Africa has lots of beautiful places for your explore and vacations. The feel of nature with its amazing views with wildlife is what Namibia is best known for.
Located in southern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean, Namibia consists of 200 million acres of ocean shores, woodland savannas, lush floodplains and picturesque deserts. Namibia, officially Republic of Namibia is a relatively new country, having achieved its independence in 1990.
Namibia is bordered by Angola to the north, Zambia to the northeast, Botswana to the east, South Africa to the southeast and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It ranges from arid in the north to desert on the coast and in the east. The landscape is spectacular, but the desert, mountains, canyons, and savannas are perhaps better to see than to occupy.
Namibia was the first African country to incorporate protection of the environment into its constitution, and the government gave people living in communal areas the opportunity to manage their natural resources through the creation of communal conservancies.
These conservancies as well as governments, nonprofit organizations and other entities have restored populations of lions, cheetahs, black rhinos, zebras and other native wildlife to the world’s richest dry land. Through initiatives, such as ecotourism, restoration has generated sustainable income for their communities.
Situated on the southern part of the tropics with distinct seasons, the coast is cooled by the Benguela Current and averages less than 2 inches of rainfall annually. The Central Plateau and the Kalahari have wide diurnal temperature ranges, more than 50 °F (30 °C) on summer days and less than 20 °F (10 °C) in winter. In Windhoek, on the plateau, the average temperature for December is 75 °F (24 °C), and the average maximum 88 °F (31 °C).
In July these averages are 55 °F (13 °C) and 68 °F (20 °C), respectively. Humidity is normally low, and rainfall increases from about 10 inches on the southern and western parts of the plateau to about 20 inches in the north-central part and more than 24 inches on the Caprivi Strip and Otavi Mountains. However, rainfall is highly variable, and multiyear droughts are common.
In the north and adjacent to mountains, groundwater is as important as but only slightly less variable than rainfall. Kalahari rainfall in its Namibian portion is not radically different from that of the plateau, but, except in the northern Karst Veld and isolated artesian areas, groundwater is less available.
Namibia’s plankton-rich coastal waters support an extraordinary array of marine life, including an increasing number of southern right whales. Further inland, springbok, gemsbok and black-faced impala have all seen multifold increases in population. Namibia boasts the largest free-roaming population of black rhino in Africa, and the largest cheetah population in the world.
Namibia is also home to a unique population of elephants that have adapted to the arid climate. Found mostly in the northwest part of the country, these desert-adapted elephants can go for days without drinking water by surviving on moisture obtained from the vegetation they eat. Although not a different subspecies of savannah elephants, they have several adaptations to their desert environment, including larger feet, which make it easier to walk through sand, and smaller herd sizes, which puts less pressure on their food and water sources.
More than two million people, the majority of Namibia’s population, live in the northern part of the country.
In percentage wise, about 85 percent of Namibians are Black, 5 percent of European ancestry, and 10 percent, in South African terminology, Colored (Cape Colored, Nama, and Rehobother). Of the Black majority, about two-thirds are Ovambo, with the Kavango, the Herero, the Damara, and the Caprivian peoples following in population size.
Other ethnic groups have much smaller populations. Afrikaners and Germans constitute two-thirds and one-fifth of the European population, respectively. Most ethnic Europeans are Namibian citizens, though some have retained South African citizenship.
English is the national language, though it is the home language of only about 3 percent of the population. Ovambo languages are spoken by more than 80 percent of the population, followed by Nama Damara with about 6 percent. Kavango and Caprivian languages and Herero, as well as Afrikaans, constitute about 4 percent of home languages.
Many Namibians speak two or more indigenous languages and at least a little of two of the three European languages (English, Afrikaans, German) in common use.
Is Namibia a rich or poor country?
The communal conservancy movement, which links conservation to poverty alleviation through sustainable use of natural resources, is a key development strategy for rural Namibia. Approximately one in four rural Namibians now belongs to a registered conservancy.
Namibia has a lot of tourist attractions which is a major industry, contributing N$7.2 billion to the country’s gross domestic product. Annually, over one million travelers visit Namibia, with roughly one in three coming from South Africa, then Germany and finally the United Kingdom, Italy and France. The country is among the prime destinations in Africa and is known for ecotourism which features Namibia’s extensive wildlife.
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