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Caprivi (Namibia)

by mark sensen

History of Caprivi

In 1893 the Germans, who ruled what is now Namibia, decided it would be nice to have access to the Zambezi River, some 250km to the east. Ever obliging, 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 of the UNITA movement in Angola.
stuart notholt 8-OCT-1995

History of Caprivi's flags

This was the flag of East-Caprivi adopted in 1977. Prior to 1977 another design was used: horizontal blue-white-blue (1:2:1) with on the white two black spoones crossed. This was very similar to the flag of the South African homeland Gazankulu, but the latter having equal bands and a chain between the spoons. The west of the Caprivi strip was part of the homeland Okavongo wich used a green flag with in the middle a small triband orange-white-blue.
mark sensen 10-OCT-1995