Timeline Namibia
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A South-West country of Africa whose majority tribe is the Ovambo.
The
semi-arid country has a territory one and a half times the size of
France, or twice the size of California. The capital is windhoek.
Whites make up less than a tenth of the population. The Himba
nomadic
tribe lived in the north. The Bushmen of the Kalahari live in
Namibia
and speak Ju’hoansi, a language with clicking inflections.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C3)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T4)(AP,
12/29/03)(Econ, 3/12/11, p.56)
760Mil BC - 550Mil BC In 2012
researchers said tiny vase-shaped creatures' fossils were found in
Namibia's Etosha National Park and other sites around the country in
rocks dating to this period. A 10-member team of international
researchers published their paper in the South African Journal of
Science. The discovery pushed the emergence of animal life back
millions of years.
(AFP, 2/6/12)
26000BC-16000BC Africa’s oldest known rock art
dated to about this time at a site in Namibia.
(Econ, 5/3/08, p.56)
1884 Southwest Africa (later
Namibia) was made a German protectorate.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T4)(SFEC, 4/30/00, p.T4)
1904 Jan 12, Anxious Germans
opened fire on Ovaherero at Okahandja. The Herero people of Namibia
had risen in rebellion against German colonial rule. The deadly
Deutsche Schutzruppe “peacekeeping regiment” quelled the tribes.
They eventually annihilated 75% of the Herero and Nama peoples. In
1981 Jon M. Bridgeman authored “The Revolt of the Hereros.”
(www.umich.edu/news/MT/NewsE/10_05/steinmetz.html)(SSFC, 6/25/06,
p.E5)
1904 Jun 11, General Lothar von
Trotha arrived in SW Africa from Germany to take over from the
colonial Governor, Theodor Leutwein, the direction of a campaign to
quell an uprising.
(www.umich.edu/news/MT/NewsE/10_05/steinmetz.html)
1904 Aug 11, German General
Lothar von Trotha defeated the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South
Africa. [see Namibia]
(HN, 8/10/98)
1904 Aug 14, The cattle-herding
Hereros, a tribe of Southwest Africa (later Namibia), became the
first genocide victims of the 20th century. Kaiser Wilhelm II had
sent General Lothar von Trotha to put down a Herero uprising along
with the groups of rebellious Khoikhoi. Trotha drove the Hereros
into the desert and then issued a formal "extermination order"
(Schrecklichkeit) authorizing the slaughter of all who refused to
surrender. Out of some 80,000 Hereros, 60,000 died in the desert. Of
the 15,000 who surrendered, half of those died in prison camps. Some
9,000 escaped to neighboring countries. In 2004 a senior German
government official apologized for the genocide during a ceremony in
Namibia marking the 100th anniversary of the uprising. In 2005 a
German minister acknowledged violence by German colonial powers and
admitted that following uprisings, the surviving Herero, Nama and
Damara were interned in camps and put to forced labor of such
brutality that many did not survive.
(www.umich.edu/news/MT/NewsE/10_05/steinmetz.html)(HNPD,
4/14/99)(AP, 8/14/04)(SSFC, 6/25/06, p.E5)
1904 Oct 2, General Lothar von
Trotha: “I, the great General of the German soldiers, send this
letter to the Herero people (SW Africa-Namibia). The Herero are no
longer German subjects... The Herero nation must...leave the
country. If they do not leave, I will force them out with the Groot
Rohr (cannon). Every Herero, armed or unarmed...will be shot dead
within the German borders. I will no longer accept women and
children, but will force them back to their people or shoot at
them.”
(www.umich.edu/news/MT/NewsE/10_05/steinmetz.html)
1904 Nov 27, A German colonial
army defeated Hottentots at Warmbad in Southwest Africa (later
Namibia).
(HN, 11/27/98)
1904 Dec 9, Von Schlieffen
order von Trotha to pardon all Ovaherero, after tens of thousands
had perished in the desert, except those who were "directly
guilty and the leaders.”
(www.umich.edu/news/MT/NewsE/10_05/steinmetz.html)
1904 Dec 24, German SW Africa
abolished the slavery of young children. [see Namibia]
(MC, 12/24/01)
1905 In Southwest Africa (later
Namibia) the Nama tribe joined the Herero uprising against German
settlers stealing their land, cattle and women.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
1907 A 4-year German campaign
ended against the cattle-herding Hereros of Southwest Africa (later
Namibia). It was later estimated that tens of thousands of Hereros
were butchered, with only some 15,000 surviving. Many historians
called the killings the first genocide of the 20th century. Some 300
skulls were believed taken from the Herero and ethnic Nama who died
in German-run prison camps over the four-year conflict. In 2011 a
Namibian delegation reclaimed about 20 human skulls used by
colonial-era scientists, who sought to prove the racial superiority
of whites over blacks.
(AFP, 9/26/11)
1915 Jul 9, Germany’s South
West Africa surrendered to Gen. Botha of the Union of South Africa.
(http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/swatf.htm)
1916 The beginning of 73 years
of occupation [by South Africa].
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C2)
1918 Nov, The British declared
the 1915 truce between Germany’s SW Africa and the Union of South
Africa invalid.
(www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/suedwest-english.htm)
1919 The League of Nations
assigned the colony to South Africa to govern as a "Class A"
mandate.
(www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/suedwest-english.htm)
1950 Laurence Marshall, a
former president of Raytheon, took his family to the bush land of
the Kalahari Desert in South Africa where they encountered the
native Bushmen. The area later became the border of Namibia and
Botswana. In 2006 his daughter Elizabeth Marshall Thomas authored
”The Old Way: A Story of the First People.”
(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.M3)
1959 Hifikepunye Pohamba and
Sam Nujoma of Namibia founded the South West Africa People’s
Organization (SWAPO).
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.50)
1966 Oct 27, The UN deprived
South Africa of Namibia.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1967 A 23-year brush war began
with the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) rebel
movement demanding independence from South Africa.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.20A)
1975 Oct 14, South Africans
secretly launched Operation Savannah when the first of several South
African columns (task force Zulu) crossed into Angola from Namibia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_intervention_in_Angola_(1975-1991))
1979 In Namibia Nick (d.2001)
and Marieta van der Merwe began taking in injured animals on their
100,000 acre cattle farm. They later turned the farm into a trust
called the Harnas Wildlife Foundation (www.harnas.de/en).
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.G7)
1980 The film "The Gods Must Be
Crazy" was directed by Jamie Uys and starred N!xau (d.2003), a
Namibian bushman of the San people.
(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.A2)
1980 The Harnas Wild Animal
Foundation was begun by Nick and Mariet van der Merwes.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T5)
1982 Nov 20, South Africa
backed down on a plan to install black rule in neighboring Namibia.
(Historynet, 11/20/98)
1988 Mar 22, In Angola the
battle of Cuito Cuanavale changed the region's political landscape,
accelerating the independence of Namibia and the fall of apartheid
in South Africa. While the Cuban and Angolan forces claimed victory,
South Africa claimed it lost only 31 soldiers against 4,785 who fell
on the other side.
(AP, 3/22/08)
1988 Jul, The apartheid regime
in South Africa, having entered into discussions with the ANC,
agreed to elections in Namibia in exchange for the withdrawal of
Cuban troops from Angola.
(AP, 3/22/08)
1989 The South West Africa
People’s Organization (SWAPO) ended its rebellion against South
African rule with the UN supervised elections that elected Sam
Nujoma as President. A new constitution was written.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.20A)
1990 Mar 20, Namibia became an
independent nation, marking the end of 75 years of South African
rule. The South African colony gained independence after 25 years of
guerrilla war. Namibians began petitioning the U.N. as early as
1947, developing political parties, most notably SWAPO (South West
Africa People‘s Organization) to voice opposition to South African
rule. Armed resistance to South African rule began in earnest in the
1970s and continued into the 1980s, which combined with drought and
other factors, contributed to an overwhelming drain to South
Africa‘s economy. The UN Security Council eventually demanded
independence for Namibia, but transition elections were not agreed
to by South Africa until December 1988 after a military disaster
involving Angola. The UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) started
work in April 1989 with elections giving SWAPO 57% of the vote. On
March 21 of the following year, the South African flag was lowered
and the Namibian flag raised in Namibia‘s National Stadium.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.20A)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T4)(AP,
3/20/00)(HNQ, 2/13/01)
1990 Sam Nujoma became
president of Namibia.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.50)
1994 In the elections SWAPO won
over 72% of the vote.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.20A)
c1995 Pres. Nujoma began to
allocate about $3 million a year to buy land from white farmers for
black resettlement. By 2000 370,500 acres were purchased and 14,000
blacks resettled.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.C3)
1997 Jun 19, In Zimbabwe
delegates to the UN Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) approved the applications by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana
to sell an annual quota of their collective ivory stockpile, but
only to Japan. Trade in ivory was shut down in 1989 due to extensive
poaching.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)
1997 Jul, Armed police were
sent to break up a meeting between elders of the Himba tribe and
their lawyers. They were discussing a challenge a government
proposed dam proposal.
(SFC,11/19/97, p.C3)
1997 Jun 19, In Zimbabwe
delegates to the UN Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) approved the applications by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana
to sell an annual quota of their collective 55 tons of ivory
stockpile, but only to Japan. Trade in ivory was shut down in 1989
due to extensive poaching.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A9)
1998 Aug 26, In Congo
Rwandan-backed rebels attempted an assault on Kinshasa but were held
off by government soldiers and troops from Zimbabwe and Namibia.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 27, In Congo Unita
forces from Angola joined the rebels, while forces from Namibia
fought for Kabila’s regime.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe,
chairman of the African body “Organ on Politics, Defence and
Security,” joined with Namibia and Angola in a war of plunder in
Congo.
(Econ, 3/13/04, p.48)
1999 Feb 10, A UN panel eased a
trade ban on ivory. It allowed Namibia and Zimbabwe to sell nearly
34 tons to Japan.
(WSJ, 2/11/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 9, Some 13.6 tons of
elephant tusks were sold at auction to Japanese buyers at the first
legal sale since a 1989 int'l. ban on the sale of ivory.
(SFC, 4/10/99, p.C14)
1999 Aug 2, In Namibia
separatist rebels for the independence of the Caprivi border area
attacked the town of Katima Mulilo and 16 people were killed. Pres.
Sam Nujoma later blamed the Caprivi Liberation Army and accused from
opposition leader Mishake Muyongo of being behind the revolt.
(WSJ, 8/3/99, p.A1)(SFC, 8/4/99, p.A9)
2000 Jan 4, In Namibia gunmen
attacked a family of French tourists, killed 3 children and wounded
the parents. Unita rebels were blamed.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May, Some 4,000 white
Namibians farmed 90 million acres, 44% of the country. Another 400
whites owned 7.5 million acres. About 1 million blacks had access to
83 million acres of communal land.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
2001 Sep 2, Namibia confirmed
that it had pulled all its troops from all of Congo except the
capital. Uganda said it had pulled 6 of 10 battalions.
(SFC, 9/3/01, p.A10)
2001 Sam Nujoma, president of
Namibia, authored his 476-page autobiography “Where Others Wavered.”
In 2005 it was made into a film.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.49)
2003 Jul 5, Police in Namibia
reported the recent death of N!xau, the diminutive bushman
catapulted to international stardom in the film "The Gods Must Be
Crazy" — he was thought to be about 59 years old.
(AP, 7/5/04)
2003 Dec 29, Frustrated
with the government's stalled land reform program, impoverished
black farmers and laborers warned that come January they will start
invading the country's mostly white-owned commercial farms.
(AP, 12/29/03)
2004 Apr 21, President Sam
Nujoma assured Namibians that a land expropriation program would be
conducted in a legal and orderly manner.
(AP, 4/21/04)
2004 Nov, Namibia voters
elected the hand picked Hifikepunye Pohamba (69), minister for land,
as president. Sam Nujoma was due to step aside in March 2005.
(Econ, 9/25/04, p.62)(Econ, 11/20/04, p.50)
2005 Mar 14, Sam Nujoma, the
first president of Namibia, retired.
(http://asi.ndi.org/delegates/delegates.asp)
2006 May 27, Shiloh Nouvel
Jolie-Pitt, daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, was born in
Namibia, where the family had traveled for privacy.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2006 Sep 27, Jacob "Kobi"
Alexander, the former chief and founder of Comverse Technology Inc.,
was arrested in Namibia, where he awaited extradition to the US to
face criminal fraud charges related to stock options. Alexander had
recently transferred tens of millions of dollars to Namibia. He was
released after 6 days on $1.4 million bail.
(Reuters, 9/27/06)(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A1)(WSJ,
11/17/06, p.A1)
2007 Feb 5, China’s president
Hu Jintao brought his eight-nation African tour to Namibia, a
sparsely populated, mineral-rich desert country that hopes to
benefit from an influx of Chinese investment and tourists.
(AP, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 28, In Namibia
hundreds of people protested a visit by Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe, holding signs reading, "Go home dictator." The local
National Society for Human Rights called Mugabe's three-day state
visit an insult to Namibia.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Jun 2, The UN Convention
on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) decided to
permit a one-off sale of 60 tons of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and
South Africa to Japan, saying it would monitor closely the impact on
poaching and population levels.
(Reuters, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, The Institute for
Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) said a study of mortality patterns
in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Senegal
indicated Africa's HIV/AIDS crisis was reaching deep into elected
governments.
(Reuters, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 14, In the Netherlands
four African states (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe),
after an 18-year ban, were allowed to put their ivory stocks on the
market in a one-time sale as part of a hard-fought compromise
reached with other Africans who tried to block the sale. The
171-member Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species,
or CITES, approved the deal by consensus.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jul 1, In Namibia a seal
hunt started with a planned run of five months saying it wants to
save its fishing industry. The start followed a government
announcement that it would allow the killing of 6,000 adult males
and 80,000 pups, up by 20,000 in 2006.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 8, Two gunmen attacked
a German couple photographing wildlife in Namibia, killing Johannes
Fellinger (56), in front of his wife and taking her on a high-speed
chase.
(AP, 7/10/07)
2007 Jul 20, Angola, Namibia
and South Africa launched a joint commission designed to lay the
groundwork for a sustainable and environmental approach of their
shared fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean.
(AFP, 7/20/07)
2007 Zimbabwe and Namibia
entered into an agreement under which Namibia gave Zimbabwe a
40-million-dollar loan for repairs to its thermal power stations
while Zimbabwe would pay back by exporting electricity to Namibia.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2008 Mar 20, Kim Yong-Nam,
North Korea's de facto head of state, arrived in Namibia as part of
his goodwill visit to three African nations, which also includes
Angola and Uganda. Namibia and North Korea hoped to strengthen their
economic ties. Kim Yong-Nam warned against countries plundering
resources from poor African countries.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2008 Apr, In Namibia a
16th-century Portuguese trade vessel was found by chance as mine
workers created an artificial sand wall with bulldozers to push back
the sea for diamond dredging. Six bronze cannons, several tons of
copper, huge elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational
instruments, and a variety of weapons including swords, sabres and
knives were soon tugged out of the beach sand. Over 2,300 gold coins
weighing some 21 kilograms (46 pounds) and 1.5 kilograms of silver
coins were also found.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Jul 16, The United States
signed a pair of agreements to boost trade and investment ties with
countries in southern and eastern Africa. These included the Trade,
Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement with the Southern
Africa Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho,
Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland; and the Trade Investment and
Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the East African Community, which
includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Oct 28, Namibia sold more
than seven tons of ivory for $1.1 million, in the first legal
auction of elephant tusks in nearly a decade, exclusively for
Chinese and Japanese buyers.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, A regional
tribunal in Namibia ruled that 78 white Zimbabweans can keep their
farms because the government's land reform scheme discriminated
against them.
(AFP, 11/28/08)
2009 Mar 11, Officials in
Namibia said at least 92 people had drowned in its northern regions
since the start of rainy season in Dec.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 27, Southern African
countries (Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia) have been
hit by the worst floods in years, killing more than 100 people and
displacing thousands, as a tropical storm threatened to bring more
pain.
(AFP, 3/28/09)
2009 Jun 25, In Namibia Russian
Pres. Dmitry Medvedev called for boosting trade ties with Namibia,
at the start of the first-ever visit by a Kremlin chief to the
southern African nation. Pres. Hifikepunye Pohamba said his nation
was also keen to strengthen cooperation and build a durable economic
partnership.
(AFP, 6/25/09)
2009 Jul 1, In Namibia the
annual seal hunt opened despite objections by animal welfare groups.
Hunters were expected to club over 90,000 seals including 85,000
pups by Nov 15.
(SFC, 7/7/09, p.A2)(AFP, 8/4/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Namibia 2
European journalists were fined $625 (US) by a court for filming the
annual seal hunt along the coast of the southern African nation. On
July 31 British investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South
African cameraman Bart Smithers were found guilty of violating the
Marine Resources Act by entering a restricted area without
permission.
(AFP, 7/18/09)(AFP, 8/4/09)
2009 Nov 27, Namibia’s Pres.
Hifikepunye Pohamba, who is seeking a 2nd 5-year term, was among the
first to vote as polls opened in a 2-day election. The elections
expected to return the long-ruling SWAPO to power despite a tough
challenge from a new breakaway party. The population of the desert
nation, half the size of Alaska, numbered about 2.2 million people.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba won re-election, with more than six
times as many votes as his nearest rival.
(AP, 11/27/09)(AFP, 11/27/09)(AP, 12/5/09)(Econ,
11/28/09, p.56)
2010 Jan 13, A Zimbabwe state
daily reported that the nation’s power utility has been ordered to
stop electricity exports to Namibia until it can meet its own
country's needs.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Nov 17, In Namibia a
suspected explosive device was found on a conveyor belt with luggage
on a Germany-bound flight. On Nov 22 a court said that Nehemia
Shafuda, chief inspector of the Namibian police aviation security,
faces charges for smuggling a suspected explosive device, using the
device in an airport and giving false information that interfered
with airport operations.
(AP, 11/22/10)
2011 Apr 6, The United Nations
said 62 people have been killed and thousands forced from their
homes since the start of the year by flooding in northern Namibia.
More rains in northern Namibia were forecast for the coming days.
(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Sep 30, Namibian tribal
leaders took possession of the skulls of 20 of their countrymen,
taken by German colonial forces more than a century ago for racial
experiments. The 9 Herero and 11 Nama skulls, four females and 16
male, had arrived in Berlin, between 1909-1914. Germany's colonial
power in Africa included the bloody suppression of a Herero and Nama
uprising between 1904 and 1908 that left tens of thousands dead.
(AP, 9/30/11)
2011 Oct 4, In Namibia 20
skulls, taken by German colonial forces more than a century ago,
returned to Windhoek with military honours to be laid in state at
parliament.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2011 Nov, A large metallic ball
fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting
baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.
Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and
Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities found in an
Internet search.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Namibia’s population was
about 2.2 million.
(Econ, 3/12/11, p.56)
2012 Jan 11, Namibia's
competition commission said it has cleared a Chinese nuclear company
to take over an Australian mining firm with rights to the world's
fourth-largest uranium deposit.
(AFP, 1/11/12)
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End of file.