Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean, Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south, with Windhoek as its capital and largest city. The driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, it has been inhabited since prehistoric times by the Khoi, San, Damara and Nama peoples, joined by Bantu peoples arriving around the fourteenth century who from 1600 formed kingdoms such as Ondonga and Oukwanyama; in 1884 the German Empire established the colony of German South West Africa, and between 1904 and 1908 German troops waged a genocidal campaign against the Herero and Nama, recognized by Germany and Namibia in a 2021 reconciliation agreement. The League of Nations mandated the territory's administration to South Africa in 1920, and South Africa applied apartheid there after 1948; the United Nations assumed direct responsibility in 1966 and recognized SWAPO as the Namibian people's official representative in 1973, and Namibia gained independence from South Africa in March 1990, following the South African Border War, though Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands remained under South African control until 1994. Namibia is a parliamentary democracy whose economy rests on agriculture, tourism and mining, including diamonds, uranium, gold and silver; despite significant GDP growth since independence, 41 percent of its 3.1 million people are affected by multidimensional poverty, and Namibia has one of the world's highest income disparities.