern coast of Africa began in the 16th century but presence of the Namib Desert prevented actual penetration of the region. This inhospitable coastal desert constituted a formidable barrier to European exploration until the late 18th century, when a succession of travelers, traders, hunters, and missionaries came into the area.
By 1878, the United Kingdom had annexed Walvis Bay on behalf of Cape Colony. In 1883, German trader Adolf Luderitz, claimed the rest of the coastal region for his country. Germany subsequently annexed the coastal zone, excluding Walvis Bay, in 1884. In 1885, the United Kingdom recognized the Namibian hinterland (up to 200-east longitude) as a German sphere of influence.
When Germans moved into the central grasslands after 1890, they sought to exploit competition that had arisen between Nama and Herero groups over the control of grazing lands. The rapid spread of the rinderpest-epidemic in 1896-97 decimated the local pastoral economies and encouraged the expanded settlement of colonists. The German authority extended over most of Southwest Africa by 1900.
Losing their land resources and facing increasing indebtedness to German traders, many Nama and Herero were forced to sell their remaining cattle to stock the new white farms. In 1904, the Herero rebelled, killing settlers and reoccupying territory. German reinforcements drove them into the Kalahari with staggering results. Less than twenty-five percent of the Herero population survived by the end of 1905. Meanwhile, the Nama had also risen against German rule, fighting a guerrilla campaign that took several years to finally crush. As a result of the Herero and Nama Wars from 1904 to 1908, German colonial power was consolidated, and prime-grazing land passed completely into white European control. German administration ended during World War I when South Africa occupied South West Africa in 1915.
After World War I, a League of Nations mandate placed South West Africa under the jurisdiction of South Africa. The mandate agreement gave South Africa full power of administration and legislation over the territory but it also required South Africa to promote the material well being, moral welfare, and social progress of the entire population.
After World War II, the newly formed United Nations inherited supervisory authority for the territory of South West Africa and requested that South Africa place the territory under a trusteeship agreement. South Africa, however, refused to cooperate.
During the early 1960s, as the European powers granted independence to their territories in Africa, international pressure mounted on South Africa to do the same for South West Africa. A Namibian nationalist group, the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), also emerged out of Ovamboland and began to organize against continued South African occupation.
In 1966 SWAPO began guerrilla attacks, infiltrating the territory from bases in Zambia. SWAPO also established bases in the southern part of Angola after that country became independent in 1975. SWAPO eventually formed a separate military wing called the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) (gesteund door de Sovjetunie en Cuba, nvdr).
Actual implementation of Resolution 435 officially began on 1 April 1989, when South African-appointed Administrator, General Louis Pienaar, began administrating Namibia's transition to independence.
In November 1989, almost ninety-eight percent of registered voters turned out to elect members of the Constituent Assembly. These first elections were certified as free and fair by the special UN representative. SWAPO took fifty-seven percent of the vote, just short of the two-thirds necessary to have a free hand in drafting the constitution. The main opposition party, Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), received twenty-nine percent of the vote.
Written by CountryWatch.com. Sources: History of Africa, the CIA and the US Department of State.
Last updated: 10/2/00 |
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