People of the South

Circling the Dead

Deadvlei with star trails ,By Marsel van Oosten

Storm Over the Okavango River Delta by MichaelTrezzi

Interview with Stephen Chan, author of “Southern Africa: Old Treacheries and New Deceits” 

Think Africa Press interview Stephen Chan about his 28th and most recent book, “Southern Africa: Old Treacheries and New Deceits”.

No, it’s not a painting. It’s a photograph of the dead tree park in Namibia the photo is by Frank Krahmer

(via AfricanColours.com)

Schier Shoes
Lately, the unique style of Namibia’s Herero Women has been the inspiration for several fashion collections, and a recent advertising campaign by Namibian footwear maker, Schier Shoes brought a smile to my face, its embracement of this spirit of individuality and enjoyment of life whatever your age and wherever you are. Based in Swakopmund, Namibia, the company Herbert Schier has been manufacturing Velskoen shoes since 1938. Although more mainly associated with Namibia and South Africa, those from the Southern African region will be familiar with Veldskoen’s or ‘Vellies’ as they are more commonly known, a type of rugged suede footwear that I can recall in Zimbabwe being a staple, given its durability, amongst the uniformed professions such as the Airforce and Safari Guides as well as farmers all of whom seemed to favour the shoe in a light sandy brown colour, or maybe that was the only choice available at the time!
(read more)

On the southwest coast of Africa, Namibia, a stable democracy, has stood mysteriously quiet over the past 50 years when it comes to activity connected with oil exploration.

Africa’s west coast has seen oil exploration reward Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, and Mauritania, not to mention OPEC’s Nigeria, and Angola, but for years Namibia has merely watched.

That’s because no oil has been found there.

All that could change very soon. Business Week and Bloomberg are reporting that BP last month became the largest shareholder in a parcel covering Namibia’s Nimrod offshore oil prospects, which may yield the third largest discovery of oil this year, according to Morgan Stanley.

Robert “Bob” Dudley, CEO of BP Plc, said all of the other major oil companies “have overlooked a number of the biggest basins in the world”.

BP reportedly purchased permits in neighbouring Angola last year on the belief that West Africa’s coastal shelf may have identical geological traits (favouring oil) of Brazil across the Atlantic.

One of BP’s partners in exploring the Nimrod region, Paul Welch, CEO of Chariot Oil & Gas Ltd, said, “It’s become a hot area. If we make a discovery it’ll be like Ghana after Jubilee.”

Bloomberg said that the 2007 Jubilee discovery in Ghana, belonging to Tullow Oil, Plc, unlocked as many as 700 million barrels of reserves and opened a new oil province.

But to put this in perspective, even BP’s partner, Chariot Oil, puts the odds of success at Nimrod at just 24 percent, and that shows a willingness by BP to drill for longshot prospects after many of the biggest finds have been secured by competitors.

Others say Namibia could open up a new basin for BP and that’s why BP is betting big there, as well as in Angola, the Gulf of Mexico and South America. - iNamibia.com

african-style:

Namibië, oktober 2008 by Martha de Jong-Lantink, net terug uit Kenia on Flickr.

(via itisblackandblack)

WINDHOEK – Namibia’s population stands at 2.1 million people, an increase of 15 percent from the 1.8 million recorded during the 2001 Population and Housing Census.

On average, a 1.5 percent population growth has occurred annually. Of the 2.1 million people, 51 percent are female and 49 percent male, the latest census preliminary results indicate.

In total, 465, 400 households were counted, representing an increase of 32 percent from the 346,455 households registered in the 2001 census. This reflects a reduction in average household size to 4.4 in 2011 compared to 5.1 in 2001.

Average households vary significantly across regions and constituencies. It is highest in the Kavango Region and lowest in the Erongo Region. Generally, large households are to be found in the northern regions, while small ones are found in regions with larger urban populations such as the Erongo and Khomas regions.

The southern regions have moderately-sized households. In terms of rural and urban distribution, a total of 1, 219,400 (58 percent) were enumerated in rural areas, while 885,500 (42 percent) were enumerated in urban areas in 2011.
Compared to the proportional distributions of 67 percent and 33 percent respectively enumerated in the 2001 census, this shows that the rate of urbanization in Namibia is increasing.

The preliminary census results were announced by the Director-General of the National Planning Commission, Tom Alweendo.
“It’s a good growth if you relate that growth to the economic growth. We should still be able to manage our population.”

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)Episode 28, Part 04

Tens of thousands of young white South African men fought in Namibia and Angola in the seventies and eighties as national servicemen, the so-called ‘troepies’ on the border were used shamelessly by the government as a way of boosting white patriotism and a laager mentality, essential elements in the apartheid façade.  This is a story of South Africa’s days of playing regional military super power in the late eighties when the full might of the Defence Force was used in central and south west Angola to defend UNITA against the onslaught of the Angolan government forces. It culminated in the now well-known confrontation of Cuito Cuanavale in 1987.

Namibian president addresses Mozambican parliament

Addressing the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on the first day of a two day state visit, Pohamba said that the liberation struggles in southern Africa had brought democracy to the region “which guarantees respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights to our people”.
But he warned that democracy “would be meaningless, if our people do not have access to basic amenities such as shelter, potable water, food, health care, education and human security”.
It was therefore the duty of elected representatives in parliaments “to ensure improved living standards through provision of affordable housing, electricity, clean water, equitable and quality education, affordable medical services and other basic services which governments all over the world are tasked to provide to their citizens”.
“Knowing our history”, Pohamba added, “we are tasked to implement policies that promote social justice in order to preserve the legacy of our glorious revolution and secure a better future for the younger generation”.
He called on southern African parliaments to “promote the aspirations of our people, Parliaments should not operate in isolation from the rest of society, Rather, in order to become even more effective legislative bodies, our parliaments should seek the involvement and participation of the citizenry in the legislative process”.

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/solutions1/sectionnews.php?secao=mozambique&id=24442&tipo=one