LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Namibia
built 615 days ago
Namibia is a perfect starting point for anyone who has never self driven in Africa before. Click on the Driving Conditions page above for more information as to just how easy it is! Namibia is a country with enormous geographical variety. It contains a large part of the Kalahari desert in the east of the country. In the north is the Etosha Pan, a verdant, game-rich area boasting a huge range of species. The Namib Desert and Skeleton Coast lie along the western seaboard and the sand dunes along the coast are some of the largest in the world.
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Namibia is a racially and ethnically diverse nation of slightly over 2,000,000* people. About 50% of the population belongs to the Ovambo tribe. Other tribes include the Herero, Damara, Nama, Caprivian, Kavango and San (sometimes known as Bushmen). About 13% of the population is of European or mixed racial decent. While English is the national language, many other languages are spoken. Oshiwambo is most widely spoken as a first language, followed by several other tribal languages as well as Afrikaans and German. Most Namibians are proficient in more than one language.
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Namibia has relatively high crime rate. See the warning for ATMs above, in the Buy section. For men it is not prudent to walk or ride taxis alone in Windhoek or Oshakati after midnight. For women, it is not prudent after 9pm. Pickpockets can be a problem. All these warnings should be taken in context, because the threat is not as serious as it might sound.
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Namibia has four primary geographic regions, all of which are of great interest to the adventure traveller. In the north lies the Etosha Pan, an enormous alluvial basin that has long since lost the lake that it once held. Although water supplies are now limited for most of the year to the perimeter of the pan, the area remains sufficiently fertile to support great herds of antelope species (including gemsbok, impala, and springbok), zebra, and--most famously--elephants. Many other species of wildlife abound as well, and the Etosha Pan is now the center of one of the finest game parks on the African continent.
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Through the 1970s Namibia’s wildlife was vulnerable to high levels of poaching by the country’s rural inhabitants, who needed both the food that wild animals provided and the money from their skins. In the 1980s the government hit upon a creative solution for the problem. The administration began employing people from local communities to scout for and report poachers and, later, to act as guides for tourists—all within close range of their homes. In return for a few months of work each year, a rural person received a monthly food ration and a cash stipend. By making the preservation of wildlife a boon to the livelihood of rural people without significantly disrupting their traditional ways of life, this program made wildlife conservation more effective and directly beneficial to the country’s rural inhabitants. Wildlife populations have rebounded somewhat, and ecotourism has expanded.
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The history of habitation in Namibia begins with the San, who were living there at least two thousand years ago. As a nation... Namibia is relatively young, having gained its independence after prolonged struggles only in march of 1990. The country was largely spared the attentions of the European powers until the end of the nineteenth century, when it came under the control of Germany. In 1920 the territory was awarded by the League of Nations to South Africa, which resisted Namibian independence for decades as a result of the area's enormous mineral wealth. Although the UN voted to end South African control in 1966, widespread regional warfare prevented the establishment of an independent government for almost two decades.
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Namibia