namibia : Living life my way

27/04/2008

The Skeleton Coast - Namibia's best kept secret

Portuguese sailors once referred to it as "The Gates of Hell". The attraction of this remote area lies in the color, changing moods and untouched profile of its landscape. Its aura of mystery and mightiness is largely due to the dense coastal fog and cold sea breezes caused by the cold Benguela Ocean current from the Arctic , and bones scattered on its beaches from where the area’s name derives. The remains of more than a thousand shipwrecks scattered along the coast bear witness to many ships, which have come to grief along these desolate shores.

The landscape ranges from sweeping vistas of wind swept dunes to rugged canyons with walls of richly colored volcanic rock and extensive mountain ranges. Its level coastline characterizes the area, only occasionally broken by scattered rocky outcrops. The southern section consists of the gravel plains, but north of Terrace Bay high dunes occur in the immediate vicinity of the coast.

The Ugab river is its southern boundary and stretches north to the Kunene River . It covers over 1.6 million hectares and divided into two zones - the southern section, between Ugab and Hoanib rivers, and the northern section - between the Hoanib and Kunene rivers. The latter has been demarcated as wilderness area and tourists can only enter the area by means of exclusive fly-in safaris conducted by a concessionaire. Of special interest are the clay castles of the Hoarisib, the salt pans near the Agate Mountain and one of the largest seal colonies in the world at Cape Fria .

The southern section of the area is accessible to the general public and attracts anglers to its superb fishing grounds. Because of the ecological sensitivity of the area, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism manages it. It was opened for through-travel in October 1998 and travelers must be in possession of the necessary permit which can be obtained from the Ministry's Reservation office in Windhoek or its Information office in Swakopmund.

Mammals along the coast are mainly limited to black-backed jackal, brown hyena and the Cape fur seals. Unusual inhabitants like the coastal lion had been seen, uniquely adopted to utilize coastal resources. The lions did not inhabit the coast permanently but used the river courses that cut through the Namib to move between the coast and the interior.

As tourist, the Skeleton Coast , a seemingly hostile, barren environment will allow you to experience the mystery and subtlety of nature hidden in its fragile mistiness if you take the time and utilize all your powers of observation. It is a fascinating area, with its history of rumors of "diamond rich" deposits, which lured the hopeful and proved to be illusions.

Here nothing is obvious, nothing predictable, as you travel through the apparent emptiness of the desert. Furthermore the wreck of the MV Dunedin Star, one of the many passenger vessels here, proves that the name Skeleton Coast is truly apt.

The Skeleton Coast will offer you experiences that are not available anywhere else in the world, but the desert is subtle and to be able to appreciate it fully you must be prepared to walk and search out the unique elements that make it a place you will remember for the rest of your life.

ECDJ

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15/04/2008

Namibia - Land of contrasts

It is known as 'The Country God Created In Anger'. It is in this little corner of the world where the open, golden plains of grassy savannah greets hardwood forests and scrub, where the dessert meets the see, and where 11 different cultures bring homage to a common heritage; the beauty of our land. Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic coast. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the east, and South Africa to the south.

The dry lands of Namibia were inhabited since early times by Bushmen, Damara, Namaqua, and since about the 14th century AD, by immigrating Bantu who came with the Bantu expansion. The region was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century, when the land came under German control as South West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika) — apart from Walvis Bay, which was under British control. South Africa occupied the colony during World War I and administered it as a League of Nations mandate territory until after World War II, when it unilaterally annexed the territory, without international recognition.

In 1966 the South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) guerrilla group launched a war of independence, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end its administration of Namibia, in accordance with a United Nations peace plan for the entire region. Independence came on March, 21st, 1990 and Walvis Bay was ceded to Namibia in 1994.

At 825,418 km² (318,696 mi²), Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country (after Venezuela. After Mongolia, Namibia is the least densely populated country in the world (2.5 persons per km².The Namibian landscape consists generally of five geographical areas, each with characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation with some variation within and overlap between them: the Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Escarpment, the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert. Although the climate is generally extremely dry, there are a few exceptions. The cold, north-flowing Benguela current accounts for some of the low precipitation and also results in cold coast waters which are rich in food resources.The Central Plateau runs from north to south, bordered by the Skeleton Coast to the north west, the Namib Desert and its coastal plains to the south west, the Orange River to the south, and the Kalahari Desert to the east. The Central Plateau is home to the highest point in Namibia at Königstein elevation 2,606 metres (8,411 feet). Within the wide, flat Central Plateau is the majority of Namibia ’s population and economic activity. Windhoek, the nation’s capital, is located here, as well as most of the arable land.

The abiotic conditions here are similar to those found along the Escarpment; however the topographic complexity is reduced. Summer temperatures in the area can reach 40°C during the summer, and in the winter, frosts are common.

The Namib Desert is a broad expanse of hyper-arid gravel plains and dunes that stretches along the entire coastline, which varies in width between 100 to many hundreds of kilometres. Areas within the Namib include the Skeleton Coast and the Kaokoveld in the north and the extensive Namib Sand Sea along the central coast. The sands that make up the sand sea are a consequence of erosional processes that take place within the Orange River valley and areas further to the south. As sand-laden waters drop their suspended loads into the Atlantic, onshore currents deposit them along the shore. The prevailing south west winds then pick up and redeposit the sand in the form of massive dunes in the widespread sand sea. In areas where the supply of sand is reduced because of the inability of the sand to cross riverbeds, the winds also scour the land to form large gravel plains. In many areas within the Namib Desert, there is little vegetation with the exception of lichens found in the gravel plains, and in dry river beds where plants can access subterranean water.

The Great Escarpment swiftly rises to over 2000 metres. Average temperatures and temperature ranges increase as you move further inland from the cold Atlantic waters, while the lingering coastal fogs slowly diminish. Although the area is rocky with poorly developed soils, it is nonetheless significantly more productive than the Namib Desert. As summer winds are forced over the Escarpment, moisture is extracted as precipitation. The water, along with rapidly changing topography, is responsible for the creation of microhabitats which offer a wide range of organisms, many of them endemic. Vegetation along the Escarpment varies in both form and density, with community structure ranging from dense woodlands to more shrubby areas with scattered trees. A number of Acacia species are found here, as well as grasses and other shrubby vegetation.

The Bushveld is found in north eastern Namibia along the Angolan border and in the Caprivi Strip which is the vestige of a narrow corridor demarcated for the German Empire to access the Zambezi River. The area receives a significantly greater amount of precipitation than the rest of the county, averaging around 400 millimetres per year. Temperatures are also cooler and more moderate, with approximate seasonal variations of between 10°C and 30°C. The area is generally flat and the soils sandy, limiting their ability to retain water. Located adjacent to the Bushveld in north-central Namibia is one of nature’s most spectacular features: the Etosha Pan. For most of the year it is a dry, saline wasteland, but during the wet season, it forms a shallow lake covering more than 6000 square kilometres. The area is ecologically important and vital to the huge numbers of birds and animals from the surrounding savannah that gather in the region as summer drought forces them to the scattered waterholes that ring the pan.

The Kalahari Desert is perhaps Namibia ’s best known geographical feature. Shared with South Africa and Botswana, it has a variety of localized environments ranging from hyper-arid sandy desert, to areas that seem to defy the common definition of desert. One of these areas, known as the Succulent Karoo, is home to over 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic; fully one third of the world’s succulents are found in the Karoo.The reason behind this high productivity and endemism may be the relatively stable nature of precipitation. The Karoo apparently does not experience drought on a regular basis, so even though the area is technically desert, regular winter rains provide enough moisture to support the region’s interesting plant community. Another feature of the Kalahari, indeed many parts of Namibia , are Inselbergs, isolated mountains that create microclimates and habitat for organisms not adapted to life in the surrounding desert matrix.

Besides the capital city Windhoek in the centre of the country, other important towns are the ports of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, as well as Oshakati and Grootfontein.Furthermore, Namibia is the only country in the world to specifically address conservation and protection of natural resources in its constitution. Article 95 states, "The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilization of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future."

In 1993, the newly formed government of Namibia received funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Living in a Finite Environment (LIFE) Project. The main goal of this project is promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism.Being among the three sovereign countries with the lowest population density. The majority of the Namibian population is Black African — mostly of the Owambo tribe, which forms about half of the population — and concentrated in the north of the country. There are also the Herero and Himba tribes who speak the same language. In addition to the Bantu majority, there are large groups of Khoisan (e.g. Nama and Bushmen), who are descendants of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa . Khoisan differ significantly in appearance from both Bantu and White Africans. Blacks of other Bantu descent are descendants of refugees from Angola. There are also two smaller groups of people with mixed racial origins, called "Coloureds" and "Basters", who together make up 8% (with the Coloureds outnumbering the Basters two to one). Whites of Portuguese, Dutch, German, British and French ancestry make up about 5% of the population (about 85,000) — which is the second largest proportion and number in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa. Most of Namibian whites and nearly all those of mixed race are Afrikaans speakers and share similar origins, culture, religion and genealogy as the white and coloured populations of neighbouring South Africa . A smaller proportion of whites (around 13,000) trace their family origins directly back to German settlers and maintain German cultural and educational institutions. Nearly all Portuguese are miners and settlers from their former colony of Angola.

Half of all Namibians speak Oshiwambo as their first language, whereas the most widely understood language is Afrikaans. Among the younger generation, the most widely understood language is English. Although its official language is English, Namibia is a multilingual country, having 13 different languages spoken in the country. Both Afrikaans and English are used primarily as a second language reserved for public sphere communication, but small first language groups exist throughout the country. While the official language is English, most of the white population speaks either Afrikaans or German, both official languages until 1990 when Namibia became independent. Portuguese is spoken by blacks and whites from Angola .

The AIDS epidemic is a very large problem in Namibia . Namibia’s infection rate is one of the highest on the continent and it shares its eastern border with Botswana which has the second highest rate of over 24%. In 2001, there were an estimated 210,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, and the estimated death toll in 2003 was 16,000. In north and central Namibia , malaria is also a pressing problem. The malaria problem seems to be compounded by the epidemic. Research has shown in Namibia , that the risk of contracting malaria is 14.5% greater if a person is also infected with HIV. The risk of death from malaria is also raised by approximately 50% with a concurrent HIV infection.Namibia’s economy consists primarily of mining and manufacturing which represent 74% and 11% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) respectively. Namibia has a 30-40% unemployment rate and recently passed a 2004 labour act to protect people from job discrimination stemming from pregnancy and HIV/AIDS status. Namibia’s economy is tied closely toSouth Africa’s due to their shared history.

The Central Plateau serves as a transportation corridor from the more densely populated north to South Africa, the source of four-fifths of Namibia ’s imports. Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa and the world's fifth largest producer of uranium. There has been significant investment in uranium mining and Namibia is set to become the largest exporter of uranium by 2015. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. Namibia also produces large quantities of lead, zinc, tin, silver, and tungsten. About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food. Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia 's people live in rural areas and exist on a subsistence way of life. Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cash-less economy. The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival.

The politics of Namibia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Namibia is elected to a five year term and is both the head of state and the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the bicameral Parliament, the National Assembly and the National Council. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislatureNamibia follows a largely independent foreign policy, with lingering affiliations with states that aided the independence struggle, including Libya and Cuba. With a small army and a fragile economy, the Namibian Government's principal foreign policy concern is developing strengthened ties within the Southern African region. A dynamic member of the Southern African Development Community, Namibia is a vocal advocate for greater regional integration. Namibia became the 160th member of the United Nations on April 23, 1990. On its independence it became the fiftieth member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Namibia never fails to enthral its visitors, to charge the fantasies and imaginations of narrators in their efforts to aptly describe the many-facetted grandeur and harsh splendour of this desert country. So many words have been written and told, and still poets do not tire to invent attributes to do justice to its unique, ever-varying magnificence.

I love Namibia !

ECDJ

Republic of Namibia