Hifikepunye Pohamba has been the second Head of State since Namibia’s Independence in 1990. As successor to Sam Nujoma he held office for two terms from March 2005 to March 2015. At the end of his presidency he was awarded the Mo Ibrahim Prize for good governance as the fifth statesman of the continent. This overview covers the twelve years from his election in 2004 until his retirement as documented in the chapters previously published in the
Africa Yearbook. Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara, reviewing Namibia’s development during his presidency. An introductory analysis putting the Pohamba era into the context of Namibian society precedes the chronological account.
Henning Melber, Ph.D. (1980) is Director emeritus/Senior Advisor of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Senior Advisor of the Nordic Africa Institute, both in Uppsala; Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political Sciences/University of Pretoria and at the Centre for Africa Studies/University of the Free State in Bloemfontein; and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies/School for Advanced Study of the University of London.
'The political scientist and sociologist Henning Melber has rightly been acclaimed as one of the leading thinkers and writers on Namibia. He has published with great insight and frequency on the past, present and future of (Nambia) and his life is one fully and critically lived as an activist, scholar, poet and public intellectual..... Melber gives an analysis of trends; a chronicle of the shifts and patterns in domestic politics, in the foreign relations of the country, and in major socio-economic developments; and .... provides a readable, reflective and concise account of these domains.' (André du Pisani, University of Namibia).
All interested in current Namibian political, economic and foreign affairs and the Southern African sub-region, especially during the state presidency of Hifikepunye Pohamba.