Gobabis

Gobabis
City
Aerial view in 2005
Seal
Motto: Ex Oriente Lux
Gobabis Location in Namibia
Coordinates: 22°26′S 18°58′E / 22.433°S 18.967°E / -22.433; 18.967Coordinates: 22°26′S 18°58′E / 22.433°S 18.967°E / -22.433; 18.967
Country	Namibia
Region	Omaheke Region
Constituency	Gobabis constituency
Established	1856
Government
• Mayor	Sila Bezuidenhoudt
Elevation	4,720 ft (1,440 m)
Population (2011)
• Total	19,101
Time zone	West Africa Time (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	West Africa Summer Time (UTC+2)
Climate	BSh
Website	http://www.gobmun.com/

Gobabis is a city in eastern Namibia. It is the regional capital of the Omaheke Region, and the district capital of the Gobabis electoral constituency. Gobabis is situated 200 km (120 mi) down the B6 motorway from Windhoek to Botswana. The town is 113 km (70 mi) from the Buitepos border post with Botswana, and serves as an important link to South Africa on the tarred Trans-Kalahari Highway. Gobabis is in the heart of the cattle farming area. In fact Gobabis is so proud of its cattle farming that a statue of a large Brahman bull with the inscription "Cattle Country" greets visitors to the town.

The area around Gobabis and along the Nossob River had a strong population of elephants. The settlement itself was a base camp for ivory hunters and a trading post for elephant tusks.

In 1856 a mission station was established by one Friederich Eggert of the Rhenish Missionary Society. In the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century several conflicts flared up between the Ovambanderu and the Khauas Khoikhoi, as well as between the settlers and the indigenous people. Gobabis is in an area where the Herero and the Nama people fought wars against one another, as well as with settlers from the Cape colony that occupied the land.

According to oral tradition, the earliest name for the settlement in this area was the Khoekhoegowab word ǂkhoandabes, the place where the elephant came to lick. This reason for this name is speculated to be that elephant tusks that would crack in the dry and hot climate of the Omaheke were at times stored right in the settlement's well. The Herero called the place Epako.