Okongo is a village in the

Ohangwena Region Ohangwena is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Eenhana. Major settlements in the region are the towns Eenhana and Helao Nafidi as well as the self-governed village of Okongo and the proclaimed settlements Ongha, Ongenga and O ...

of northern

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 had a population of 3,564 people in 2023. It is the district capital of Okongo Constituency.

History

Okongo was first settled by the

San people The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged from other humans 100,000 to 200 ...

in the 1900s, who, as a

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

community, found the local abundance of wildlife and fruit attractive in the village. The name ''Okongo'' derives from the Oshiwambo word meaning: ''a place or a forest for hunting''. The San were eventually displaced in Okongo by the immigration of Bantu people. Today the commonly spoken language in the area is Oshiwambo and Christianity is the predominant religion.

Geography

Okongo is situated about east of Eenhana on the tarred road to

Nkurenkuru Nkurenkuru (1.093 m above sea level) is a town on the south-western banks of the Kavango River. It is the capital of the Kavango West Region of northern Namibia, located west of Rundu. It is also a former mission station of the Finnish Missio ...

Economy and infrastructure

Okongo has basic amenities: electricity, water and sanitation, a post office, basic supermarkets, and clothing outlets, as well as banking facilities. Okongo District Hospital, a 62-bed public hospital that serves the surrounding settlements, is situated in the village. Despite the water in the villages,it was unable to provide free water to the residents during Covid 19. There are two pre-primary schools, one primary school (Okongo Primary School), a combined school (Elia Weyulu Combined School) and a secondary school (Oshela Senior Secondary School). There is a NaTIS office, registering cars, drivers, and licenses, which was initiated in 2020. The village is accessible via a tarred road. There is also a landing strip for small aircraft.

Politics

Okongo is governed by a village council that has five seats. The 2015 local authority election was won by

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 ...

which gained 881 votes and all five seats. The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) and the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) also ran and gained 60 and 29 votes, respectively. SWAPO also won the 2020 local authority election. It obtained 521 votes and gained four seats. The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020, obtained 208 votes and the remaining seat.

References

{{Reflist Villages in Namibia Populated places in the Ohangwena Region