Urbanisation-in-Namibia

Urbanisation in NamibiaVillages are the smallest settlements and are not declared as urban areas unless as a deliberatemove by government.To date, new urban centres have been proclaimed especially in the northern and north-easternpart of Namibia. Although there has been an overall increase in urban population in Namibia,Windhoek City has by far been the major focus of urbanisation. Its population increased from13.7% in 2001 to 16.2% in 2011 and constitutes 36% of the total urban population. Othertowns such as Oshakati and Ongwediva have also seen an increasing trend in urban populationespecially after independence (Figure 2). For instance, Ongwediva urban population doubledbetween 2001 and 2011.Figure 2: Urban population in city and towns by yearPoverty in most urban areas of Namibia was discreetly hidden, partly because of the apartheidsystem which promoted contract labour migration system, which only allowed peoplewho were employed to reside in urban areas. 3 Similarly, government did not immediatelyacknowledge the scale of urban poverty after independence after the abolishment of passlaws which prohibited free movement of people, but concentrated more, among others, onaddressing socio-economic imbalances in rural areas. Despite the efforts, urban poverty andurban population have been growing. 43Moorsom R. 1977.Underdevelopment, contract labour and worker consciousness in Namibia. Journal of Southern African Studies. 4(1):52-87;.4Pendleton W., and Frayne B. 2000. Migration as a Population dynamic in Namibia. In Fuller B and Prommer I. (eds.). Population-Development-Environment in Namibia. Background Readings: Laxenburg, Austria. IISA.; Niikondo A. 2010. Migrants to towns and cities in Namibia. Whattheir interests are? Polytechnic of Namibia. Windhoek.4