A few facts on the country of Namibia.
AREA: 824,268 sq km (318,250 sq miles).
POPULATION: 1.8 million (1997 estimate).
GEOGRAPHY: The Namib Desert appears more like the surface of the moon with its
towering sand dunes (some of them 300m/1000ft high), and is believed to be the
oldest desert in the world. The nearby Sossusvlei area is an ocean of sand
dunes up to 300m (762ft) high, stretching as far as the eye can see and is home
to countless water birds in the rainy season and oryx, springbok and ostriches
during the dry season.
Namibia is in southwest Africa. It
is a large and mainly barren country, sharing borders with Angola to the north,
Botswana to the east, South Africa to the south and, in the Caprivi Strip, a
narrow panhandle of Namibian territory jutting from the northeast corner of the
country with Zambia and Zimbabwe.
To the west is 1280km (795 miles) of some
of the most desolate and lonely coastline in the world. In the interior,
the escarpment of a north–south plateau slopes away to the east and north into
the vast interior sand basin of the Kalahari.
In the far northwest the 66,000 sq km
(25,500 sq miles) of the Kaokoland mountains run along the coast, while further
inland lies the Etosha Pan, (a dried-out saline lake) surrounded by grasslands
and bush which support a large and varied wildlife.
The Skeleton Coast is a strange desert
shoreline with massive dunes and treacherous rocks, the name relating to the
number of ships wrecked and lost.
LANGUAGE: English is the official
language. Afrikaans, German, Herero and Owambo, amongst a variety of tongues,
are also spoken.
The economy is heavily dependent on the
extraction and processing of minerals for export. Mining accounts for 20%
of GDP. Namibia is the fourth-largest exporter of nonfuel minerals in
Africa and the world's fifth-largest producer of uranium. 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 for its livelihood. Namibia must 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 pronounced poverty because of large-scale unemployment, the great
inequality of income distribution, and the large amount of wealth going to
foreigners.
RELIGION: Christian majority.
