| Capital: | Katima Mulilo |
| Largest city: | Katima Mulilo |
| ISO 3166-2: | NA-CA |
| Website: | www.arc.org.na |
| Map: Caprivi in Namibia | |
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| Politics | |
| Governor: | Leornard Mwilima (SWAPO) |
| Ruling party: | SWAPO |
| Representaion in regional government (6 seats): |
SWAPO |
| Last elections: | 2008 |
| Next elections: | 2012 |
| Population | |
| Population: | 90 422 |
| Population density: | 4.62 persons/km² |
| Languages: | Silozi, Oshiwambo, Englsh, Afrikaans |
| Geography | |
| Area: | 19,532 km² |
| of it forested: | approx 15,000 km² (70 %) |
| Rank: | 10th of 13 regions |
| Administrative divisions | |
| Constituencies: | 6 |
| Cities: | 1 |
Caprivi is one of the 13 regions of Namibia and takes its name from the Caprivi Strip.
Until the end of the 19th century, it was known as Itenge and it was under the rule of the Lozi kings. In the late 1800s the strip of land was administered as part of the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (Botswana). The German Empire in 1890 laid claim to the British-administered island of Zanzibar; Britain objected and the dispute was settled at the Berlin Conference later that year. On July 1, 1890, the British acquired Zanzibar and Germany acquired the territory which became known as the Caprivi Strip, named after the Chancellor of Germany, Count Leo von Caprivi. The German motivation behind the swap was to acquire a strip of land linking German South-West Africa with the Zambezi River, providing easy access to Tanganyika (Tanzania) and an outlet to the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately for the Germans, the British colonisation of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe and Zambia) stopped them well upstream of Victoria Falls, which proved a considerable barrier to navigation on the Zambezi.
During World War I, the Caprivi Strip again came under British rule and was governed as part of Bechuanaland but it received little attention and became known as a lawless frontier. Nowadays approximately 66,000 people live in the Caprivi, mostly as subsistence farmers who make their living on the banks of the Zambezi, Kwando, Linyati and Chobe Rivers.
There are three game parks in the Caprivi region. The Caprivi Game Park is 5715 square kilometers and extends for about 180 km from the Kavango River in the west to the Kwando River in the east. Deciduous woodlands are dominated by trees such as wild seringa, copalwood and Zambezi teak. While the park is sanctuary to 35 large and numerous small game species, visitors are not likely to see many of these animals as vehicles are restricted to the road between Kavango and Eastern Caprivi. Animals likely to be seen are elephant, roan and kudu, buffalo occur towards the west. As many as 339 bird species have been recorded in west Caprivi. The wild and little visited Mamili National Park is Namibia's equivalent of the Okavango Delta, a watery wonderland of wildlife rich islands, river channels and wetlands. The focal points of the 320km2 national park are Nkasa and Lupala, two large islands in the Kwando/Linyati river. During the dry season the islands can be reached by road but after the rains 80% of the area becomes flooded, cutting them off from the mainland. Mudumu National Park is a vast 100,959 hectare expanse of dense savannah and mopane woodland with the Kwando River at its western border. The park is home to small populations of sitatunga and red lechwe while spotted neck otter, hippo and crocodile inhabit the waterways. Animals to be encountered are elephant, buffalo, roan, sable, kudu, impala, oribi, zebra, wild dog as well as some 430 species of birds.
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Geography
The Caprivi is a heavily tropical area, with high temperatures and much rainfall during the December-to-March rainy season, making it the wettest region of Namibia. The terrain is mostly made up of swamps, floodplains, wetland, and woodland.
It also is home to 450 animal species, including elephants, making Caprivi a popular game-watching spot. The wildlife is protected by several nature reserves, such as Bwabwata, Mudumu, Lizauli, West Caprivi Game Park, Mahango Game Reserve, and Mamili National Park; animals travel freely across the unmarked border with Botswana, where the Chobe National Park lies. The strip is also a prime bird-watching area, with almost 70 percent of bird species found in Namibia being recorded here. Katima Mulilo is the largest city, with other notable towns including Kongola,Chinchimane, Bukalo, Sibinda, and Impalila.
In addition to the Zambezi River, the strip also holds the Cuando and Kwando River, which marks the border with Botswana. Tributaries of the river here go by different names, including the Linyata and the Chobe. The province's far eastern is where the Cuando meets the Zambezi.
Borders
Caprivi is almost entirely surrounded by foreign countries. Its only domestic border is a short connection in the west with Okavango.
- In the northwest, it borders the Cuando Cubango Province of Angola.
- In the north, it borders the Western Province of Zambia.
- In the south, it borders the North-West District of Botswana.
History and people
In 1893 the Germans, who ruled what is now Namibia, decided it would be nice to have access to the Zambezi River, some 250 km to the east. The British ceded a strip of land which was extruded from the North East corner of Namibia to Kazungula on the Zambezi at on what is now the Zambia/Botswana border. Unfortunately when the Germans got round to actually visiting the site they found that the Zambezi isn't navigable at that point! The strip became of geopolitical importance during the 1980s when it was used as a jumping off point and re-supply route for South African support for the UNITA movement in Angola.
Caprivi was named after German Chancellor Leo von Caprivi, who negotiated the land in an 1890 exchange with the United Kingdom. Leo Von Caprivi arranged for Caprivi to be annexed to German South-West Africa in order to give Germany access to the Zambezi River as part of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty.
About 80,000 people live in Caprivi, about four percent of Namibia's population. About 17,000 are part of the Lozi ethnic group of 556,000 people, who also live in western Zambia, northwest Zimbabwe (70,000), and northern Botswana (14,000). According to Ethnologue, the Lozi language is "spoken as lingua franca by all East Caprivians."
There has been ethnic tension between the Lozis and the Ovambos, the majority ethnic group of northern Namibia. This has led to past conflict, including the 1994 formation of the Caprivi Liberation Front, which pushes for Caprivi-Lozi self-rule.
The region comprises six constituencies: Kongola, Linyanti, Sibinda, Katima Mulilo Urban, Katima Mulilo Rural, and Kabe.
References
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