Thread: Where does name Namibia come from?

The name "Namib" is Nama for "enormous". The desert occupies an area of around 50,000 km²), stretching some 1,000 miles (1,600 km) along the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia. The state of Namibia is called after this desert. Its east-west width varies from 30 to 100 miles (50-160 km).The Namib Desert is also in the southwest part of Angola.

The above response is in order but I wish to add the following: according to post colonial history books, a gentleman by the name of Mburumba Kerina was responsible for coining the name Namibia, using the name Namib and adding the suffix 'ia' as is the case with Tanzania.

For those who do not know him, I have attached hereto, a bio about Kerina. The bio has been lifted from the website (http://www.klausdierks.com/Biographies/Biographies_K.htm)of the late Dr Klaus Dierks, former deputy minister of Works, Transport and Communication.



Kerina, Mburumba, Prof.
[Getzen, William Eric, called after his mother]
[Kerina - Otjiherero name for Frederick Thomas Green, his great great grandfather]
* 06.06.1932 at Tsumeb
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Mburumba Kerina was born on 06.06.1932 at Tsumeb. He is an Ovaherero descendant of the traveller Frederick Thomas Green (Green is in Otjiherero "Kerina"). He got schooled in Namibia and managed to leave the country for further education under the name Eric Getzen. In 1953 he left for the USA to take up a scholarship at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania but never graduated. In the 1960s he became Professor for Afro-American Studies at the Brooklyn College in New York (further details unknown). From 1956 onwards he petitioned and testified at the United Nations for Namibia on behalf of the Herero Chiefs’ Council until he later fell out with the Council. In 1956 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) continued to deal with the SWA problem in an advisory capacity. It confirmed the UN General Assembly’s right to adopt resolutions on SWA, and to grant oral hearings to petitioners (Michael Scott, Mburumba Kerina (Getzen), Jariretundu Kozonguizi, Hans Beukes, Markus Kooper, Sam Nujoma, Ismael Fortune, Jacob Kuhangua and Hosea Kutako). This gave new impetus to the political socialisation and consciousness of "black" leaders in the territory. In 1958 the Ovamboland People's Congress (OPC) was renamed the Ovamboland People’s Organisation (OPO), as allegedly suggested by Mburumba Kerina. The emergence of the OPO and SWANU (established in 1959) introduced an element of rivalry which later resulted in a clash between Kerina and Kozonguizi. Their personal rivalry was further aggravated by the illusion of imminent independence for SWA under the auspices of the United Nations. After the shootings in December 1959 at Windhoek's "Old Location" where the South African Police shot and killed 13 demonstrators - among them his brother - Kerina turned radical, demanding that "whites" be pushed into the sea. Kerina later joined the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO). In April 1960 the OPO’s reconstitution as SWAPO was triggered by national leaders such as Sam Nujoma, Mburumba Kerina, Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo, Jacob Kuhangua, Solomon Mifima, Paul Helmuth, Andreas Shipanga, Erasmus Erastus Mbumba, Emil Appolus, Maxton Joseph Mutongulume and Carlos Hamatui. During 1961 Mburumba coined allegedly the name "Namibia" (originally, "Namib"). In July 1962 Kozonguizi and Kerina met in New York. They discussed the formation of a new party to unify SWAPO and SWANU. The proposed name of the party was National Independence People’s Party (NIPP). Kerina published these plans without consultation. Kozonguizi denied any agreements. SWAPO reacted with anger and expelled Kerina. In June 1964 Mburumba Kerina announced the formation of the Independence and National Convention Party. Two months later Kerina’s Independence and National Convention Party was reconstituted as the United Nama Independence People’s Party (UNIPP). It disappeared again in early 1965. In the mean time Kerina had unsuccessfully tried to return to Namibia and remained for a short while in Bechuanaland until he was expelled in 1964, from where he went to Tanzania. On 25.09.1965 Mburumba Kerina, Hosea Kutako and Clemence Kapuuo established the traditionalist National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO), after Kerina had repaired his relationship with the Herero Chiefs’ Council until he again broke with the Council in 1966. Kapuuo from the NUDO and Fritz Gariseb from the DEC opposed the South African Apartheid policy but advocated a federal type of government based on the old tribal regions. SWAPO and SWANU favoured a non-racial democracy based on universal franchise and on the ideology of Pan-Africanism. Both parties declined to join NUDO and joined SWANLIF instead. SWANLIF, however, failed after 1964 because the party was not able to link SWAPO and SWANU. In 1966 the South West Africa National United Front (SWANUF) was formed by Mburumba Kerina - who in the mean time had returned to New York during 1966 - and Veine Mbaeva as an attempted merger of NUDO and SWANU. By the late 1970s SWANUF was defunct. Kerina returned to Namibia in 1976. By the end of 1976 Mburumba Kerina, who led the pro-Turnhalle PROSWA/Namibia Foundation, supported the Turnhalle principles. He even went so far as to allege that the Turnhalle had met every condition set by the OAU, UN, ICJ and the "Lusaka Manifesto". In 1978 the Namibia Patriotic Coalition (NPC) was constituted by Mburumba Kerina to join a short-lived alliance with the Rehoboth Liberation Front (LF) and the Liberal Party. Kerina returned to New York in 1979. Several attempts to launch investment projects with local business people and politicians in grandiose mining or investment schemes received detailed press coverage without coming to fruition and with a significant amount of adverse publicity. In 1982, after becoming defunct, the Namibia Patriotic Coalition (NPC) was reconstituted as the Namibia National Democratic Coalition (NNDC) under Mburumba Kerina. In 1988 the Federal Convention of Namibia (FCN) was constituted in Rehoboth under Hans Diergaardt and Mburumba Kerina. In the 1990s and after the year 2000 Kerina was involved in the case of war reparations to the Ovaherero from the Germans due to the German Ovaherero War 1904-1908. In March 1998 the German Federal President, Roman Herzog, visited Namibia. This state visit resulted in some irritations on the Namibian side due to Herzog’s refusal to acknowledge the calls by some members of the Ovaherero community for compensation in consequence of the Ovaherero-German War 1904 to 1908. Herzog maintained that "no international legislation existed at the time under which ethnic minorities could get reparations". Mburumba Kerina countered by claiming that the Second Hague Convention, dated 29.07.1899, at which the Germans were represented, outlawed "reprisals against civilians on the losing side". Herzog dismissed the idea of an apology "because too much time had passed to make sense". Kerina left the DTA in January 2004 and joined Kuaima Riruako's new NUDO instead. He lost his DTA seat for the Aminuis Constituency in the National Council in February 2004.
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Gender: m
Field of activity: POL

RAW DATA: Namibia Handbook and Political Who's Who, 1990 (Pütz, Von Egidy and Caplan); Chronology of Namibian History, 2003 (Dierks);

The above is correct, however I wish to add the following: The name Namibia, was coined by Mburumba Kerina (taking the Namib and adding 'ia' as in the case of Tanzan-ia).

NO Namib does not mean enormous in Nama!

The Name Namibia was coined by Hon. Mburumba Kerina.

Try and find him to explain the origin.

"During 1961 Mburumba (Kerina) (aka Getzen, William Eric, called after his mother, [Kerina - Otjiherero name for Frederick Thomas Green, his great great grandfather] coined allegedly the name "Namibia" (originally, "Namib")"


RAW DATA: Namibia Handbook and Political Who's Who, 1990 (Pütz, Von Egidy and Caplan); Chronology of Namibian History, 2003 (Dierks);

Very good. Thank you everyone now I know.