Windhoek

Windhoek grew up around hot springs. The Khoekhoe name for the place is ǀAi-ǁGams and the Otjiherero name is Otjomuise. In 1840 the Orlam leader Jonker Afrikaner set up a settlement near the springs, in what is now Klein Windhoek, and built a stone church there. The first written use of the name Windhoek is in a letter from Jonker Afrikaner to Joseph Tindall dated 12 August 1844. One theory says he named it after the Winterhoek Mountains at Tulbagh in South Africa, where his ancestors had lived. The settlement later declined amid conflict between groups in the region.

German colonial Windhoek was founded on 18 October 1890, when Curt von François laid the foundation stone of the Alte Feste. This fort is the oldest surviving building in the city. Between 1904 and 1908 German forces committed genocide against the Herero and Nama peoples, and Windhoek held one of the five main concentration camps. Herero and Nama survivors were forced to work on buildings such as the Tintenpalast. The Christuskirche was built from 1907 to 1910 as a symbol of peace after those wars. Herero women later took the Victorian-style dress of the colonisers and remade it as a symbol of their own identity.

South African rule began in 1915. In the 1950s the municipality and the South African administration moved to force Windhoek's Black residents out of the Old Location. On 10 December 1959 police fired on protesters who were resisting the move, killing 11 people and injuring 44. Namibia now marks 10 December as Human Rights Day. Katutura was created in 1961 to house the people who were moved. Its Otjiherero name means 'we do not settle' or 'the place where people do not want to live'. By 1962 about 7,000 people had been relocated there.

Namibia became independent on 21 March 1990, and Windhoek has been the national capital ever since. The Tintenpalast, opened in 1913, now houses both chambers of parliament. Heroes' Acre opened south of the city in 2002, and the Independence Memorial Museum opened in 2014 to tell the story of the struggle. Katutura is now known as the heart of the city. Its Single Quarters kapana stalls have been running since the 1980s and draw everyone from mechanics to lawyers.