Ovamboland

Ovamboland
1968–1989
Flag of Ovamboland
Flag
Location of Ovamboland within South West Africa.
Location of Ovamboland within South West Africa.
Map of the bantustan.
Map of the bantustan.
StatusBantustan (1968–1980)
Second-tier authority (1980–1989)
CapitalOndangua
History 
1968
• Re-integrated into Namibia
May 1989
CurrencySouth African rand
Preceded by
Succeeded by
South West Africa
Namibia

Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan and later a non-geographic ethnic-based second-tier authority, the Representative Authority of the Ovambos, in South West Africa (present-day Namibia).

The apartheid government stated that the goal was for it to be a self-governing homeland for the Ovambo people. Practically, however, it was intended by the apartheid government as a reservation that forced them into cheap labour by limiting movement; Ovambo men were not allowed outside Ovamboland unless they signed as a contract labourer for 16 months, while women were not allowed out at all.[1]

The term originally referred to the parts of northern Namibia inhabited by the Ovambo ethnic group: namely, the area controlled by the traditional Ovambo kingdoms in pre-colonial and early colonial times, such as Ondonga, Ongandjera, and Oukwanyama.[2] Its endonym is Ovambo ~ Owambo.[3]

  1. ^ Moorsom, Richard (April 1979). "Labour Consciousness and the 1971-72 Contract Workers Strike in Namibia". Development and Change. 10 (2): 205–231. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7660.1979.tb00041.x.
  2. ^ Hayes, Patricia (2000). Hall, Catherine (ed.). Cultures of Empire: A Reader: Colonizers in Britain and the Empire in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York: Routledge Books. pp. 329–330. ISBN 978-0415929073.
  3. ^ "Staatspresident van die Republiek van Suid-Afrika: Proklamasies No. R 138, 1976: Wysiging van die Owambo-Grondwet-Proklamasie, 1973 (Amendment of the Owambo Constitution Proclamation 1973)" (PDF).

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