Both the San and the Nama were Khoisan peoples, and spoke languages from the Khoisan language group.

The last group to arrive in Namibia before the Europeans were the Basters – descendants of Boer men and African women ( mostly Nama ).

The Khoikhoi (" people people " or " real people ") or Khoi, in standardised Khoekhoe / Nama orthography spelled Khoekhoe, are a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the Bushmen ( or San, as the Khoikhoi called them ).

* Nama band, a Greek pop / jazz / new age music group

Nama ( in older sources also called Namaqua ) are an African ethnic group of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

The Nama are the largest group of the Khoikhoi people, most of whom have largely disappeared as a group, except for the Namas.

Nama group in front of a hut.

* Khaiǁkhaun ( Red Nation ) at Hoachanas, the main group and the oldest Nama clan in Namibia

After being defeated by Imperial Germany Schutztruppe in the Battle of Swartfontein on 15 January 1905, this Nama group split into two.

Armed with guns, the Oorlams caused instability as more and more came to settle in Namaqualand and eventually conflict arose between them and the Nama.

The Herero entered into an alliance with the Germans, thinking they could get an upper hand on the Nama.

Over the next decade, the land and the cattle that were essential to Herero and Nama lifestyles passed into the hands of German settlers arriving in South-West Africa.

The name of the town is derived from the Nama word Tsoakhaub (" excrement opening ") describing the Swakop River in flood carrying items in its riverbed, including dead animals, into the Atlantic Ocean.

Between 1893 and 1903, the Herero and Nama peoples land as well as their cattle were progressively making their way into the hands of the German colonists.

The Chach Nama records many instances of conversion of stupas to mosques such as at Nerun as well as the incorporation of the religious elite into the ruling administration such as the allocation of 3 % of the government revenue was allocated to the Brahmins.

Large herds of cattle were confiscated and Nama and Herero people were driven into the desert and in some cases interred in concentration camps on the coast, for example at Shark Island.

Additionally, the Nama and Herero people were forced into slave labour to build railway lines and to hunt for diamonds during the diamond rush.

After two centuries of assimilation into the Nama culture, many Oorlams today regard Khoikhoigowab ( Damara / Nama ) as their mother tongue.

On behalf of the Royal Geographical Society, he conducted an exploring expedition into Namaqualand and Damaraland, lasting from 8 September 1836 to 21 September 1837, in the course of which he collected rock specimens, pelts of rare animals, birdskins, weapons and implements from the Herero and Nama, as well as drawing maps of the region and making a first list of Herero words.

Until the early 20th century, these tribes had little contact with the Nama, Damara, and Herero, who settled around the central part of the country vying for control of sparse pastureland.

All Nama and Herero cattle and land were confiscated from the very diminished population, with remaining Nama and Herero assuming a subordinate position.

In the 1830s Jonker Afrikaner concluded an agreement with the Nama chief Oaseb whereby the Oorlams would protect the central grasslands of Namibia from the Herero who were then pushing southwards.

* Fazal Nama: Deals with religious proposition.

There are also two enigmatic species from the Ediacaran period with some affinity to the ascidians-Ausia from the Nama Group of Namibia and Burykhia from the Onega Peninsula, White Sea of northern Russia.

Gobabis is in an area where the Herero and the Nama people fought wars against one another, as well as with settlers from the Cape colony that occupied the land.

The first German colonists arrived in 1892, and conflict with the indigenous Herero and Nama people began.

The Herero and Nama resisted expropriation over the years, but they were unorganized and the Germans defeated them with ease.

In 1904, the Herero and Nama began a great rebellion that lasted until 1907, ending with the utter destruction of the Herero people.

The original Khoekhoe language of the Nama people, with its intricate system of click sounds, also still survives in remote areas.

At this time all the pradakshina vazhi will be lit with camphor and brass temple lamps by thousands of devotes who stay awake through the night while chanting “ Nama Sivaya ”, “ Hara Hara Mahadeva ” and “ Sambho Mahadeva ”.

The yellow line encloses the two ecoregions, with the green line separating the Succulent Karoo to the west, from the Nama Karoo to the east.

Many of the Nama clans live in Central Namibia and the other smaller groups lives Namaqualand, which today straddles the Namibian border with South Africa.

Here, the Nama still move with the seasons and speak their language.

The majority of the Nama people in Namibia today are therefore Christian with a small Muslim minority.

In 1826 he was charged by the French government with the preparation of an edition of the Shah Nama ( Livre des rois ), the first volume of which appeared in 1838, while the seventh and last was left unfinished at his death, being completed by Barbier de Meynard.

The / Khowese Nama and other Nama tribes often fought amongst each other and with Herero tribes.

The largest colonial enterprises were in Africa, where the harsh treatment of the Nama and Herero in what is now Namibia in 1906 – 07 led to charges of genocide against the Germans.

Herero and Nama Territories

Herero and Nama competed for guns and ammunition, providing cattle, ivory, and ostrich feathers.

They exploited rivalry between the Nama and Herero.

Between 1896 and 1897, rinderpest crippled the economic backbone of the Herero and Nama economy and slowed white expansion.

The principal groups are the Ovambo, Kavango, Herero / Himba, Damara, mixed race ( Coloured and Rehoboth Baster ), White Namibians ( Afrikaner, German, and Portuguese ), Nama, Caprivian ( Lozi ), Bushmen ( San ), and Tswana.

In return Jonker Afrikaner was recognised as overlord, received tribute from the Nama and settled at what today is Windhoek, on the borders of Herero territory.

These tragic events, known as the Herero and Namaqua Genocide, resulted in the death of between 24, 000 and 65, 000 Herero ( estimated at 50 % to 70 % of the total Herero population ) and 10, 000 Nama ( 50 % of the total Nama population ).

The plant is commonly known simply as Welwitschia, and has various common names in local languages, for example kharos or khurub in Nama, tweeblaarkanniedood in Afrikaans, nyanka in Damara, and onyanga in Herero.

During the first decade of the 20th century imperial Germany colonized Southwest Africa and committed genocide against the local Herero and Nama peoples.

The Namib is almost completely uninhabited by humans except for several small settlements and indigenous pastoral groups, including the Ovahimba and Obatjimba Herero in the north, and the Topnaar Nama in the central region.

In 1904, they suffered from the same attempt at genocide by the German colonial power under Lothar von Trotha that decimated other groups in Namibia, notably the Herero and the Nama.