Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, despite its scant population, is home to a wide diversity of languages, from multiple

language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hi ...

: Germanic, Bantu, and the various Khoisan families. When Namibia was administered by

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

, German, and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

enjoyed an equal status as official languages. Upon Namibian independence in 1990, English was enshrined as the nation's sole official language in the

constitution of Namibia The Constitution of Namibia is the supreme law of the Republic of Namibia. Adopted on 9 February 1990, a month prior to Namibia's independence from apartheid South Africa, it was written by an elected constituent assembly. Preamble "Whereas ...

. German and Afrikaans were stigmatised as relics of the colonial past, while the rising of Mandela's Youth League and the 1951

Defiance Campaign The Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was presented by the African National Congress (ANC) at a conference held in Bloemfontein, South Africa in December 1951. The Campaign had roots in events leading up the conference. The demonstrations, ...

spread English among the masses as the language of the campaign against apartheid.

Language demographics

Nama man giving us a lesson in the click language (3694165852)

The most widely spoken languages used in households are Oshiwambo dialects, by 49% of the population;

Khoekhoegowab The Khoekhoe language (), also known by the ethnic terms Nama (''Namagowab'') , Damara (''ǂNūkhoegowab''), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use o ...

by 11%; Afrikaans by 10%;

RuKwangali Kwangali, or RuKwangali, is a Bantu language spoken by 85,000 people along the Kavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Angola. It is one of several Bantu languages of the Kavango which have click consonants; these ar ...

by 9%; and

Otjiherero Herero (, ''Otjiherero'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in Namibia and Botswana, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern Angola. There were 211,700 speakers in 2014. Distribution Its linguisti ...

by 9%. Other native languages include the Bantu languages

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zon ...

, Gciriku, Fwe, Kuhane,

Mbukushu Mbukushu is a traditional Kavango kingdom in what is today Namibia. Its people speak the Mbukushu language Mbukushu or Thimbukushu is a Bantu language spoken by 45,000 people along the Okavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, ...

, Yeyi; and the Khoisan

Naro Naro ( scn, Naru ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Italy, Delia, Favara, Ag ...

, ǃXóõ, Kung-Ekoka, ǂKxʼauǁʼein and Kxoe. English, the official language, is spoken by 3% of people as their native language. Portuguese was spoken by 4–5% of the total population, i.e. 100,000 people, made up mostly of the Angolan community in 2014. The number of Angolans in Namibia declined from 2014 to 2015, affected by the neighbouring country's economic crisis. Among the white population, 60% speak Afrikaans, 32% German, 7% English, and 1%

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. Indigenous languages are included in the school syllabus at primary level. From secondary level English is the medium of instruction. English is the main lingua franca in the north and Afrikaans in the south. English and Afrikaans are both widely spoken in Windhoek. Discrimination through language in Africa?: perspectives on the Namibian experience''. Walter de Gruyter, p. 315. Image:Distribution of Oshiwambo in Namibia.png, Distribution of Oshiwambo Image:Distribution of Nama (Damara) in Namibia.png, Distribution of Khoekhoegowab (also known as Nama or Damara) Image:Distribution of Afrikaans in Namibia.png, Distribution of Afrikaans File:Distribution of Otjiherero in Namibia.png, Distribution of Otjiherero File:Distribution of Kavango languages in Namibia.png, Distribution of Kavango languages File:Distribution of Caprivi languages in Namibia.png, Distribution of Zambezi languages

Languages most often spoken in Namibian households

Source: 2001 Census and 2011 Census

References

{{Africa in topic, Languages of

Language demographics

Languages most often spoken in Namibian households

See also

References