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1. Namibia
- A Bountiful Harvest Awaits the Adventure Traveler
Namibia is a largely arid country of
stark rough-hewn beauty. The most vivid images are those
of a haunting technicolor landscape of swirling orange
dunes, shimmering mirages and treacherous dust devils.
The apparent desolation is deceptive and plant and animal
life and even man has adapted to this environment. The
country is designed almost specially with the active
and adventure seeker in mind. Timeless deserts, thorn
bush savanna, desolate wind ravaged coastlines, majestic
canyons, and sun-baked saltpans are the bounty that
awaits the traveler.
Namibia's top draw is the Etosha National
Park, rated as one of Africa's finest game sanctuaries.
The birding experience in the country is truly superior.
The range of activities you can indulge in the unsurpassable
physical environment is truly impressive. Ballooning
over the desert, skydiving over land and sea, paragliding,
whitewater rafting and sand skiing along coastal dunes
are good activities for starters. More fun games to
pick from include abseiling - that most spectacular
of rock sports, coastal and fresh water angling, desert
camel riding, scuba diving, 4x4 desert runs, hiking
and mountaineering.
Namibia has four distinct geographical
regions. In the north is Etosha Pan, a great area for
wildlife and heart of Etosha National Park. The slender
Caprivi Strip is nested between Zambia and Botswana
and is a wet area of woodland blessed with a few rivers.
Along the coast is the Namib Desert, which at the age
of 80 million years old, is said to be the world's oldest
desert. At the coast, the icy cold Atlantic meets the
blazing African desert, resulting in dense fogs. The
well-watered central plateau runs north to south, and
carries rugged mountains, magnificent canyons, rocky
outcrops and expansive plains.
Namibia, one and half times the size
of France, is very sparsely inhabited and carries only
1.8 million souls. The people are as unique as the land
they live on. The most intriguing are the San, otherwise
known as Bushmen. These most hardy of people have a
highly advanced knowledge of their environment. It is
a marvelous thing how well they are adapted to their
difficult habitat. Just pause and think that these are
the only people in the world who live with no permanent
access to water. In the Kalahari Desert, one of their
domiciles, surface water is not to be found. Tubers,
melons, and other water bearing plants as well as underground
sip wells supply their water requirements.
In Namibia today, Bushmen number about
50,000. Historians estimate that they have lived, mostly
as hunters and gatherers, for at least 25,000 years
in these parts of the world. Bushmen speak in a peculiar
click language and are very gifted in the arts of storytelling,
mimicry, and dance. Namibia's other people, who are
indigenous to the continent, are mostly of Bantu origin.
They are thought to have arrived from western Africa
from about 2,400 years ago. The African groups include
the Owambo, Kavango, Caprivians, Herero, Himba, Damara,
Nama and Tswana.
The Africans aside, other groups comprise
about 15% of the population and have played an important
role in the emergence of the modern nation. White Namibians
amount to about 120,00 and are mainly of German and
Afrikaner heritage. Germans arrived in significant numbers
after 1884 when Bismarck declared the country a German
Protectorate. Afrikaners, white farmers of Dutch origin,
moved north from their Cape settlements, especially
after the Dutch Cape Colony was ceded to the British
in 1806. This strongly independent people, whose ancestors
had lived in the Cape from 1652 resented British control.
Two other distinct groups complete the
spectrum of Namibia's people - Basters and Coloureds.
Coloured in Namibia and southern Africa refers to people
of mixed racial heritage, black- white for example.
They have a separate identity and culture. This makes
sense considering that Namibia was run by South Africa
after the First World War. Even in pre-Apartheid South
Africa, racial classification was a fine art. The Afrikaans-speaking
Basters, descended from Hottentot women and Dutch settlers
of the Cape. Alienated from both white and black communities,
they trekked northwards, finally founding their own
town Rehoboth, in 1871. Baster is actually derived from
"bastard", but it is not derogatory, and the
Basters are indeed proud of it.
Page 2 Article on Namibia
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