49 Fun Facts About Namibia

What is the capital and largest city of Namibia?

Windhoek, about 1,700 m up on the Khomas Highland in the centre of the country, is both Namibia's capital and by far its largest city.

Which river forms Namibia's southern border with South Africa?

The Orange River forms Namibia's entire southern border with South Africa, reaching the Atlantic at the diamond-mining town of Oranjemund.

The Namib is often described as what?

The Namib is often called the oldest desert in the world, having been arid for roughly 55 to 80 million years; only Chile's Atacama rivals that age.

Which Namibian people are known for coating skin and hair with red ochre paste?

The Himba of the Kunene Region mix red ochre with butterfat into a paste called otjize, worn on skin and braided hair as protection and adornment.

Which ocean lies to the west of Namibia?

The Atlantic Ocean washes Namibia's entire western coast, a shoreline of about 1,570 km from the Kunene River mouth in the north to the South African border in the south.

What is the narrow panhandle in Namibia's northeast that reaches toward Zambia and Zimbabwe called?

The Caprivi Strip, renamed the Zambezi Region in 2013, receives Namibia's highest rainfall and saw a failed secessionist uprising at Katima Mulilo in August 1999.

Namibia sits between the Namib and which other desert?

The Kalahari extends into the neighbours to the south and east.

What is the highest point in Namibia, at 2,573 m?

Königstein, at 2,573 m the summit of the Brandberg massif in the northwestern Namib, is Namibia's highest point; the Brandberg also holds the famous 'White Lady' rock painting.

Sossusvlei's tallest dune, nicknamed Big Daddy, rises to roughly what height?

Big Daddy rises roughly 325 metres above the Sossusvlei pan, the tallest dune there; the white clay pan of Deadvlei lies at its foot.

The Etosha salt pan covers about what share of Etosha National Park?

The Etosha salt pan, some 130 km long and dry for most of the year, covers roughly 23% of Etosha National Park.

Etosha holds one of the world's largest populations of which critically endangered animal?

Etosha protects one of the world's largest black rhinoceros populations, a critically endangered species; the floodlit Okaukuejo waterhole is a famous place to watch them at night.

The Fish River gorge holds which distinction?

At about 160 km long, up to 27 km wide and nearly 550 m deep, the Fish River Canyon is the largest canyon in Africa.

The Skeleton Coast takes its name from what?

The Skeleton Coast is named for the whale and seal bones that once littered its shore from the whaling industry; today the sands also hold the skeletons of hundreds of shipwrecks.

The San called the Skeleton Coast 'The Land God Made in Anger'; what did Portuguese sailors call it?

Portuguese sailors called the Skeleton Coast 'The Gates of Hell': dense fog and pounding surf made landings deadly, and anyone who got ashore faced desert with no fresh water.

The welwitschia plant of the Namib is remarkable for having how many leaves?

A welwitschia produces just two leaves in its lifetime; they grow continuously from the base and are shredded by the wind into ragged strips.

The oldest welwitschias are thought to be roughly how old?

The oldest welwitschias are thought to be roughly 2,000 years old, with many large specimens dated at more than 1,000 years; the plant is a gymnosperm found only in the Namib.

Which Namibian port is named after the German trader whose 1883 land purchase began the colony?

Lüderitz, formerly Angra Pequena, is named after Bremen merchant Adolf Lüderitz, who bought the bay and surrounding land from Nama chief Josef Frederiks II in 1883.

Which Namibian island held a German concentration camp for Herero and Nama prisoners from 1905?

Shark Island, in Lüderitz Bay, held a German concentration camp from 1905 to 1907 in which well over a thousand Herero and Nama prisoners died of cold, hunger and forced labour.

Which German commander issued the notorious extermination order against the Herero in October 1904?

Lothar von Trotha issued the Vernichtungsbefehl on 2 October 1904, ordering that any Herero found inside German borders be shot; a similar proclamation against the Nama followed in April 1905.

Which country administered Namibia under a League of Nations mandate from 1920?

South Africa received the League of Nations mandate in December 1920, later extended apartheid to the territory and refused to place it under UN trusteeship, so the UN revoked the mandate in 1966.

What was Namibia called before independence?

The territory was known as South West Africa from the German colonial era until independence; the UN General Assembly voted to rename it Namibia in June 1968.

Which movement did the UN recognise in 1973 as the official representative of Namibians?

The UN General Assembly recognised SWAPO as the authentic representative of the Namibian people in December 1973; its armed wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia, had begun its guerrilla war in 1966.

On what date did Namibia become independent?

Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990; Nelson Mandela, released from prison five weeks earlier, attended the midnight ceremony in Windhoek.

Who was sworn in as Namibia's first president?

Sam Nujoma was sworn in as Namibia's first president at the independence ceremony, attended by Nelson Mandela, and served three terms until 2005, when Hifikepunye Pohamba succeeded him.

Which port was transferred to Namibia only in 1994?

Walvis Bay, annexed by Britain in 1878 and later attached to the Cape Colony, stayed a South African enclave after independence and was handed to Namibia on 1 March 1994.

Who won Namibia's 2024 presidential election as the ruling party's first female candidate?

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah won the November 2024 presidential election with about 57 percent of the vote and took office in March 2025 as Namibia's first female president.

Which president of Namibia died in office in February 2024?

Hage Geingob, president since 2015, died in a Windhoek hospital on 4 February 2024 after a cancer diagnosis; Vice-President Nangolo Mbumba served out the remainder of the term.

What is Namibia's sole official language?

English has been Namibia's sole official language since independence, chosen as a neutral unifying tongue even though only a few percent of Namibians speak it at home.

Which language is spoken in almost half of Namibian households?

Oshiwambo, the main language of northern Namibia, was the home language of about 49 percent of households at the 2011 census, far ahead of Khoekhoe and Afrikaans.

Which Christian denomination is the largest in Namibia?

Lutherans make up roughly half of Namibia's population, a legacy of 19th-century German and Nordic mission work; the Catholic Church is the second-largest denomination.

Missionaries from which Nordic country began work in northern Namibia in 1870?

The Finnish Missionary Society sent its first missionaries from Finland to Ovamboland in northern Namibia in 1870, founding the churches and schools that shaped the far north for a century.

How many regions is Namibia divided into?

Namibia has 14 regions, after Kavango was divided into Kavango East and Kavango West in 2013; the regions are subdivided into 121 constituencies.

Namibia's Rössing mine, opened in 1976, is one of the world's largest mines for which metal?

Rössing, near Swakopmund, is one of the world's largest open-pit uranium mines; uranium and gem-quality diamonds are Namibia's two most valuable mineral exports.

What appears in the blue triangle of Namibia's flag?

The upper blue triangle of the flag carries a twelve-rayed yellow sun, symbolising life and energy; the flag was adopted at independence.

Sprinter Frankie Fredericks won how many Olympic silver medals for Namibia?

Frankie Fredericks won four Olympic silver medals, finishing second in both the 100 m and 200 m at Barcelona 1992 and again at Atlanta 1996.

In which sport did Namibia first play at a World Cup, in 1999?

Namibia's rugby union team made its World Cup debut in 1999 and qualified for every tournament through 2023, though it had yet to win a match at the finals.

Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO site since 2007, is famous for what?

Twyfelfontein holds one of Africa's largest concentrations of rock engravings, more than 2,000 petroglyphs of animals and footprints, and became Namibia's first World Heritage Site in 2007.

The capital was refounded in 1890 by which German officer?

Curt von François re-established the capital as a German garrison town on 18 October 1890, choosing the site for its hot springs; the fort he began, the Alte Feste, survives.

Which two Namibian regions are the most urbanised and economically active?

Khomas holds the capital, Erongo the main coastal towns.

Which epidemic wiped out an estimated 95 percent of cattle in southern and central Namibia in 1897?

The 1897 rinderpest epidemic killed an estimated 95 percent of cattle in central and southern Namibia, ruining Herero herders and fuelling the unrest that led to the 1904 uprising.

Which meteorite, the largest known intact one on Earth, lies near Grootfontein in Namibia?

The Hoba meteorite, a roughly 60-tonne iron mass found in 1920 on a farm near Grootfontein, has never been moved and is the largest known intact meteorite on Earth.

Which Bantu group formed kingdoms such as Ondonga and Oukwanyama from around 1600?

The Owambo, a Bantu people of the far north, formed kingdoms such as Ondonga and Oukwanyama from about 1600; the Oukwanyama kingdom was later split by the Angola-Namibia border.

Namibia's Gini coefficient of 59 in 2015 marks it as having what?

A Gini coefficient of 59 in 2015 gave Namibia one of the world's highest income disparities, second only to South Africa among countries with World Bank data.

Which line of latitude cuts Namibia roughly in half?

The Tropic of Capricorn, at about 23.4° S, crosses central Namibia; the country stretches from roughly 17° S to 29° S, so the line splits it near the middle.

Which cold, north-flowing current dominates the climate of Namibia's coast?

The Benguela Current carries cold water north along the coast, bringing dense fog, cool temperatures and 50 mm or less of rain a year to the coastal strip.

Which town, founded in 1892 as the German colony's main harbour, is Namibia's chief seaside resort?

Swakopmund was founded in 1892 as the main harbour of the German colony; its palm-lined promenade, jetty and colonial buildings make it Namibia's chief seaside resort.

What is the name of the large aquifer discovered in 2012 straddling the Angola-Namibia border?

The Ohangwena II aquifer, announced in July 2012 beneath the Cuvelai-Etosha basin, holds an estimated 5 billion cubic metres of fresh water, some of it around 10,000 years old.

Before 1990, which three languages were official in Namibia?

English and Afrikaans were the territory's official languages under South African administration, and German gained official status in 1984, so English, German and Afrikaans were official until independence.

Roughly how many days of sunshine does Namibia receive each year?

Namibia gets more than 300 days of sunshine a year: the subtropical high-pressure belt keeps skies clear, and the winter months of June to August are almost entirely dry.