Karibib
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Karibib () is a town in the
Erongo Region Erongo is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. The capital is Swakopmund. It is named after Mount Erongo, a well-known landmark in Namibia and in this area. Erongo contains the municipalities of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Henties Bay and Omaruru, as ...
of western
Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...
. It has 8,434 inhabitants. Karibib is the district capital of the Karibib electoral constituency. It is situated on the
Khan River The river Khan is an ephemeral river crossing the Erongo region of central Namibia. It is the main tributary of the Swakop River and only occasionally carries surface water during the rainy season from November to February/March. Khan's catchment ...
, halfway between
Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...
and
Swakopmund Swakopmund ("Mouth of the Swakop River, Swakop") is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 road (Namibia), B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo Region, Erongo administrative district. It ...
on the B2 (Trans-Kalahari Highway), the main road between
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...
and
Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
. The town is known for its
aragonite Aragonite is a carbonate mineral and one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate (), the others being calcite and vaterite. It is formed by biological and physical processes, including precipitation fr ...
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...
quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safet ...
and the
Navachab Gold Mine The Navachab Gold Mine is an open-pit gold mine situated near Karibib, in the Erongo Region of Namibia. The operation is owned by QKR. ...
.


Geography

Karibib comprises of town land.


Economy and Infrastructure

The Navachab Gold Mine owned by QKR Namibia is located 10 km from Karibib town. The mine is the major tax payer, employer and property owner of the town, providing more than 750 jobs and owning 240 residential properties. In 2008, proposals surfaced for a new Cement in Africa, cement works. Karibib is home to the Usab Stadium. and there is a golf course at the Klippenberg Country Club.


Transport

Karibib is situated on the B2 national road (
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...
Okahandja Okahandja is a city of 45,159 inhabitants in Otjozondjupa Region, central Namibia, and the district capital of the Okahandja electoral constituency. It is known as the ''Garden Town of Namibia''. It is located 70 km north of Windhoek on the B1 r ...
) close to the branch-off of the C33 to
Otjiwarongo Otjiwarongo (Herero language, Herero for "beautiful place") is a city of 49,000 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Otjiwarongo Constituency, Otjiwarongo electoral constituency and also the capital ...
. About 1,000 trucks per day pass the town. Karibib is connected to the
TransNamib TransNamib Holdings Limited (TransNamib) is a List of state-owned enterprises in Namibia, state-owned railway company in Namibia. Organised as a holding company, it provides both rail and road freight services, as well as passenger rail services. ...
railway network; Karibib Railway Station is situated downtown. The next station to the west is Kranzberg, the junction for the branch railways to
Tsumeb Tsumeb (; ) is a city of around 35,000 inhabitants and the largest town in the Oshikoto Region, Oshikoto region in northern Namibia. Tsumeb, since its founding in 1905, has been primarily a mining town. The town is the site of a deep mine (the ...
and
Grootfontein Grootfontein (, named after the nearby hot springs) is a city with 26,839 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of central Namibia. It is one of the three towns in the Otavi Triangle, situated on the B8 road (Namibia), B8 national road that lead ...
from the line to the capital
Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...
. North of the town is the location of the headquarters of the
Namibian Air Force The Namibian Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Namibian Defence Force. It was commissioned on 13 March 2005 at Grootfontein Air Force Base. Accessed 2007/07/27 Following the independence of Namibia from South Africa in 1990, the Ai ...
at the Karibib Air Base, housing the Command of the Air Force. The air base has a asphalt runway, parallel paved taxiways and apron. The history of Karibib Airport goes back to pre-independence when it was used by the South African Air Force.


History

Originally Karibib was a waterhole known to the
Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Nama genocide * Herero chat, a species of bird ...
under the name ''Otjandjomboimwe''. Expecting business opportunities arising from the railway construction between Swakopmund and Windhoek, Eduard Hälbich, merchant at
Otjimbingwe Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. Otjimbingwe has approximately 8,000 inhabitants and belongs to the Karibib electoral constituency. Otjimbingwe was an important settlement in South West Afr ...
, bought the waterhole and 20,000 hectares of land surrounding it from Herero headman Zacharias Zeraua. The deal was finalised on 7 January 1895, the purchase price was 22,500 marks (ℳ), two ox wagons, and 742 pounds 5 shillings that Zeraua had incurred in debts in Hälbich's shop in Otjimbingwe. Karibib began to grow quickly when on 30 May 1900 the railway construction reached the newly founded place. 1 June 1900 marks the day of the official foundation of Karibib at the occasion of the first train arriving from Swakopmund. The railway station was built, a medical practice, storage facilities, a prison, and living quarters were erected, and the population rose to 274. This development disadvantaged the settlement of Otjimbingwe; ox wagons that before would travel via Otjimbingwe on the
Alter Baiweg Alter may refer to: Computing and technology * ALTER, a command in older implementations of COBOL * Alter (SQL), a command in a data definition language within SQL Music * ''Alter'' (album), 2002 album by Floater * ''Alter'', a 2006 remix albu ...
(''Old bay path'') would now take the route through Karibib. In 1904 the place once again became important as a railway hub for ferrying troops in the Herero and Namaqua War. Its status was upgraded to that of a county, and governance was extended to include Omaruru. At the end of the war in 1907, Karibib counted 316 white residents, and the remaining Herero land was expropriated and offered to white farmers. Karibib was declared a municipality in 1909, and Eduard Hälbich was its mayor.


Historic Buildings

One of Karibib's oldest buildings is the Roesemannhaus / ''Roesemann's house'', erected in 1900 shortly after the town was founded. Other historic structures are the Wollhaus / ''Wool house (''1900) erected from local marble, the
Railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
building (1901), the Kaiserbrunnen / ''Emperor fountain (1''906-1908) and the Christ Church (1910).


Politics

Karibib was downgraded from municipal to town status in 2010. It is governed by a town council that has seven seats. In the 2010 local authority election in Karibib, a total of 990 votes were cast.
SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO ; , SWAVO; , SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former independence movement in Namibia (formerly South West Africa). Founded in 1960, it has been ...
won with approximately 60% of the vote. Of the three other parties seeking votes in the election, United Democratic Front (UDF) received approximately 31% of the vote, followed by
RDP RDP may refer to: Computing * Ramer–Douglas–Peucker algorithm, an algorithm for polygonal simplification * Recombination detection program, for analysing genetic recombination * Recursive descent parser, a type of top-down parser * Remote Desk ...
(9%) and the
Congress of Democrats The Congress of Democrats (CoD) is a Namibian opposition party without representation in the National Assembly and was led by Ben Ulenga from 2004 to 2015. It was established in 1999, prior to that year's general elections, and started off w ...
, which, despite being on the ballot, did not receive a vote. SWAPO also won the 2015 local authority elections, gaining 4 seats (653 votes). 2 seats went to the UDF (223 votes), and the remaining seat was won by the local Karibib Residents Association (KRA) that gained 128 votes. In the 2020 local authority election SWAPO won again by a large margin but lost the majority of seats in the town council. SWAPO obtained 461 votes and gained three seats. One seat each went to the UDF (175 votes), the
Independent Patriots for Change The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) is a political party in Namibia. It was founded by Panduleni Itula in August 2020. As an independent presidential candidate in the 2019 election, Itula won the best result of a losing candidate in a ...
(IPC, newly formed in August 2020, 94 votes), the
Landless People's Movement The Landless People's Movement is an independent social movement in South Africa. It consisted of rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The Landless People's Movement boycotted parliamentary elections and had a history ...
(LPM, registered in 2018, 80 votes) and the KRA (68 votes).


Education

Schooling in Karibib started as a private missionary enterprise in 1902. From 1907 the Deutsche Schule Karibib (, also: Privatschule Karibib) operated in town, first as a government school of Imperial Germany, and after
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
as private school supported by German government. In 1965 it had 13 teachers and 53 learners. When competition from other German schools eroded its pupil base, the school closed down in 1986. The campus is currently leased to the similarly named but unrelated
Karibib Private School Karibib Private School (KPS) is a private school in Karibib in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It offers a hostel that caters for its learners from kindergarten to grade 12. The school is divided into two phases, phase 1 and phase 2. Academ ...
. Karibib is also home to Karibib Junior Secondary School and Ebenhaeser Primary School, situated in the Usab Location. Karibib Junior Secondary School emerged from Ebenhaeser Primary School when the latter started offering classes beyond grade 7. The
Navachab gold mine The Navachab Gold Mine is an open-pit gold mine situated near Karibib, in the Erongo Region of Namibia. The operation is owned by QKR. ...
in Karibib has played a major role in developing the school. Karibib Junior Secondary School is situated in town and offers grade 8 to Grade 10.


References

{{Authority control Populated places in the Erongo Region Towns in Namibia 1900 establishments in German South West Africa Populated places established in 1900