Language/Nama-namibia/Culture/Namibia-Timeline

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Historical Timeline for Namibia - A chronology of key events
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Namibia Timeline[edit | edit source]

  • 27,000 BC It is in present-day Namibia near the Orange River that we find the oldest traces of rock paintings on the African continent. They are attributed to nomadic populations, of which the Bushmen (or San) would be the direct descendants. With the Topnaars, the San would therefore be the first inhabitants of Namibia.
  • 1300. Successively, migratory waves from Central Africa populate the territory. The Namas, a herding people, arrive and dominate the land. The Damaras, a hunter-gatherer people originally from present-day Sudan, took refuge in what would become Damaraland, near Brandberg.
  • Fifteenth century. The Bantu peoples of Owambo, Kavango and Hereros come from the north in large numbers to settle on the lands which are still theirs today.
  • 1486. ​​The Portuguese navigator Diego Cao docks at Cape Cross. He was followed, two years later, by Bartolomeu Dias, another captain of the Portuguese merchant fleet on his way to the Cape of Good Hope, which docks in the bay of Angra Pequena. Both leave a cross on the Namibian coast without entering it. It was not until the 18th century that the territory began to be explored by Europeans.
  • Mid 18th century. The Herero, confined to Kaokoland, migrate towards the center not without struggle with the Namas. Those who remained in Kaokoland then form the Himba people.
  • Around 1800. The English of the London Mission Society, the Lutheran missionaries, the German and Finnish Methodists begin to explore South West Africa and to build schools and missions.
  • 1870. The Basters colony, descendants of Dutch settlers and African women from the Cape Colony, led by Chief Hermanus van Wijk and a German missionary Heidman, settles in Rehoboth where they found a small free republic.
  • 1884-1920. German colonization began in 1885. It had a lasting impact on the future State which kept the German language as an official language until 1990. Marked by the massacre of the Herero, but also by a relative economic development due to the exploitation of mines, the Namibia became a South African protectorate in 1918, following the German defeat in the First World War.
  • 1884. Berlin Conference. Germany annexed South West Africa to its empire.
  • 1904. The Herero, joined by the leader of the Namas, rise up against the German colonists. The battle of Waterberg then marks the bloody defeat of the Hereros (warriors, but also women and children are massacred). Today it symbolizes colonial oppression. The Herero survivors and their Nama allies are herded into concentration camps or used as cheap labor. Many die of malnutrition or disease.
  • 1910. Germany declares the southern Namib Desert, between Lüderitz and the Orange River, "Sperrgebiet" after the discovery of diamond mines.
  • May 1915. The South African army, under British command, invades the German colony with the help of the African populations, who see in this invasion their only hope of liberation. 
  • December 17, 1920. The League of Nations (League of Nations) declares South West Africa under mandate. It was then entrusted to His Britannic Majesty, but exercised in his name by the government of the Union of South Africa. It will remain so until 1971.
  • 1926. All natives of South West Africa become nationals of the Union of South Africa. The former German colony is now considered to be South Africa's fifth province.
  • 1928. Home lands and segregation are instituted. Most of the land is given to South African immigrants. As for the rights of black populations, they remain restricted to those granted during the German era: private land ownership is prohibited and those who are employed cannot move outside their areas of residence unless they have a pass. .
  • 1945. The very young UN decides that a Mandates Commission would be responsible for looking after the interests of the Trust Territories. All the mandatory powers accept, except South Africa, which wants to integrate South West Africa as the fifth province of its territory.
  • 1948. The Nationalist Party, newly in power in South Africa, declares South West Africa the fifth province of the Union.
  • 1950. The new policy introduces the principle of apartheid (separate development).
  • October 27, 1966. A resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations puts an end to the mandate of the League of Nations. The newly created SWAPO People's Organization of South West Africa enters into armed struggle.
  • 1973. SWAPO is recognized by the United Nations General Assembly as the "unique and authentic representative of the Namibian people". This resolution is frowned upon by other Namibian political movements. They accuse him of tribalism and reproach him for never having participated in the slightest war against the German occupier: the guerrillas continue towards independence.
  • May 21, 1979: The National Assembly of South West Africa / Namibia passes the law on the total abolition of racial discrimination.
  • November 1989. Organization of the first elections: the SWAPO party takes the lead.
  • March 21, 1990. The independence of Namibia is proclaimed. Sam Nujoma becomes the first President of the Republic of Namibia.
  • 1994. South Africa surrenders Walvis Bay.
  • 1995. The country's first university opens its doors. It is called UNAM (University of Namibia).
  • 1997. The country experiences a major strike movement.
  • 1999. Sam Nujoma is re-elected for a third term.
  • 2004. Hifikepunye Pohamba wins elections to become President of Namibia. Sam Nujoma retains the presidency of SWAPO.
  • 2006. The rainy season is exceptional. Floods hit Mariental where 2,000 people were evacuated.
  • 2007. Namdeb and De Beers extend their diamond mining contract until 2013.
  • From 2007, tourist frequentation in Namibia will increase modestly but steadily. 
  • March 2009. Heavy flooding in the northeast of the country.
  • September 2009. Fiftieth anniversary of Swanu, the country's oldest political party.
  • November 2009. Hifikepunye Pohamba is re-elected president by a very large majority (75%).
  • May 28, 2010. The President of the Republic Pohamba visits Nicolas Sarkozy before the Africa-France summit.
  • October 5, 2011. A Herero leader seeks redress for "genocide" against Germany after the repatriation of 20 skulls of Herero and Nama warriors massacred in 1904. Germany feels guilty: most of its official development assistance goes to Namibia, whose government is dominated by the Ovambo ethnic group. But if regrets were expressed by two German ministers in 2004 and 2011, it was more personal than national initiatives, excluding any idea of ​​compensation for the descendants of victims.
  • November 12, 2011. The electrical interconnection between Caprivi (north-eastern Namibia) and Zambia links Namibia to all of southern Africa.
  • September 28, 2012. The UN calls on Namibia to ensure the representation of indigenous peoples in its political system.
  • June 2, 2014. Death of Kuaima Riruako, supreme leader of the Herero people.
  • March 21, 2015. Candidate for the presidential election under the SWAPO banner, Hage Geingob won over 86% of the votes cast in the first round in November 2014. Previously Prime Minister from 1990 to 2002 and from 2012 to 2015, he became therefore President on March 21, 2015.
  • July 2015. Germany recognizes as "war crime and genocide" the massacres committed by its army between 1904 and 1908 in the country.
  • August 2015. Namibia is among the countries most affected by the severe food crisis that threatens the region. In this gloomy climate, particularly marked by uncertainties in the mining sector, Namibia is banking on tourism. In 2015, 1.38 million foreign visitors went there, compared to 1.2 million two years earlier.
  • September 2016. Pohamba Shifeta, Minister of the Environment, announces at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in South Africa that "Namibia will not support the proposal for a total ban ivory trade ", preferring to regulate the ivory market. On October 3, Namibia was forbidden to sell its reserves of tusks confiscated or taken from dead elephants.
  • November 2016. The government presents to parliament the bill which prohibits foreigners from buying, owning or renting land in Namibia.
  • January 2017. The Herero and the Namas file a class action lawsuit against Germany in a New York court to obtain compensation for the genocide of which they were victims during colonization (1904-1908).
  • October 2017. The Ministry of the Environment announces that more than 100 hippos have been found dead in a river in Bwabwata National Park. This massacre could be caused by anthrax.
  • November 2017: Geingob is elected leader of the SWAPO party.
  • December 2017. European finance ministers adopt a blacklist of seventeen countries considered to be tax havens. On this list are two African countries: Tunisia and Namibia. Namibia then strongly denounces the "unjust and discriminatory" decision of the European Union (EU) to include it in its blacklist of 17 tax havens. In January 2018, the EU will remove 8 countries from the initial list of 17 countries, but not Namibia.
  • January 2018. The German government requests the rejection of a claim for genocide compensation from descendants of Namibian tribes who sued Germany in a New York court. Indeed, even if Germany took a long time to recognize the gravity of the facts, several of its representatives now use the term "genocide" to describe the facts. However, Berlin has always considered not having to pay individual compensation to the descendants of the victims, arguing in particular of "generous" development aid with "record" amounts per capita paid to Namibia since its independence from Africa. South in 1990.
  • January 2018. President Hage Geingob bans ministers from making official trips abroad in order to reduce Namibia's public debt, which reached 5 billion euros in 2017, compared to 2 billion in 2013.
  • April 2018. Hage Geingob firmly denies the suspicions of corruption aimed at him in a French investigation into the controversial takeover of the Canadian mining company Uramin by the French nuclear giant Areva.

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