OVERVIEW
GEOGRAPHY
Namibia is located in Southern Africa, with the South Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the southeast. Namibia has a desert climate with little rainfall. The terrain is mostly high plateau, with the Namib Desert bordering the west coast, and the Kalahari Desert to the east.
HISTORY
POPULATION
July 2017 estimations place Namibia's population at 2,484,780. Population density is very low, with the largest clustering found in the extreme north-central area along the border with Angola. The racial/ethnic makeup of Namibia is 87.5 percent Black, 6 percent white, and 6.5 percent mixed race. About 50 percent of the population belong to the Ovambo tribe and 9 percent to the Kavangos tribe; other indigenous ethnic groups include Herero (7 percent of population), Damara (7 percent of population), Nama (5 percent of population), Caprivian (4 percent of population), San (3 percent of population), Baster (2 percent of population), and Tswana (0.5 percent of population) ("Namibia", 2017).
POLITICS
Namibia is a presidential republic. Its capital is Windhoek. Namibia has fourteen administrative divisions: Erongo, Hardap, //Karas, Kavango East, Kavango West, Khomas, Kunene, Ohangwena, Omaheke, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto, Otjozondjupa, and Zambesi. It became independent from South African rule on 21 March 1990. The chief of state is President Hage Geingob, who is also head of government along with Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila. The political parties of Namibia are the All People's Party (APP), the Communist Party of Namibia (CPN), the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance of Namibia (DTA), the National Unity Democratic Organization (NUDO), the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), the Republican Party (RP), the South-West Africa National Union (SWANU), the South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), the United Democratic Front (UDF), and the United People's Movement (UPM) ("Namibia", 2017).
RELIGIONS
Eighty to ninety percent of the population identify as Christian (with at least fifty percent identifying as Lutheran), and ten to twenty percent of the population hold indigenous beliefs ("Namibia", 2017).
EDUCATION
Namibia has a 7-3-2 formal education structure. Primary school has an official entry age of six and a duration of seven grades. Primary is broken into two phases: lower primary (grades 1-4) and upper primary (grades 5-7). Secondary school is divided into two cycles: lower secondary (junior secondary) consists of grades 8-10, and upper secondary (senior secondary) consists of grades 11-12. Basic education in Namibia encompasses pre-primary education as well as primary and secondary education levels. In principle, public school is free. School attendance is compulsory through the end of primary or until age 16, whichever comes first. Students sit for the national standardized assessment at the end of grade 5, the Junior Secondary Certificate assessment (JSC) at the end of grade 10, and the Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate examination (NSSCO) at the end of grade 12 ("Namibia", 2014).
LANGUAGES
48.9 percent of the population speaks Oshivambo languages, 11.3 percent speak Nama/Damara, 10.4 percent speak Afrikaans (the common language of most of the population and about 60 percent of the white population), 8.6 percent speak Otjiherero languages, 8.5 percent speak Kavango languages, 4.8 percent speak Caprivi languages, 3.4 percent speak English (the official language of the country), 2.3 percent speak other African languages, and 1.7 percent speak other non-African languages ("Namibia", 2017). Namibia has 13 recognized national languages, including 10 indigenous African languages, and 3 Indo-European languages ("Namibia", 2017). According to Braj Kachru's three circle model of World Englishes, despite having English as the official language, since it has only been twenty-seven years since the country's independence and institution of English, Namibia could be classified as an "Expanding Circle" country, since its institutionalized English had little history in the country before independence (Jenkins, 2015, p. 15). However, in his article "Uses and functions of English in Namibia’s multiethnic settings" Gerald Stell (2014) argues that Namibia falls under the category of Kachru's "Outer Circle" due to ‘indigenization’ (i.e., the development of a local variety of English) and ‘Englishization’ (i.e., the impact of English on local languages) (Jenkins, 2015, p. 14; Stell, 2014, p. 213).
Cropp, Fall 2017