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Damaraland

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Republic of Damaraland
Republiek van Damaraland
Republik Damaraland
1980–1989
Flag of Damaraland
Flag
Location of Damaraland (green) within South West Africa (grey).
Location of Damaraland (green) within South West Africa (grey).
StatusBantustan
CapitalKhorixas
Common languagesKhoekhoe
Herero
English
Afrikaans
German
History 
• Self-government
1980
• Re-integrated into Namibia
May 1989
CurrencyNamibian dollar
Preceded by
Succeeded by
South-West Africa
Namibia

Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras. It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek in the south.

In the 1970s the name Damaraland was revived for a bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Damara people. A centrally administered local government was created in 1980. The bantustan Damaraland was situated on the western edge of the territory that had been known as Damaraland in the 19th century.

Damaraland, like other homelands in South West Africa, was abolished in May 1989 at the start of the transition to independence.

The name Damaraland predates South African control of Namibia, and was described as "the central portion of German South-West Africa" in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition.[1]

Rugged Landscape of Damaraland

See also

References

  1. ^ "Damaraland" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 783.

External links