Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
What is known is that prior to the 1870s, the Damara occupied much of central Nami-
bia from around the site of Rehoboth, westwards to the Swakop and Kuiseb Rivers, and
north to present-day Outjo and Khorixas. When the Herero and Nama began expanding
their domains into traditional Damara lands, large numbers of Damara were displaced,
killed or captured and enslaved. The enmity between them resulted in Damara support for
the Germans against the Herero during the colonial period. As a reward, the Damara were
granted an enlarged homeland, now the southern half of Kunene province.
When Europeans first arrived in the region, the Damara were described as seminomadic
pastoralists, who also maintained small-scale mining, smelting and trading operations.
However, during the colonial period, they settled down to relatively sedentary subsistence
herding and agriculture. In the 1960s the South African administration purchased for the
Damara over 4.5 million hectares of marginal European-owned ranch land in the desolate
expanses of present-day Damaraland.
It has not done them much good - the soil in this region is generally poor, most of the
land is communally owned, and it lacks the good grazing that prevails in central and
southern Namibia. Nowadays, most of Namibia's 80,000 Damara work in urban areas and
on European farms, and only about a quarter of them actually occupy Damaraland.
Namibians of European Descent
There were no European settlers in Namibia until 1884, when the Germans set up a trad-
ing depot at Lüderitz Bay. By the late 1890s, Namibia was a German colony, and settlers
began to arrive in ever-greater numbers. At the same time, Boers (white South Africans of
Dutch origins) were migrating north from the Cape. Their numbers continued to increase
after Namibia came under South African control following WWI.
Nowadays, there are around 85,000 white Namibians, most of whom are of Afrikaans
descent. They are concentrated in the urban, central and southern parts of the country, and
are involved mainly in ranching, commerce, manufacturing and administration. Further-
more, white Namibians almost exclusively manage and control the tourism industry.
Caprivians
In the extreme northeast, along the fertile Zambezi and Kwando riverbanks, live the
80,000 Caprivians, comprising five main tribal groups: the Lozi, Mafwe, Subia, Yei and
Mbukushu. Most Caprivians derive their livelihood from fishing, subsistence farming and
herding cattle.
