People

Namibia has a very small population of just below 1.8 million people living in an area spread over 825,000 sq.km. There are 11 main ethnic groups in Namibia -about 50% of the them belong to the Owambo tribe and 9% to the Kavango tribe while the other important ethnic groups consist of the Herero, Damara, Nama, Caprivian, Bushmen, Baster and Tswana tribes. Namibia also has a fair number of Europeans, either Germans or Afrikaners living in the country. Most Namibians are Christians (80% to 90%) with at least half of them belonging to the Lutheran denomination. About 10-20% of Namibians continue to practise native religions.

The tribes still follow a traditional life style, practicing their old crafts and working at the age old traditional occupations of subsistence farming, animal husbandry, hunting or fishing. But most tribes have lost their land and are looking towards urban professions and trades in modern Namibia. The Bushmen of the San tribe live in small nomadic groups of 25-30 members, spending their time eking out an existence from hunting and gathering of food from the forests, even though they are part of an intricate but widespread trade network.