Category Archives: Namibia

Campaigners celebrate changing of colonial street names in Berlin

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Street and square in north-east of city renamed in tribute to figureheads who resisted forced rule in Africa

Campaigners who have fought for decades for Germany to confront its colonial past celebrated the renaming of a square and a street in the north-east of Berlin on Friday in tribute to figureheads who resisted forced rule in Africa.

Manga Bell Platz in the so-called African Quarter of Berlin’s Wedding district was renamed in memory of Rudolf and Emily Duala Manga Bell, a king and queen of Duala in Cameroon who fought against German colonialism. Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, who had been educated in Germany, was executed along with about 100 other people by German authorities in August 1914 after a sham trial.

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India reintroduces cheetahs to wild after big cats airlifted from Namibia

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PM Narendra Modi to welcome the eight animals amid fears that they may struggle with Kuno national park habitat or clash with leopards

Eight Namibian cheetahs have been airlifted to India, part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the big cats after they were driven to extinction there decades ago, officials and vets said.

The wild cheetahs were moved by road from a game park north of the Namibian capital of Windhoek on Friday to board a chartered Boeing 747 dubbed “Cat plane” for an 11-hour flight.

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Wild cheetahs to return to India for first time since 1952

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Officials announce eight cats will be brought from Namibia in effort to reintroduce animal to its former habitat

Cheetahs are to return to India’s forests this August for the first time in more than 70 years, officials have announced.

Eight wild cats from Namibia will roam freely at Kuno-Palpur national park in the state of Madhya Pradesh in efforts to reintroduce the animal to their natural habitat.

Despite being a vital part of India’s ecosystem, the cheetah was declared extinct from the country in 1952 because of habitat loss and poaching. Cheetahs can reach speeds of up to 70mph (113km/h), making them the world’s fastest land animal.

Only about 7,000 cheetahs remain in the wild worldwide and the animals are classified as a vulnerable species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of threatened species. Namibia has the world’s largest population of cheetahs.

Officials have been working to relocate the animals since 2020, after India’s supreme court announced that African cheetahs could be brought back in a “carefully chosen location”.

The move coincides with the nation’s 75th Independence Day, celebrating cheetahs as an important part of India’s cultural heritage.

India’s environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, tweeted: “Completing 75 glorious years of Independence with restoring the fastest terrestrial flagship species, the cheetah, in India, will rekindle the ecological dynamics of the landscape.”

He added: “Cheetah reintroduction in India has a larger goal of re-establishing ecological function in Indian grasslands that was lost due to extinction of Asiatic cheetah. This is in conformity with IUCN guidelines on conservation translocations.”

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New oilfield in African wilderness threatens lives of 130,000 elephants

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Exploratory project in Botswana and Namibia is threat to ecosystems, local communities and wildlife, conservationists say

Tens of thousands of African elephants are under threat from plans for a massive new oilfield in one of the continent’s last great wildernesses, experts have warned.

Campaigners and conservationists fear the proposed oilfield stretching across Namibia and Botswana would devastate regional ecosystems and wildlife as well as local communities.

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Macron seeks African reset with new view of France’s troubled history on continent

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Honest examination of French colonial record in Africa and responsibilty in Rwanda key to new strategy, though critics say little has changed

With the golden winter sun slanting across the palm trees and yellow sandstone, the scene was perfect. Emmanuel Macron and his host, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, walked down the red carpet of the Union buildings in Pretoria as the Marseillaise resonated through the clean, crisp air.

The historic setting was apt. Since taking power in 2017, the French president has sought a broad reset of national strategy, relations and intervention in Africa. He has chosen a very contemporary way to do this: by re-examining the past.

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Germany agrees to pay Namibia €1.1bn over historical Herero-Nama genocide

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It is understood the text of the joint declaration will call German atrocities ‘genocide’ but omit the words ‘reparations’ or ‘compensation’

Germany has to agreed to pay Namibia €1.1bn (£940m) to fund projects among communities affected by the Herero-Nama genocide at the start of the 20th century, in what Angela Merkel’s government says amounts to a gesture of reconciliation but not legally binding reparations.

Tens of thousands of men, women and children were shot, tortured or driven into the Kalahari desert to starve by German troops between 1904 and 1908 after the Herero and Nama tribes rebelled against colonial rule in what was then named German South West Africa and is now Namibia.

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Germany rules out financial reparations for Namibia genocide

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Berlin wary of setting legal precedent as talks near completion on reconciliation deal for atrocities against Herero and Nama tribes

Germany has categorically ruled out financial reparations forming part of a planned formal apology to Namibia for colonial atrocities at the start of the 20th century, amid fears such payments could set a legal precedent for further claims.

Angela Merkel’s government has since 2014 negotiated with Namibia to “heal the wounds” of what historians call the first genocide of the 20th century, when between 1904 and 1908 tens of thousands of indigenous people were shot, starved, and tortured to death by German troops as they put down the rebellious Herero and Nama tribes in what is now Namibia.

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The Recce review – crossing enemy lines in South African action-drama

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An elite soldier is sent on a perilous solo mission in this underwhelming drama set during the Namibian war of independence

This South African-made action-drama unfolds against the background of a conflict little known about above the equator, much less used as a setting for film – the Namibian war of independence from 1966-90, AKA the South African border war. Often considered South Africa’s version of Vietnam, it was, among other things, a proxy fight between South Africa, then still under apartheid, and its allies at the time, and the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia, who were backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba.

Although there’s a fair amount of on-screen contextualising in the opening minutes to explain key terms and ideas, The Recce feels made for a local audience that has a grasp of the cultural and historical background. That means it’s not easy for outsiders to read the ideology of this stylised, fictional account of an elite Afrikaner soldier, Henk Viljoen (Greg Kriek), the “recce”, who is ordered to go across enemy lines alone one last time to kill a Russian officer. Henk leaves behind his pregnant wife Nicola (Christia Visser), with whom we spend a lot of screen time as she looks anxious, remembers happier moments in her marriage and visits Henk’s parents, who are sick with worry about their son. In the narrative mix is Captain Le Roux (Grant Swanby), an English-speaking South African officer who is also worried about Henk and the general madness of the war.

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Namibia to auction 170 wild elephants, saying rising numbers threaten people

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Increase in conflict between species and drought prompt sale of animals that are at risk of extinction due to poaching

Namibia has put 170 “high value” wild elephants up for sale due to drought and an increase in elephant numbers, the southern African country’s environmental ministry has said

An advertisement carried by the state-owned daily New Era said an increase in incidents of human-elephant conflict motivated the sale of the large mammal that is at risk of extinction due to poaching and ecological factors.

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Estimated 5,000 Cape fur seal foetuses spotted on Namibian coast

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Scientists searching for reasons fear breeding cycle will be disrupted for years to come

An estimated 5,000 Cape fur seal foetuses have been found along the shores of Namibia, a large portion of the expected new pup arrivals.

The bodies were spotted by Naude Dreyer of Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN), who flew his drone over Walvis Bay’s Pelican Point seal colony on 5 October and counted hundreds of bodies. “This is tragic, as it makes up a large portion of the new pup arrivals expected in late November,” he tweeted.

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Namibia’s youngest MP enters the crucible as Africa’s youth lead the way

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Her ascent to a cabinet position at the age of 23 took her by surprise. Yet across southern Africa, young leaders like Emma Theofelus are on the rise

One of Africa’s youngest cabinet members to date is experiencing a baptism of fire.

Emma Theofelus, 23, was appointed Namibia’s information, communication and technology deputy minister a week after coronavirus hit Namibian shores. “I have literally been learning on the job so far,” she says.

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Namibia election: president wins second term despite scandal and recession

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Hage Geingob re-elected but ruling party takes hit at the polls, with two-thirds parliamentary majority whittled down

Namibia’s president has won another term but the longtime ruling party has lost its powerful two-thirds majority in its most challenging election since independence nearly 30 years ago.

The southern African nation’s electoral commission said on Saturday that the president, Hage Geingob, received 56% of the vote while opposition challenger Panduleni Itula had 29%.

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Pharma’s market: the man cleaning up Africa’s meat

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In Namibia a country of meat-lovers, vital expertise is needed to stop livestock spreading diseases

Wreathed in barbecue smoke, Vetjaera Haakuria gestures at the men butchering meat and cooking it over hot coals behind his back. “What have you learned about the risks of eating this?” he asks his young audience, spotless in their white lab coats. “It might contain drug residues, right? And what about diseases?”

It’s nearly noon in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, and the market is preparing grilled meat – known locally as kapana – for the lunchtime rush. Everyone comes here, from construction workers to members of parliament. Namibians love to eat meat, and he is no exception: his tribe, the Herero, traditionally eat nothing else.

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Lift ‘unfair’ ban on ivory trade, southern African leaders urge summit

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Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia call for embargo suspension to allow sale of hugely valuable stockpiles

Southern African leaders have renewed calls for a lifting of the ban on the ivory trade as debate over the “unfair” embargo escalates.

At a wildlife economic summit in Zimbabwe, leaders of the five countries that make up the Kavango-Zambezi conservation area – Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia – raised the issue ahead of the August conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Raw ivory sales: Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia call for end to ban

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Southern African countries to appeal to watchdog for permission to sell stockpiled ivory worth more than £230m

Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia are making a fresh appeal for a global watchdog to lift restrictive measures on the trade in raw ivory.

The watchdog, Cites, prohibits unregulated commercial trade in endangered species around the world.

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Namibia:Judge Orders Training for Home Affairs Officials

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The Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration must design a training programme for its officials whose duties include the enforcement of the Immigration Control Act, Windhoek High Court judge Shafimana Ueitele has ordered. The ministry's permanent secretary and chief immigration officer must also design programmes that would help the ministry monitor the detention of alleged illegal immigrants in Namibia, and should have training programmes on the Immigration Control Act in place by no later than the end of September this year, judge Ueitele further ordered in a judgement delivered last Thursday.