Caprivi Strip

The Caprivi Strip’s capital is Katima Mulilo, a town which is also the largest of the region. The town is comprised of two regions from an electoral point of view, the Urban and the Rural Katima Mulilo. You will also hear about this town as being referred as Katima, in its shortened version. It’s a town that has been increasing in numbers during the last decade, going from a population of just over 22,000 in 2001, to over 28,000 by 2010.

The location of Katima is in the vicinity of Zambezi River, surrounded by a lush vegetation, complete with monkeys and tropical birds, offering visitors sights that are memorable. The rainfall average for the Katima Mulilo town is 654 millimetres (which is around 25.7 inches).

The town is quite isolated from the other regions of Namibia, a fact that is especially obvious when you find out that the nearest town from Namibia is 500 km away (town of Rundu). The Bukalo settlement is just 40km away though and this is the place where  the Ngoma road branches off and connects Botswana to Namibia.

The inhabitants of this town originate from the Mafwe and Masubia tribes, something that is shown even on the coat of arms of the town, where you can see two elephants which face each other, depicting the tribes in question. The meaning behind this coat of arms is a symbol of peaceful coexistence and unity between the chiefs of the two tribes.

The thing that helped this town develop quickly this last decade was the building of the bridge that goes over the Zambezi River, connecting the Walvis Bay deep sea harbour from Namibia with the Copperbelt from Zambia. Two other things that the town is proud of is the biggest Namibian open market and the Export Processing Zone.