# The Chronicle of Namibia: From the San and Khoekhoe of the Namib and the rock art of Twyfelfontein, through the German colonial genocide of the Herero and Nama, decades of South African rule and apartheid, and the long liberation struggle, to independence under Sam Nujoma on 21 March 1990. History of Namibia: From the San and Khoekhoe of the Namib and the rock art of Twyfelfontein, through the German colonial genocide of the Herero and… Canonical: https://terralore.co/country/NAM/chronicle Updated: 2026-08-22 Founding: Independence from South Africa — 21 March 1990. Namibia became an independent republic on 21 March 1990, ending seventy-five years of South African rule and decades of struggle. South Africa had occupied the former German colony in 1915 and administered it under a League of Nations mandate, then in continued defiance of the United Nations, which revoked the mandate in 1966 and which the International Court of Justice in 1971 found South Africa was occupying illegally. After a UN-supervised transition under Security Council Resolution 435, elections in November 1989 produced a Constituent Assembly that adopted a democratic constitution, and at midnight on 21 March 1990 the new flag was raised in Windhoek. Sam Nujoma, the long-time leader of the liberation movement SWAPO, was sworn in as the first president of a free Namibia. The young nation completed its territory in 1994, when South Africa transferred the port enclave of Walvis Bay to Namibian sovereignty. Namibia, a vast and arid land along the south-western coast of Africa, holds one of humanity's oldest cultural records: the rock engravings of Twyfelfontein, made over thousands of years by San hunter-gatherers, are a UNESCO World Heritage site. The San and the herding Khoekhoe, including the Nama and the Damara, long inhabited the centre and south, while Bantu-speaking Ovambo, Herero and Kavango peoples settled the better-watered north and centre over the past two thousand years. European ships skirted the forbidding Skeleton Coast from the late fifteenth century, but it was only in the nineteenth century that Orlam and Nama polities such as that of Jonker Afrikaner reshaped the interior. In 1884 Germany declared a protectorate over the territory as German South West Africa; its rule culminated in the 1904–1908 extermination of the Herero and Nama, widely regarded as the first genocide of the twentieth century. South Africa conquered the colony in 1915 during the First World War, governing it under a League of Nations mandate and, in defiance of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, extending apartheid to the territory. The South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) led a long liberation war from 1966; after a UN-supervised transition, Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990 with Sam Nujoma as its first president, and reincorporated the enclave of Walvis Bay in 1994. This file carries the chronicle's sourced event record — every event with its year, summary and source keys (resolved under References below). The full reading narrative lives on the canonical page. ## First peoples: the San, Khoekhoe, Damara and the engravings of Twyfelfontein — Deep prehistory – c. 1800 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. - deep prehistory: **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. [britannica-namibia, wiki-history-namibia] - c. 2000 years ago: **The engravings of Twyfelfontein** — San artists pecked thousands of petroglyphs into the sandstone at Twyfelfontein over roughly two thousand years, depicting animals and tracks bound up with hunter-gatherer ritual; the site was inscribed by UNESCO in 2007. [britannica-twyfelfontein, unesco-twyfelfontein, wiki-twyfelfontein] - 1st millennium BCE: **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. [britannica-namibia, wiki-history-namibia] - c. 500 CE onward: **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. [britannica-namibia, wiki-history-namibia] Figures: - The San (present for tens of thousands of years) — Hunter-gatherer peoples of the Namib. Namibia's oldest enduring inhabitants, whose deep knowledge of a harsh land and whose rock engravings at Twyfelfontein record one of humanity's longest continuous cultural traditions. ## The desert coast, the Orlam migration and the Nama polities — 1485 – 1884 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. - 1485: **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. [britannica-namibia, wiki-history-namibia] - from 1823: **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. [wiki-jonker, wiki-history-namibia] - 1878: **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. [britannica-namibia, wiki-namibia] Figures: - Jonker Afrikaner (1785–1861) — 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. ## German South West Africa and the genocide of the Herero and Nama — 1884 – 1915 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. - 1884: **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. [britannica-namibia, wiki-history-namibia] - 12 January 1904: **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. [wiki-genocide, britannica-herero-conflict, sahistory-genocide-timeline] - 11 August 1904: **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. [wiki-genocide, britannica-herero-conflict, ehne-herero] - 2 October 1904: **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. [wiki-genocide, britannica-genocide, ehne-herero] - 1905–1908: **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. [wiki-genocide, wiki-shark-island, montreal-herero, britannica-genocide] Figures: - Hendrik Witbooi (c. 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. - Lothar von Trotha (1848–1920) — German commander in South West Africa. Prussian general who directed the war against the Herero and Nama, issued the 1904 extermination order, and oversaw the campaign of destruction now recognised as genocide. ## South African rule, the mandate, and apartheid — 1915 – 1966 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. - July 1915: **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. [britannica-namibia, wiki-history-namibia] - 1920: **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. [britannica-namibia, wiki-namibia] - 1946: **South Africa refuses UN trusteeship** — After the founding of the United Nations, South Africa refused to place the territory under UN trusteeship and sought to annex it, beginning a long international dispute over its status. [britannica-namibia, wiki-namibia] - 10 December 1959: **The Old Location shootings** — Police killed about a dozen residents of Windhoek's Old Location protesting forced removal to Katutura township, an atrocity that helped galvanise the nationalist movement. [wiki-history-namibia, wiki-swapo] - 19 April 1960: **Founding of SWAPO** — The South West African People's Organisation was founded under Sam Nujoma as successor to the Ovamboland People's Organisation, becoming the leading movement for Namibian independence. [wiki-swapo, wiki-history-namibia] Figures: - Sam Nujoma (1929–2025) — Founding leader of SWAPO. Co-founder and long-time president of SWAPO from 1960, he led the liberation movement through three decades of exile and armed struggle and became independent Namibia's first president in 1990. ## The liberation struggle, the Border War and the road to independence — 1966 – 1990 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. - 26 August 1966: **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. [wiki-swapo, wiki-history-namibia, wiki-border-war] - 27 October 1966: **UN revokes the mandate** — The UN General Assembly terminated South Africa's mandate over the territory, declaring its continued administration illegal, and later renamed the territory Namibia in 1968. [britannica-namibia, wiki-namibia] - 21 June 1971: **ICJ rules the occupation illegal** — The International Court of Justice held that South Africa's continued presence in Namibia was illegal and that it was obliged to withdraw its administration immediately. [icj-namibia, wiki-namibia] - 29 September 1978: **Security Council Resolution 435** — The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 435, setting out a plan for a ceasefire and UN-supervised elections that would eventually frame Namibia's transition to independence. [un-namibia-independence, wiki-namibia, britannica-namibia] - November 1989: **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. [wiki-swapo, wiki-untag, un-namibia-independence] Figures: - Sam Nujoma (1929–2025) — President of SWAPO and liberation leader. Leader of SWAPO throughout the liberation war, directing the movement from exile and uniting its armed and diplomatic campaigns until he returned to lead Namibia to independence in 1990. ## Independent Namibia since 1990 — 1990 – present 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. - 21 March 1990: **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. [wiki-namibia, britannica-namibia] - 1 March 1994: **Reincorporation of Walvis Bay** — South Africa transferred the port enclave of Walvis Bay and the offshore islands to Namibia, completing the country's territory and giving it sovereignty over its only deep-water harbour. [wiki-namibia, britannica-namibia] - 2005: **First peaceful transfer of power** — Sam Nujoma stepped down after fifteen years and was succeeded as president by Hifikepunye Pohamba, the first of several peaceful handovers within SWAPO governments. [wiki-namibia, britannica-namibia] - 2021: **Germany acknowledges the genocide** — Germany formally recognised the 1904–1908 killings of the Herero and Nama as genocide and pledged development funding, though many descendants rejected the terms as inadequate. [britannica-genocide, wiki-genocide] - 2024: **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. [wiki-namibia] Figures: - Sam Nujoma (1929–2025) — First President of Namibia. Founding president of independent Namibia, he led the country from 1990 to 2005, championing national reconciliation while remaining the dominant figure of its liberation and its early statehood. Machine-readable claims — every event above as an addressable claim ID (TL:NAM:event::) with its sources and a ready citation string: https://terralore.co/country/NAM/chronicle.claims.json ## References - [britannica-namibia] Namibia (country, history and government) — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Namibia - [britannica-twyfelfontein] Twyfelfontein — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/place/Twyfelfontein - [britannica-genocide] Commemorating the Genocide of the Herero and Nama — Federal Government of Germany · https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/bundesregierung/bundeskanzleramt/gedenken-herero-und-nama-2350348 - [unesco-twyfelfontein] Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes — UNESCO World Heritage Centre · https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1255/ - [icj-namibia] Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (1971 Advisory Opinion) — International Court of Justice · https://www.icj-cij.org/case/53 - [wiki-namibia] Namibia — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia - [wiki-history-namibia] History of Namibia — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Namibia - [wiki-genocide] Herero and Nama genocide — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herero_and_Nama_genocide - [wiki-swapo] South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_West_African_People%27s_Organisation - [wiki-twyfelfontein] Twyfelfontein — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twyfelfontein - [wiki-jonker] Jonker Afrikaner — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonker_Afrikaner - [britannica-herero-conflict] German-Herero conflict of 1904–07 — Encyclopaedia Britannica · https://www.britannica.com/topic/German-Herero-conflict-of-1904-1907 - [montreal-herero] Herero Genocide in Namibia — Montreal Holocaust Museum · https://museeholocauste.ca/en/resources-training/herero-genocide-namibia/ - [ehne-herero] The Massacre of the Herero and Nama: A colonial laboratory for genocide? — EHNE (Encyclopédie d'histoire numérique de l'Europe) · https://ehne.fr/en/encyclopedia/themes/europe-europeans-and-world/europe-and-colonial-wars/massacre-herero-and-nama-a-colonial-laboratory-genocide - [sahistory-genocide-timeline] Timeline of the German and Herero, Nama War and Genocide — South African History Online · https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/timeline-german-and-herero-nama-war-and-genocide - [wiki-shark-island] Shark Island concentration camp — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Island_concentration_camp - [un-namibia-independence] The UN's role in Namibian Independence — United Nations in Namibia · https://namibia.un.org/en/175155-uns-role-namibian-independence - [wiki-untag] United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Transition_Assistance_Group - [wiki-border-war] South African Border War — Wikipedia · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Border_War - [statedept-namibia] A Guide to the United States' History of Recognition: Namibia — U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian · https://history.state.gov/countries/namibia Citation template: Terralore, "The Chronicle of Namibia: From the San and Khoekhoe of the Namib and the rock art of Twyfelfontein, through the German colonial genocide of the Herero and Nama, decades of South African rule and apartheid, and the long liberation struggle, to independence under Sam Nujoma on 21 March 1990.", terralore.co/country/NAM/chronicle, retrieved .