Namibia National Anthem

Namibia, Land of the Brave

Written 1991

Adopted 1991

Lyrics Axali Doëseb

Music Axali Doëseb

🕊 Freedom ❤ Love of homeland 🤝 Unity 🏺 Ancestors / Heritage 💪 Resilience | Proud

Key Facts

1. By Doëseb's own account, the melody came to him as he improvised at the 1989 memorial service for the assassinated activist Anton Lubowski; when the government called for an anthem, he transcribed it into staff notation.
2. Doëseb formally assigned the copyright in the words and music to the Namibian government, and a clause of the 2018 Act declares the melody, music and lyrics to be in the public domain.
3. Authorship of the words has been disputed. In 2006 the former information minister Hidipo Hamutenya said he had written them "on the plane to Cuba", which Doëseb denied; in 2023 two former members of the national symbols committee, Ben Amadhila and Andrew Matjila, said Hamutenya had supplied the wording, while the Presidency reaffirmed Doëseb as writer and composer.
4. The anthem is sung in English, the country's official language, and the 2018 Act gives the words only in English; yet in the 2011 census English was the main language of just 3.4% of Namibian households.

Namibia National Anthem Lyrics

Namibia land of the brave Freedom fight we have won Glory to their bravery Whose blood waters our freedom. We give our love and loyalty Together in unity Contrasting beautiful Namibia Namibia our country Beloved land of savannahs, Hold high the banner of liberty Namibia our country Namibia motherland We love thee

Translations are non-official and intended to convey meaning, not replace originals

Analysis

Editorial

Namibia adopted the anthem in 1991, a year after winning independence from South African administration. It came out of a government competition, and a 1991 government gazette lists Axali Doëseb, credited with both the words and the music, as the winner from a final shortlist of two. The official text is short, three brief stanzas and a three-line chorus, and it appears verbatim in Schedule 2 of the National Symbols of the Republic of Namibia Act, 2018 (Act No. 17 of 2018), which names Doëseb as its author and composer.