Ovamboland
Ovamboland | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968–1989 | |||||||||
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Flag | |||||||||
Location of Ovamboland within South West Africa. | |||||||||
Map of the Bantustan | |||||||||
| Status | Bantustan (1968–1980) Second-tier authority (1980–1989) | ||||||||
| Capital | Oshakati | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 1968 | |||||||||
• Re-integrated into Namibia | May 1989 | ||||||||
| Currency | South African rand | ||||||||
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Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan and later a non-geographic ethnic-based second-tier authority, the Representative Authority of the Ovambos, in South West Africa (present-day Namibia).
The apartheid government stated that the goal was for it to be a self-governing homeland for the Ovambo people. Practically, however, it was intended by the apartheid government as a reservation that forced them into cheap labour by limiting movement; Ovambo men were not allowed outside Ovamboland unless they signed as a contract labourer for 16 months, while women were not allowed out at all.
The term originally referred to the parts of northern Namibia inhabited by the Ovambo ethnic group: namely, the area controlled by the traditional Ovambo kingdoms in pre-colonial and early colonial times, such as Ondonga, Ongandjera, and Oukwanyama. Its endonym is Ovambo ~ Owambo.