The Republic of Namibia is situated on the southwestern coast of Africa, and was formally known as Sud West Africa. The Namib Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world, running across the coastline, except for the northernmost Kaokoveld. Namibia, which borders the north with Angola, South Africa to the south and Botswana to the east. Namibia is home to the most ancient nations on Earth, the !Khung (!- Indicates the click sound), members of the Khoisan people (H. Witbooi, personal communication, 15 August 2008). The Europeans used to call these people Bushmen (meaning people who reside or live in the Bush). Very few of these people are still alive today, except in the far northern parts of Namibia and in the Kalahari Desert. The traditional or informal education of these people is largely oral tradition. These communities have deeply rooted cultural values, mostly in terms of honesty, and nobody will use water or food that another person has stored in ostrich eggshells and buried in the sand. These people have deeply embedded entrepreneurial skills, as they are risk takers and use the limited resources at their disposal to make a living.
By around 1000 A.D. the indigenous people of Namibia gave way to the various Migrating Bantu speaking people who later made Namibia their home. By the 1800s a reasonable number of Herero and Owambo people moved southwards to Namibia. The mid-1800s witnessed the arrival of the missionaries and soldiers, who settled mostly in the coastal regions. The ‘Iron Chancellor’ Otto von Bismarck declared ‘My Map of Africa lies in Europe’ when he convened the Berlin conference at which European powers were searching for new markets and coveting the riches of Africa. The continent was divided into regions and national boundaries. Together with Togo, Kamerun (which with Togo was split between Britain and France after World War I and is today known as Cameroon), German East Africa (after World War I, Tanganyika, known since independence as Tanzania, was mandated to Britain and Ruanda- Urundi to Belgium) and German South West Africa (today known as Namibia) became German property (See Figure 1.1). This colonial past has an impact on the way in which education, both formal and informal, is perceived in Namibia.
In 1915, during World War I, South Africa allied with the British and took over South West Africa. The initial intention of South Africa was to annex the country, but this was prevented by the League of Nations, which gave South Africa the authority to manage Namibia’s government and affairs. In 1945, after World War II, the United Nations, which replaced the League of Nations, requested that South West Africa be placed under United Nations trusteeship. South Africa refused, and guerrilla warfare led to the establishment of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO). On March 21, 1990 Namibia became an independent nation. The next section of the chapter will look at Namibia’s education systems before and after independence.
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