Editing Namibia (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Namibia}}

===Etymology===
The name of the country is derived from the [[Namib]] desert, the oldest desert in the world.<ref name=at1315>Spriggs, A. (2001) {{WWF ecoregion|name=Africa: Namibia|id=at1315}}</ref> The word ''Namib'' itself is of [[Khoikhoi language|Khoi]] origin and means "vast place". The name was chosen by [[Mburumba Kerina]], who originally proposed "Republic of Namib".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.namibian.com.na/127811/archive-read/The-Man-Who-Named-Namibia--Mburumba-Kerina|title=The Man Who Named Namibia- Mburumba Kerina|work=The Namibian|access-date=15 June 2021|archive-date=15 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210615171358/https://www.namibian.com.na/127811/archive-read/The-Man-Who-Named-Namibia--Mburumba-Kerina|url-status=live}}</ref> Before Namibia became independent in 1990, its territory was known first as [[German South-West Africa]] (''Deutsch-Südwestafrika''), and then as [[South West Africa]], reflecting its colonial occupation by Germans and South Africans, respectively.

===Pre-colonial period===
The dry lands of Namibia have been inhabited since prehistoric times by the [[San people|San]], [[Damara people|Damara]], and [[Nama people|Nama]]. For thousands of years, the [[Khoisan]] peoples of Southern Africa maintained a [[nomad]]ic life, the [[Khoikhoi]] as pastoralists and the San people as [[hunter-gatherer]]s. Around the 14th century, immigrating [[Bantu people]] began to arrive during the [[Bantu expansion]] from central Africa.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Belda|first=Pascal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NcsUr8BkqAUC&q=The+dry+lands+of+Namibia+have+been+inhabited+since+early+times+by+San,+Damara,+and+Nama.+Around+the+14th+century,+immigrating+Bantu+people+began+to+arrive+during+the+Bantu+expansion+from+central+Africa.&pg=PA14|title=Namibia|date=May 2007|publisher=MTH Multimedia S.L.|isbn=978-84-935202-1-2|access-date=19 October 2020|archive-date=18 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518174457/https://books.google.com/books?id=NcsUr8BkqAUC&q=The+dry+lands+of+Namibia+have+been+inhabited+since+early+times+by+San,+Damara,+and+Nama.+Around+the+14th+century,+immigrating+Bantu+people+began+to+arrive+during+the+Bantu+expansion+from+central+Africa.&pg=PA14#v=snippet&q=The%20dry%20lands%20of%20Namibia%20have%20been%20inhabited%20since%20early%20times%20by%20San%2C%20Damara%2C%20and%20Nama.%20Around%20the%2014th%20century%2C%20immigrating%20Bantu%20people%20began%20to%20arrive%20during%20the%20Bantu%20expansion%20from%20central%20Africa.&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

From the late 18th century onward, [[Oorlam people]] from Cape Colony crossed the [[Orange River]] and moved into the area that today is southern Namibia.<ref name="KDA">{{cite web|url=http://www.klausdierks.com/Biographies/Biographies_A.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015021238/http://www.klausdierks.com/Biographies/Biographies_A.htm|archive-date=15 October 2008|last=Dierks|first=Klaus|author-link=Klaus Dierks|title=Biographies of Namibian Personalities, A|access-date=24 June 2010}}</ref> Their encounters with the nomadic Nama tribes were largely peaceful. They received the missionaries accompanying the Oorlam very well,<ref name="Dierks">{{cite web|last=Dierks|first=Klaus|author-link=Klaus Dierks|title=Warmbad becomes two hundred years|url=http://www.klausdierks.com/Warm_Bath/index.htm|website=Klausdierks.com|access-date=22 June 2010|archive-date=21 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821172028/http://www.klausdierks.com/Warm_Bath/index.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> granting them the right to use waterholes and grazing against an annual payment.{{sfn|Vedder|1997|p=177}} On their way further north, however, the Oorlam encountered clans of the [[OvaHerero people|OvaHerero]] at Windhoek, [[Gobabis]], and [[Okahandja]], who resisted their encroachment. The Nama-Herero War broke out in 1880, with hostilities ebbing only after the [[German Empire]] deployed troops to the contested places and cemented the status quo among the Nama, Oorlam, and Herero.{{sfn|Vedder|1997|p=659}}

In 1878, the [[Cape Colony|Cape of Good Hope]], then a British colony, annexed the port of Walvis Bay and the offshore [[Penguin Islands]]; these became an integral part of the new [[Union of South Africa]] at its creation in 1910.

The first Europeans to disembark and explore the region were the Portuguese navigators [[Diogo Cão]] in 1485<ref>{{Cite web|last=Observador|title=Padrão português com 500 anos foi roubado da Namíbia no século XIX. Vai ser devolvido|url=https://observador.pt/2019/05/17/padrao-portugues-com-500-anos-foi-roubado-da-namibia-no-seculo-xix-vai-ser-devolvido/|access-date=7 December 2020|website=Observador|language=pt-PT|archive-date=6 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206022143/https://observador.pt/2019/05/17/padrao-portugues-com-500-anos-foi-roubado-da-namibia-no-seculo-xix-vai-ser-devolvido/|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Bartolomeu Dias]] in 1486, but the Portuguese did not try to claim the area. Like most of the interior of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]], Namibia was not extensively explored by Europeans until the 19th century. At that time traders and settlers came principally from Germany and Sweden. In 1870, [[Finland|Finnish]] missionaries came to the northern part of Namibia to spread the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran religion]] among the [[Ovambo people|Ovambo]] and [[Kavango people]].<ref name="finnish-mission"/> In the late 19th century, [[Dorsland Trek]]kers crossed the area on their way from the [[South African Republic|Transvaal]] to Angola. Some of them settled in Namibia instead of continuing their journey.

===German rule===
{{see also|German South West Africa|Herero and Nama genocide}}
Namibia became a German colony in 1884 under [[Otto von Bismarck]] to forestall perceived British encroachment and was known as [[German South West Africa]] (''Deutsch-Südwestafrika'').<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=German South West Africa|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9036573/German-South-West-Africa|access-date=15 April 2008|archive-date=11 April 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411130059/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9036573/German-South-West-Africa|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Palgrave Commission]] by the British governor in Cape Town determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of Walvis Bay was worth occupying and thus annexed it to the Cape province of British South Africa.

In 1897, a [[1890s African rinderpest epizootic|rinderpest epidemic]] caused massive cattle die-offs of an estimated 95% of cattle in southern and central Namibia. In response the German colonisers set up a veterinary [[Cordon sanitaire (medicine)|cordon]] fence known as the [[Red Line (Namibia)|Red Line]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last1=Lechler|first1=Marie|last2=McNamee|first2=Lachlan|date=December 2018|title=Indirect Colonial Rule Undermines Support for Democracy: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Namibia|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010414018758760|journal=Comparative Political Studies|volume=51|issue=14|pages=1864–1871 (p. 7–14)|doi=10.1177/0010414018758760|s2cid=158335936|issn=0010-4140|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515045624/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010414018758760|archive-date=15 May 2023|access-date=2 June 2023|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> In 1907 this fence then broadly defined the boundaries for the first Police Zone.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lechler|first1=Marie|last2=McNamee|first2=Lachlan|date=December 2018|title=Indirect Colonial Rule Undermines Support for Democracy: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Namibia|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010414018758760|journal=Comparative Political Studies|volume=51|issue=14|pages=1865 (p. 8)|doi=10.1177/0010414018758760|s2cid=158335936|issn=0010-4140|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515045624/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010414018758760|archive-date=15 May 2023|access-date=2 June 2023|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref>

From 1904 to 1907, the [[Herero people|Herero]] and the [[Nama people|Nama]] [[Herero Wars|took up arms]] against ruthless German settlers. In a calculated punitive action by the German settlers, [[Government of Namibia|government]] officials ordered the extinction of the natives in the OvaHerero and Nama genocide. In what has been called the "first genocide of the 20th century",<ref>{{cite web|author=David Olusoga|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/18/pope-francis-armenian-genocide-first-20th-century-namibia|title=Dear Pope Francis, Namibia was the 20th century's first genocide|work=The Guardian|date=18 April 2015|access-date=26 November 2015|author-link=David Olusoga|archive-date=3 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603191720/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/18/pope-francis-armenian-genocide-first-20th-century-namibia|url-status=live}}</ref> the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Herero (about 80% of the population).<ref>Drechsler, Horst (1980). The actual number of deaths in the limited number of battles with the German Schutztruppe (expeditionary force) were limited; most of the casualties occurred after the fighting had ended. The German military governor [[Lothar von Trotha]] issued a punitive order. Many Herero died of disease and abuse in detention camps after being expelled. A substantial minority of Herero crossed the Kalahari desert into the British colony of Bechuanaland (modern-day Botswana), where a small community continues to live in western Botswana near to the border with Namibia. ''Let us die fighting'', originally published (1966) under the title ''Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft''. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.</ref><ref name="Adhikari" /> The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination in a system that in many ways foreshadowed the [[apartheid]] established by South Africa in 1948. Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which under South African rule after 1949 were turned into "homelands" ([[Bantustans]]).

Some historians have speculated that the downfall of the Herero in Namibia was a model for the [[Nazism|Nazi]]s in [[the Holocaust]].<ref name="Madley" /> The memory of what happened under German rule has contributed to shape the ethnic identity in independent Namibia and has kept its significance in today's relations with Germany.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Reinhart|last1=Kößler|first2=Henning|last2=Melber|chapter=Völkermord und Gedenken: Der Genozid an den Herero und Nama in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1904–1908|language=de|trans-title=Genocide and memory: the genocide of the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa, 1904–08|title=Jahrbuch zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust|year=2004|pages=37–75|publisher=Campus Verlag|isbn=9783593372822|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_b5iRhydlHUC&pg=PA37|access-date=7 June 2023|archive-date=23 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723080753/https://books.google.com/books?id=_b5iRhydlHUC&pg=PA37|url-status=live}}</ref>

The German minister for development aid apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004. However, the German government distanced itself from this apology.<ref>{{cite web|author=Andrew Meldrum|title=German minister says sorry for genocide in Namibia|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/16/germany.andrewmeldrum|work=The Guardian|date=15 August 2004|access-date=12 December 2016|archive-date=4 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504204816/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/16/germany.andrewmeldrum|url-status=live}}</ref> Only in 2021 did the [[Government of Germany|German government]] acknowledge the genocide and agree to pay €1.1 billion over 30 years in community aid.<ref>{{cite web|author=Philip Oltermann|title=Germany agrees to pay Namibia €1.1bn over historical Herero-Nama genocide|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/28/germany-agrees-to-pay-namibia-11bn-over-historical-herero-nama-genocide|work=The Guardian|date=28 May 2021|access-date=27 August 2023|archive-date=18 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518174436/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/28/germany-agrees-to-pay-namibia-11bn-over-historical-herero-nama-genocide|url-status=live}}</ref>

===South African mandate===
{{see also|South West Africa}}
During World War I, South African troops under General [[Louis Botha]] [[South West Africa campaign|occupied the territory]] and deposed the German colonial administration. The end of the war and the [[Treaty of Versailles]] resulted in South West Africa remaining a possession of South Africa, at first as a [[League of Nations mandate]], until 1990.<ref name=Rajagopal>{{cite book|last=Rajagopal|first=Balakrishnan|title=International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance|url=https://archive.org/details/internationallaw00raja|url-access=limited|year=2003|pages=[https://archive.org/details/internationallaw00raja/page/n66 50]–68|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521016711}}</ref> The mandate system was formed as a compromise between those who advocated for an Allied annexation of former German and Ottoman territories and a proposition put forward by those who wished to grant them to an international trusteeship until they could govern themselves.<ref name=Rajagopal/> It permitted the South African government to administer South West Africa until that territory's inhabitants were prepared for political self-determination.<ref name=Louis>{{cite book|last=Louis|first=William Roger|title=Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization|year=2006|pages=251–261|publisher=I.B. Tauris & Company, Ltd|location=London|isbn=978-1845113476}}</ref> South Africa interpreted the mandate as a veiled annexation and made no attempt to prepare South West Africa for future autonomy.<ref name=Louis/>{{multiple image
| image1            = Witbooi Hendrik.jpg
| width1            = 130
| image2            = SamuelMaharero.jpg
| width2            = 140
| footer            = [[Hendrik Witbooi (Nama chief)|Hendrik Witbooi]] (left) and [[Samuel Maharero]] (right) were prominent leaders against German colonial rule.
}}
As a result of the [[United Nations Conference on International Organization|Conference on International Organization]] in 1945, the League of Nations was formally superseded by the [[United Nations]] (UN) and former League mandates by a trusteeship system. Article 77 of the [[United Nations Charter]] stated that UN trusteeship "shall apply...to territories now held under mandate"; furthermore, it would "be a matter of subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing territories will be brought under the trusteeship system and under what terms".<ref name=Vandenbosch>{{cite book|last=Vandenbosch|first=Amry|title=South Africa and the World: The Foreign Policy of Apartheid|url=https://archive.org/details/southafricaworld00vand|url-access=registration|year=1970|pages=[https://archive.org/details/southafricaworld00vand/page/207 207–224]|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington|isbn=978-0813164946}}</ref> The UN requested all former League of Nations mandates be surrendered to its [[United Nations Trusteeship Council|Trusteeship Council]] in anticipation of their independence.<ref name=Vandenbosch/> South Africa declined to do so and instead requested permission from the UN to formally annex South West Africa, for which it received considerable criticism.<ref name=Vandenbosch/> When the UN General Assembly rejected this proposal, South Africa dismissed its opinion and began solidifying control of the territory.<ref name=Vandenbosch/> The UN General Assembly and Security Council responded by referring the issue to the [[International Court of Justice]] (ICJ), which held a number of discussions on the legality of South African rule between 1949 and 1966.<ref name=First>{{cite book|last=First|first=Ruth|editor1-last=Segal|editor1-first=Ronald|title=South West Africa|year=1963|pages=169–193|publisher=Penguin Books, Incorporated|location=Baltimore|isbn=978-0844620619}}</ref>

South Africa began imposing ''[[apartheid]],'' its codified system of racial segregation and discrimination, on South West Africa during the late 1940s.<ref name="Crawford1">{{cite book|last=Crawford|first=Neta|title=Argument and Change in World Politics: Ethics, Decolonization, and Humanitarian Intervention|url=https://archive.org/details/argumentchangewo00craw|url-access=limited|year=2002|pages=[https://archive.org/details/argumentchangewo00craw/page/n350 333]–336|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521002790}}</ref> Black South West Africans were subject to [[pass laws]], curfews, and a host of residential regulations that restricted their movement.<ref name="Crawford1" /> Development was concentrated in the southern region of the territory adjacent to South Africa, known as the "[[Police Zone (South West Africa)|Police Zone]]", where most of the major settlements and commercial economic activity were located.<ref name="Devils">{{cite book|title=The Devils Are Among Us: The War for Namibia|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsareamongus00deni|url-access=limited|last1=Herbstein|first1=Denis|last2=Evenson|first2=John|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|year=1989|isbn=978-0862328962|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/devilsareamongus00deni/page/n26 14]–23}}</ref> Outside the Police Zone, indigenous peoples were restricted to theoretically self-governing [[Bantustan#Bantustans in South West Africa|tribal homelands]].<ref name="Devils" />

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accelerated [[decolonisation of Africa]] and mounting pressure on the remaining colonial powers to grant their colonies self-determination resulted in the formation of nascent nationalist parties in South West Africa.<ref name="Müller">{{cite book|last=Müller|first=Johann Alexander|title=The Inevitable Pipeline into Exile. Botswana's Role in the Namibian Liberation Struggle|year=2012|pages=36–41|publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien Namibia Resource Center and Southern Africa Library|location=Basel, Switzerland|isbn=978-3905758290}}</ref> Movements such as the [[South West African National Union]] (SWANU) and the [[South West African People's Organisation]] (SWAPO) advocated for the formal termination of South Africa's mandate and independence for the territory.<ref name="Müller" /> In 1966, following the ICJ's controversial ruling that it had no legal standing to consider the question of South African rule, SWAPO launched an armed insurgency that escalated into part of a wider regional conflict known as the [[South African Border War]].<ref name="Caprivi">{{cite book|last=Kangumu|first=Bennett|title=Contesting Caprivi: A History of Colonial Isolation and Regional Nationalism in Namibia|year=2011|pages=143–153|publisher=Basler Afrika Bibliographien Namibia Resource Center and Southern Africa Library|location=Basel|isbn=978-3905758221}}</ref>[[File:Foreign Observer identification badge in the 1989 Namibian election.jpg|thumb|Foreign Observer identification badge issued during the 1989 Namibian election]]In 1971 Namibian contract workers led a [[1971–72 Namibian contract workers strike|general strike against the contract system]] and in support of independence.<ref name="Moorsom1979">{{cite journal|last1=Moorsom|first1=Richard|date=April 1979|title=Labour Consciousness and the 1971–72 Contract Workers Strike in Namibia|journal=Development and Change|volume=10|issue=2|pages=205–231|doi=10.1111/j.1467-7660.1979.tb00041.x}}</ref> Some of the striking workers would later join SWAPO's [[People's Liberation Army of Namibia|PLAN]]<ref name="Devils2">{{cite book|last1=Herbstein|first1=Denis|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsareamongus00herb_929|title=The Devils Are Among Us: The War for Namibia|last2=Evenson|first2=John|publisher=Zed Books Ltd|year=1989|isbn=978-0862328962|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/devilsareamongus00herb_929/page/n26 14]–23|url-access=limited}}</ref> as part of the South African Border War.

===Independence===

As SWAPO's insurgency intensified, South Africa's case for annexation in the international community continued to decline.<ref name=Dobell>{{cite book|last=Dobell|first=Lauren|title=Swapo's Struggle for Namibia, 1960–1991: War by Other Means|year=1998|pages=27–39|publisher=P. Schlettwein Publishing Switzerland|location=Basel|isbn=978-3908193029}}</ref> The UN declared that South Africa had failed in its obligations to ensure the moral and material well-being of South West Africa's indigenous inhabitants, and had thus disavowed its own mandate.<ref name=Yusuf>{{cite book|last=Yusuf|first=Abdulqawi|title=African Yearbook of International Law, Volume I|year=1994|pages=16–34|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|location=The Hague|isbn=978-0-7923-2718-9}}</ref> On 12 June 1968, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming that, in accordance with the desires of its people, South West Africa be renamed ''Namibia''.<ref name=Yusuf/> [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 269]], adopted in August 1969, declared South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia illegal.<ref name=Yusuf/><ref name="MAA">{{cite book|last=Peter|first=Abbott|author2=Helmoed-Romer Heitman|author3=Paul Hannon|title=Modern African Wars (3): South-West Africa|pages=5–13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9Aj997IO9gC|isbn=978-1-85532-122-9|year=1991|publisher=Osprey Publishing}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In recognition of this landmark decision, SWAPO's armed wing was renamed the [[People's Liberation Army of Namibia]] (PLAN).<ref name=Camp>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Christian|title=National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO's Exile Camps|date=October 2015|pages=73–89|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1107099340}}</ref>

Namibia became one of several flashpoints for [[Cold War]] proxy conflicts in southern Africa during the latter years of the PLAN insurgency.<ref name=Hughes>{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Geraint|title=My Enemy's Enemy: Proxy Warfare in International Politics|year=2014|pages=73–86|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|location=Brighton|isbn=978-1845196271}}</ref> The insurgents sought out weapons and sent recruits to the Soviet Union for military training.<ref name="Betram">{{cite book|last=Bertram|first=Christoph|title=Prospects of Soviet Power in the 1980s|year=1980|pages=51–54|publisher=Palgrave Books|location=Basingstoke|isbn=978-1349052592}}</ref> As the PLAN war effort gained momentum, the Soviet Union and other sympathetic states such as Cuba continued to increase their support, deploying advisers to train the insurgents directly as well as supplying more weapons and ammunition.<ref name=Vanneman>{{cite book|last=Vanneman|first=Peter|title=Soviet Strategy in Southern Africa: Gorbachev's Pragmatic Approach|url=https://archive.org/details/sovietstrategyin00vann|url-access=registration|year=1990|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sovietstrategyin00vann/page/41 41–57]|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|location=Stanford|isbn=978-0817989026}}</ref> SWAPO's leadership, dependent on Soviet, Angolan, and Cuban military aid, positioned the movement firmly within the socialist bloc by 1975.<ref name="Dreyer">{{cite book|title=Namibia and Southern Africa: Regional Dynamics of Decolonization, 1945–90|last=Dreyer|first=Ronald|location=London|publisher=Kegan Paul International|year=1994|isbn=978-0710304711|pages=73–87, 100–116, 192}}</ref> This practical alliance reinforced the external perception of SWAPO as a Soviet proxy, which dominated Cold War rhetoric in South Africa and the United States.<ref name="Devils"/> For its part, the Soviet Union supported SWAPO partly because it viewed South Africa as a regional Western ally.<ref name=Shultz>{{cite book|last=Shultz|first=Richard|title=Soviet Union and Revolutionary Warfare: Principles, Practices, and Regional Comparisons|url=https://archive.org/details/sovietunionrevo00shul/page/121|url-access=registration|year=1988|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sovietunionrevo00shul/page/121 121–123, 140–145]|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|location=Stanford, California|isbn=978-0817987114}}</ref> 
[[File:SADF-Operations 4.jpg|thumb|left|South African troops patrol the border region for PLAN insurgents, 1980s]]
Growing war weariness and the reduction of tensions between the superpowers compelled South Africa, Angola, and Cuba to accede to the [[Tripartite Accord (Angola)|Tripartite Accord]], under pressure from both the Soviet Union and the United States.<ref name=SACP>{{cite book|last1=Sechaba|first1=Tsepo|last2=Ellis|first2=Stephen|title=Comrades Against Apartheid: The ANC & the South African Communist Party in Exile|year=1992|pages=184–187|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=978-0253210623}}</ref> South Africa accepted Namibian independence in exchange for Cuban military withdrawal from the region and an Angolan commitment to cease all aid to PLAN.<ref name="James">{{cite book|title=A Political History of the Civil War in Angola: 1974–1990|last=James III|first=W. Martin|location=New Brunswick|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2011|orig-date=1992|isbn=978-1-4128-1506-2|pages=207–214, 239–245}}</ref> PLAN and South Africa adopted an informal ceasefire in August 1988, and a [[United Nations Transition Assistance Group]] (UNTAG) was formed to monitor the Namibian peace process and supervise the return of refugees.<ref name="Sitkowski">{{cite book|last=Sitkowski|first=Andrzej|title=UN peacekeeping: myth and reality|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|location=Westport, Connecticut|year=2006|pages=80–86|isbn=978-0-275-99214-9}}</ref> The ceasefire was broken after PLAN made a final incursion into the territory, possibly as a result of misunderstanding UNTAG's directives, in March 1989.<ref name="Clairborne">{{cite news|title=SWAPO Incursion into Namibia Seen as Major Blunder by Nujoma|last=Clairborne|first=John|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/04/07/swapo-incursion-into-namibia-seen-as-major-blunder-by-nujoma/7182b414-2fd3-4036-b3f8-be9debd58840/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|location=Washington DC|date=7 April 1989|access-date=18 February 2018|archive-date=29 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429092224/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/04/07/swapo-incursion-into-namibia-seen-as-major-blunder-by-nujoma/7182b414-2fd3-4036-b3f8-be9debd58840/|url-status=live}}</ref> A new ceasefire was later imposed with the condition that the insurgents were to be confined to their external bases in Angola until they could be disarmed and demobilised by UNTAG.<ref name="Sitkowski"/><ref name=Demob>{{cite book|last1=Colletta|first1=Nat|last2=Kostner|first2=Markus|last3=Wiederhofer|first3=Indo|title=Case Studies of War-To-Peace Transition: The Demobilization and Reintegration of Ex-Combatants in Ethiopia, Namibia, and Uganda|year=1996|pages=127–142|publisher=[[World Bank]]|location=Washington DC|isbn=978-0821336748}}</ref>

By the end of the 11-month transition period, the last South African troops had been withdrawn from Namibia, all political prisoners granted amnesty, racially discriminatory legislation repealed, and 42,000 Namibian refugees returned to their homes.<ref name="Dreyer"/> Just over 97% of eligible voters participated in the country's first [[Namibian parliamentary election, 1989|parliamentary elections]] held under a [[universal franchise]].<ref name="NYT1989">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/15/world/namibia-rebel-group-wins-vote-but-it-falls-short-of-full-control.html|title=Namibia Rebel Group Wins Vote, But It Falls Short of Full Control|work=The New York Times|date=15 November 1989|access-date=20 June 2014|archive-date=27 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027123928/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/15/world/namibia-rebel-group-wins-vote-but-it-falls-short-of-full-control.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The United Nations plan included oversight by [[Election monitoring|foreign election observers]] in an effort to ensure a [[Election#Non-democratic elections|free and fair election]]. SWAPO won a plurality of seats in the [[Members of the Constituent Assembly of Namibia|Constituent Assembly]] with 57% of the popular vote.<ref name="NYT1989"/> This gave the party 41 seats, but not a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to draft the constitution on its own.<ref name="NYT1989"/>

The Namibian Constitution was adopted in February 1990. It incorporated protection for human rights and compensation for state expropriations of private property and established an independent judiciary, legislature, and an executive presidency (the constituent assembly became the national assembly). The country officially became independent on 21 March 1990.<ref>[https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/namibia-gains-independence Namibia gains Independence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211142900/https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/namibia-gains-independence |date=11 February 2023 }} – South African History Online</ref><ref name="finnish-mission"/> [[Sam Nujoma]] was sworn in as the first [[President of Namibia]] at a ceremony attended by [[Nelson Mandela]] of South Africa (who had been released from prison the previous month) and representatives from 147 countries, including 20 heads of state.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dierks|first=Klaus|author-link=Klaus Dierks|url=http://www.klausdierks.com/Chronology/132.htm|title=7. The Period after Namibian Independence|publisher=Klausdierks.com|access-date=21 August 2020|archive-date=23 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523021428/http://www.klausdierks.com/Chronology/132.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1994, shortly before the first multiracial elections in South Africa, that country ceded Walvis Bay to Namibia.<ref>{{cite web|title=Treaty between the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Republic of Namibia with respect to Walvis Bay and the off-shore Islands, 28 February 1994|url=https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/TREATIES/ZAF-NAM1994OI.PDF|publisher=United Nations|access-date=29 June 2017|archive-date=19 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519121348/https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/TREATIES/ZAF-NAM1994OI.PDF|url-status=live}}</ref>

===After independence===
Since independence Namibia has completed the transition from white minority apartheid rule to parliamentary democracy. [[Multiparty democracy]] was introduced and has been maintained, with local, regional and [[Elections in Namibia|national elections]] held regularly. Several registered political parties are active and represented in the National Assembly, although the [[SWAPO]] has won every election since independence.<ref>{{cite web|title=Country report: Spotlight on Namibia|publisher=[[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] Secretariat|url=http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/34580/34581/224187/250510spotlightonnamibia.htm|date=25 May 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705012456/http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/34580/34581/224187/250510spotlightonnamibia.htm|archive-date=5 July 2010}}</ref> The transition from the 15-year rule of President [[Sam Nujoma|Nujoma]] to his successor [[Hifikepunye Pohamba]] in 2005 went smoothly.<ref name="IRIN">{{cite news|title=IRIN country profile Namibia|agency=[[The New Humanitarian|IRIN]]|url=http://www.irinnews.org/country.aspx?CountryCode=NA&RegionCode=SAF|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100217173041/http://www.irinnews.org/country.aspx?CountryCode=NA&RegionCode=SAF|archive-date=17 February 2010|access-date=12 July 2010|date=March 2007}}</ref>

Since independence, the Namibian government has promoted a policy of national reconciliation. It issued an amnesty for those who fought on either side during the liberation war. The civil war in Angola spilled over and adversely affected Namibians living in the north of the country. In 1998, [[Namibia Defence Force]] (NDF) troops were sent to the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]] as part of a [[Southern African Development Community]] (SADC) contingent. In 1999, the national government quashed a secessionist attempt in the northeastern [[Caprivi Strip]].<ref name="IRIN"/> The [[Caprivi conflict]] was initiated by the [[Caprivi Liberation Army]] (CLA), a [[Rebellion|rebel]] group led by [[Mishake Muyongo]]. It wanted the Caprivi Strip to secede and form its own society.<ref>{{cite web |title=UNHCR Web Archive |url=https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20230522035305/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df4be774.html |website=webarchive.archive.unhcr.org}}</ref>

In 2007, [[Twyfelfontein]] was inscribed as a cultural [[UNESCO World Heritage Site]], a prehistoric site with one of the largest concentrations of rock engravings on the African continent.<ref>{{cite web |title=Twyfelfontein (Namibia) {{!}} African World Heritage Sites |url=https://www.africanworldheritagesites.org/cultural-places/rock-art-pre-history/twyfelfontein.html |website=www.africanworldheritagesites.org}}</ref> In December 2014, Prime Minister [[Hage Geingob]], the candidate of ruling SWAPO, won the [[2014 Namibian general election|presidential elections]], taking 87% of the vote. His predecessor, President [[Hifikepunye Pohamba]], also of SWAPO, had served the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30285987|title=Namibian presidential election won by Swapo's Hage Geingob|publisher=BBC News|date=December 2014|access-date=21 April 2021|archive-date=21 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421133700/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30285987|url-status=live}}</ref> In December 2019, President Hage Geingob was [[2019 Namibian general election|re-elected]] for a second term, taking 56.3% of the vote.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50618516|title=Namibia's President Hage Geingob wins re-election|publisher=BBC News|date=December 2019|access-date=21 April 2021|archive-date=26 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226081154/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50618516|url-status=live}}</ref> On 4 February 2024, President Hage Geingob died and he was immediately succeeded by vice-president [[Nangolo Mbumba]] as new President of Namibia who finished the late President's term as it came to an end in March 2025.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hage Geingob death: Namibia's new President Mbumba sworn-in hours after predecessor dies|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68196412|date=4 February 2024|access-date=20 February 2024|archive-date=4 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204151557/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68196412|url-status=live}}</ref> SWAPO's first female presidential candidate, [[Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah]], was declared the winner of the [[2024 Namibian general election|2024 elections]] with 57% of the vote.<ref>{{cite news |title=Namibia election: Swapo's Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah elected first female president |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yx0r14jrmo |work=www.bbc.com |date=4 December 2024}}</ref> On 21 March 2025, she  was sworn in as Namibia's new president.<ref>{{cite news |title=Namibia swears in first female president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly8ln5g12wo |work=www.bbc.com |date=21 March 2025}}</ref>