Chapter 01 · Deep prehistory – c. 1800
First peoples: the San, Khoekhoe, Damara and the engravings of Twyfelfontein
For tens of thousands of years the San hunter-gatherers ranged across the Namib and its margins, leaving the engravings of Twyfelfontein; they were joined by the herding Khoekhoe and Damara, and by Bantu-speaking Ovambo, Herero and Kavango peoples who settled the north and centre.
The oldest inhabitants of present-day Namibia were the San, hunter-gatherers whose ancestors have lived in southern Africa for tens of thousands of years. In the arid valleys of Damaraland they left an extraordinary record of their world: at Twyfelfontein, in the Kunene region, thousands of petroglyphs pecked into sandstone over some two thousand years depict rhinoceroses, giraffes, lions and the spoor of animals, alongside enigmatic figures bound up with San ritual and belief. With one of the largest and best-preserved concentrations of rock engravings in Africa, Twyfelfontein was inscribed as Namibia's first UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007.
Over the past two millennia the San were joined by herding peoples. The Khoekhoe — among them the Nama of the south — were pastoralists who moved with their cattle and sheep across the dry interior, while the Damara, who also speak a Khoekhoe click language, were long established in the centre and west; their precise origins remain debated. These communities, together often called the Khoisan, shaped the cultures of central and southern Namibia long before any European or Bantu-speaking farmers arrived.
From roughly fifteen hundred years ago, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated into the better-watered north and centre, bringing iron-working, cattle and cultivation. The Ovambo settled the floodplains of the far north, today the most populous group in the country; the Kavango peoples settled along the river of that name; and the Herero, cattle-herders who probably entered from the north-east, spread across the central highlands. By the time outsiders pressed into the interior, a mosaic of San, Nama, Damara, Ovambo, Herero and other societies occupied the land.
“Over some two thousand years, San artists carved thousands of animals and tracks into the sandstone at Twyfelfontein — one of Africa's greatest galleries of rock engravings.”
Turning points
- deep prehistoryPeoples & Migration
San hunter-gatherers of the Namib
The San, among the oldest human populations on Earth, ranged across the Namib and its margins for tens of thousands of years, hunting, gathering and recording their world in rock art.
See the data - c. 2000 years agoCulture & Ideas
- 1st millennium BCEPeoples & Migration
Khoekhoe and Damara herders
Khoekhoe pastoralists, including the Nama, and the Damara established themselves across central and southern Namibia, herding cattle and sheep and speaking Khoekhoe click languages.
See the data - c. 500 CE onwardPeoples & Migration
Bantu-speaking peoples settle the north
Over the past fifteen hundred years Bantu-speaking Ovambo, Kavango and Herero peoples migrated into the north and centre, bringing iron-working, agriculture and cattle pastoralism.
See the data
Figures of the era
Chapter sources: Namibia (country, history and government), History of Namibia, Twyfelfontein, Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes, Twyfelfontein
Chapter 02 · 1485 – 1884
The desert coast, the Orlam migration and the Nama polities
European ships skirted the deadly Skeleton Coast from the late fifteenth century but found little reason to land. In the nineteenth century the arrival of Orlam groups from the south, above all under Jonker Afrikaner, reshaped the politics of the central interior.
The Atlantic coast of Namibia is one of the most forbidding shores in the world — a wall of desert and fog where the Namib meets the sea, later known as the Skeleton Coast for the wrecks that litter it. The Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão reached it in 1485, and Bartolomeu Dias followed, but the absence of water and harbours kept Europeans away for centuries. Only Walvis Bay, the territory's one natural deep-water port, drew sustained interest; Britain annexed it in 1878, an enclave that would shape Namibian politics for more than a century.
The decisive change came overland from the south. From the 1820s, Orlam groups — Khoekhoe-speaking communities of mixed origin from the Cape frontier, mounted and armed with guns — migrated north across the Orange River. The most powerful of their leaders was Jonker Afrikaner, who from 1823 led his followers into the central highlands, founded a settlement at Windhoek around 1840, and built a state that dominated Namaland and Damaraland until his death in 1861. His commandos drew the Nama and the Herero into decades of contest over cattle, pasture and trade routes to the coast.
Through the nineteenth century, Rhenish and Finnish missionaries established stations among the Nama, Herero and Ovambo, and traders pressed inland for cattle, ivory and ostrich feathers. Rivalry among the Nama, Orlam and Herero produced shifting alliances and recurrent war, even as written treaties and the spread of firearms began to bind the region's polities to the wider colonial economy — setting the stage for the German annexation that would follow.
“Where the Namib meets the Atlantic lies the Skeleton Coast — a shore so waterless and treacherous that for centuries it kept Europe at bay.”
Turning points
- 1485Colonisation
Diogo Cão reaches the coast
The Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão landed on the Namib coast and raised a stone cross at Cape Cross; the waterless, harbourless shore — later the Skeleton Coast — long deterred European settlement.
See the data - from 1823Peoples & Migration
Jonker Afrikaner and the Orlam
Jonker Afrikaner led his Orlam followers north into the central highlands, founding a settlement at Windhoek around 1840 and building a mounted, gun-armed state that dominated the interior until 1861.
See the data - 1878Colonisation
Britain annexes Walvis Bay
Britain annexed Walvis Bay, the territory's only deep-water harbour, creating an enclave that would remain in South African hands long after the rest of the country, until 1994.
See the data
Figures of the era
Jonker Afrikaner1785–1861
Captain of the Orlam
Leader who brought the Orlam north from the Cape frontier, founded Windhoek around 1840, and built the dominant political power in central Namibia in the decades before German colonisation.
Chapter sources: Namibia (country, history and government), History of Namibia, Jonker Afrikaner, Namibia
Chapter 03 · 1884 – 1915
German South West Africa and the genocide of the Herero and Nama
Germany declared a protectorate over the territory in 1884. When the Herero and then the Nama rose against colonial rule, German forces under Lothar von Trotha waged a war of extermination in 1904–1908 — widely regarded as the first genocide of the twentieth century.
In 1883 the Bremen merchant Adolf Lüderitz purchased land at Angra Pequena on the southern coast, and in 1884 the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck declared a protectorate over the territory, which became the colony of German South West Africa. The 1890 Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty fixed its borders and added the long Caprivi Strip in the north-east. German settlers, soldiers and traders pushed inland, seizing land and cattle and provoking deepening resentment among the Herero and Nama whose herds and grazing were the basis of their lives.
On 12 January 1904 the Herero, led by their paramount chief Samuel Maharero, rose against the colonisers, killing more than a hundred German settlers. Berlin dispatched Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha, who on 11 August 1904 defeated the Herero at the Battle of Waterberg and then drove the survivors into the waterless Omaheke desert, where many thousands died of thirst. On 2 October 1904 von Trotha issued his notorious extermination order (Vernichtungsbefehl), declaring that any Herero found within the colony's borders, armed or unarmed, would be shot. When the Nama under Hendrik Witbooi rose later that year, they too were targeted for destruction.
Survivors of both peoples were herded into concentration camps, the most infamous on Shark Island at Lüderitz, where prisoners died in vast numbers from starvation, exposure, disease and forced labour. By the time the campaign ended around 1908, an estimated 24,000 to 80,000 Herero — perhaps eighty percent of their population — and around 10,000 Nama, roughly half of theirs, had perished. Long studied as the first genocide of the twentieth century, the atrocity was formally acknowledged by Germany as a genocide in 2021, though the terms of that recognition remain disputed by Herero and Nama descendants.
“On 2 October 1904 von Trotha ordered that every Herero within the colony's borders, with or without firearms, be shot — words that opened the first genocide of the twentieth century.”
— Herero and Nama genocide, historical record
Turning points
- 1884Colonisation
Germany declares a protectorate
Following Adolf Lüderitz's purchase at Angra Pequena in 1883, Bismarck declared a German protectorate over the territory in 1884, founding the colony of German South West Africa.
See the data - 12 January 1904War & Rupture
The Herero uprising begins
Herero forces under paramount chief Samuel Maharero rose against German colonial rule, killing more than a hundred settlers and triggering a brutal German military response.
See the data - 11 August 1904War & Rupture
Battle of Waterberg
German forces under Lothar von Trotha defeated the main Herero force at Waterberg and drove the survivors into the Omaheke desert, where thousands, including women and children, died of thirst.
See the data - 2 October 1904War & Rupture
Von Trotha's extermination order
Von Trotha issued the Vernichtungsbefehl, ordering that every Herero within the colony, armed or not, be shot; a second order against the Nama followed in April 1905, opening a war of extermination.
See the data - 1905–1908Catastrophe
Shark Island and the concentration camps
Herero and Nama survivors were imprisoned in concentration camps, most notoriously on Shark Island at Lüderitz, where up to 80 percent of prisoners died; by 1908 tens of thousands of Herero and Nama had perished in what is widely called the first genocide of the twentieth century.
See the data
Figures of the era
Hendrik Witbooic. 1830–1905
Nama captain and resistance leader
Influential Nama chief who, after initially treating with the Germans, led the Nama uprising against colonial rule in 1904 and was killed in battle in October 1905; he is honoured today as a Namibian national hero.
Chapter sources: Namibia (country, history and government), History of Namibia, Herero and Nama genocide, Herero and Nama genocide, German-Herero conflict of 1904–07, The Massacre of the Herero and Nama: A colonial laboratory for genocide?, Herero Genocide in Namibia, Shark Island concentration camp, Timeline of the German and Herero, Nama War and Genocide
Chapter 04 · 1915 – 1966
South African rule, the mandate, and apartheid
South Africa conquered the colony in 1915 and governed it under a League of Nations mandate, then clung to it in defiance of the United Nations after 1945, extending the system of apartheid to the territory it called South West Africa.
When the First World War broke out, South African forces invaded German South West Africa and compelled the German garrison to surrender in July 1915. In 1920 the League of Nations granted South Africa a Class C mandate to administer the territory, intended as a trust to be exercised for the benefit of its inhabitants. In practice South Africa governed it almost as a fifth province, settling white farmers on expropriated land, entrenching a migrant-labour system drawn especially from the populous north, and suppressing African political life.
After the Second World War, South Africa refused to place the territory under United Nations trusteeship, as the new world body required of former mandates, and instead sought to annex it outright. The UN rejected annexation, beginning a decades-long legal and diplomatic struggle over Namibia's status. Within the territory, the apartheid laws being built in South Africa after 1948 were progressively extended, dividing the population by race, confining African communities to reserves and later to ethnic 'homelands', and denying the Black majority any political rights.
Resistance hardened. In December 1959, police in Windhoek opened fire on residents protesting forced removal to the new township of Katutura, killing about a dozen people; the Old Location shootings galvanised nationalist organisation. In 1960 the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was founded under Sam Nujoma, and in 1966 the UN General Assembly formally revoked South Africa's mandate, declaring its continued rule illegal — though South Africa refused to leave.
“Granted as a trust for its inhabitants in 1920, the mandate became instead the instrument by which apartheid was extended to South West Africa.”
Turning points
- July 1915War & Rupture
South Africa conquers the colony
South African forces invaded German South West Africa during the First World War and forced the German garrison to surrender, beginning seventy-five years of South African rule.
See the data - 1920Colonisation
League of Nations mandate
The League of Nations granted South Africa a mandate to administer the territory as a trust for its inhabitants; South Africa instead governed it as a near-province, settling white farmers and suppressing African political life.
See the data - 1946Politics & Power
- 10 December 1959Politics & Power
- 19 April 1960Politics & Power
Figures of the era
Chapter sources: Namibia (country, history and government), History of Namibia, Namibia, South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO)
Chapter 05 · 1966 – 1990
The liberation struggle, the Border War and the road to independence
From 1966 SWAPO waged an armed liberation war, while the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and a global solidarity campaign pressed South Africa to withdraw. A UN-supervised transition under Resolution 435 led to independence in 1990.
On 26 August 1966, fighters of SWAPO's armed wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), clashed with South African forces at Omugulugwombashe, opening the armed phase of the liberation struggle — a conflict that became part of the wider South African Border War fought across Namibia and southern Angola. SWAPO, operating from bases in Angola and Zambia, combined guerrilla warfare with a sustained international campaign; in 1973 the UN General Assembly recognised it as the sole legitimate representative of the Namibian people.
The legal noose tightened in parallel. The General Assembly had revoked the mandate and renamed the territory Namibia, and in 1971 the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion declaring South Africa's continued presence in Namibia illegal and obliging it to withdraw. In 1978 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 435, setting out a plan for a ceasefire and UN-supervised elections. For more than a decade South Africa stalled, but regional war-weariness, the linked withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola, and intensifying pressure finally brought agreement.
Implementation of Resolution 435 began on 1 April 1989, overseen by the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG). In November 1989 Namibians voted for a Constituent Assembly, which SWAPO won with a majority; the assembly drafted a liberal democratic constitution adopted in February 1990. At midnight on 21 March 1990 the Namibian flag was raised in Windhoek, South African rule ended, and Sam Nujoma was inaugurated as the first president of an independent Namibia.
“In 1971 the International Court of Justice declared South Africa's presence in Namibia illegal and ordered its withdrawal — a verdict it took nearly two decades to enforce.”
Turning points
- 26 August 1966War & Rupture
Armed struggle begins at Omugulugwombashe
SWAPO's military wing, PLAN, fought South African forces at Omugulugwombashe, marking the start of the armed liberation war and of South Africa's long Border War.
See the data - 27 October 1966Politics & Power
- 21 June 1971Politics & Power
- 29 September 1978Politics & Power
- November 1989Independence
UN-supervised elections
With Resolution 435 in force from 1 April 1989 under the UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG), Namibians elected a Constituent Assembly that SWAPO won with about 57 percent of the vote; the assembly drafted a democratic constitution adopted in February 1990.
See the data
Figures of the era
Chapter sources: South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO), History of Namibia, Namibia (country, history and government), Namibia, Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (1971 Advisory Opinion), South African Border War, The UN's role in Namibian Independence, United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG)
Chapter 06 · 1990 – present
Independent Namibia since 1990
Independent on 21 March 1990 under Sam Nujoma, Namibia adopted a liberal constitution, reincorporated Walvis Bay in 1994, and has remained a stable multiparty democracy under SWAPO governments, while pursuing reckoning over the colonial genocide.
Namibia entered independence with a constitution widely admired for its bill of rights, an independent judiciary and a multiparty framework. Sam Nujoma served as president from 1990, winning re-election and a controversial third term before stepping down in 2005 in favour of his SWAPO successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba. The new state pursued a policy of national reconciliation between the formerly warring communities and former colonial settlers, while grappling with deep inequalities in land and wealth inherited from the colonial and apartheid eras.
A final piece of the national territory fell into place in 1994. The port enclave of Walvis Bay and the offshore islands, retained by South Africa at independence, were transferred to Namibian sovereignty on 1 March 1994, giving the country full control of its only deep-water harbour. SWAPO has won every national election since 1990, and power has passed peacefully between its leaders, making Namibia one of the more stable democracies in the region even as debates continue over inequality, unemployment and land reform.
The colonial past has remained a living political question. After years of negotiation, Germany in 2021 formally acknowledged that its 1904–1908 campaign against the Herero and Nama had been a genocide and pledged development funding, although many Herero and Nama representatives rejected the agreement as inadequate and reached over their heads. In 2024 Namibia elected Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, a veteran of the liberation movement, as its first woman president, continuing SWAPO's long tenure into a new generation.
“At midnight on 21 March 1990 the new flag rose over Windhoek and seventy-five years of South African rule came to an end.”
Turning points
- 21 March 1990Independence
Independence and Nujoma's inauguration
At midnight on 21 March 1990 the Namibian flag was raised in Windhoek, ending South African rule, and Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the first president of the independent Republic of Namibia.
See the data - 1 March 1994Politics & Power
- 2005Politics & Power
- 2021Politics & Power
- 2024Politics & Power
First woman president elected
Namibians elected Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, a veteran of the liberation struggle, as the country's first woman president, extending SWAPO's continuous tenure since independence.
Figures of the era
Chapter sources: Namibia, Namibia (country, history and government), Herero and Nama genocide, Herero and Nama genocide, South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO)