History

In the 18th century, several explorers travelled round the world. Some of them went to a country which we now all know as Namibia. But shortly after the explorers tried to go deeper in to the country, they discovered, this was almost not possible, because of the Namib Dessert.
At the end of the 18th century a group of German missionaries succeded to reach the inlands of Namibia. For decades they promoted the German language and Chistianity.

At the end of the 19th century, Namibia was subdued to the German administration. Walvisbaai, a small seaport at the coast of Namibië was an enclava of England.
The German administration was very disrespectfull to the local people. All the land became German property and was given away to wealthy German colonists. In 1904 de locals refused to listen any longer to the German administration. The Nama's and Herero's slowly started a war against the German administration. But after many bloody battles, they again surrendered to the German administration.

Ten yeard later, Germany was at the start of World War 1. The control of South West Africa (today known as Namibia) was transferred to the South African government. After years of investing in the infrastructure of South West Africa, the only heritats of the South African administration is the Apartheid.
Around 1966 the United Nations accepted a resolution which demanded an inmediate control transfer from the South African administration to an UN administration. But instead of leaving the country, South African troops started to defend uprising guerrilla wars (SWAPO) in the north of the country. After years of battle, the guerrilla's finally won the battle against South African troops. In 1990 (when Nelson Mandela was released from prison) South African troops left South West Africa. Shortly after Namibia became independent. South Africa maintained control over Walvisbaai until 1994.

Sam Nujoma, de leader of then so important SWAPO, became the first president of Namibia. The main goal of Sam Nujoma was to change the control of all the big 'foreign' companies. The government only wanted local control, instead of colonists controlling the companies.

Present situation
Namibia is a stable and safe country to visit. The government is doing its utmost best to take care for the civillians. Katutura (the main suburb - township of Windhoek) gets lots of investments from the government for example to create proper infrastructure.
Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in Namibia. From one perspective this is bad, but for the country and the many people who are working within the tourism sector this is an excellent development.