Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by Herero-speaking people, who in the 19th century were often referred to by outsiders as "Damaras". It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek in the south.
In the 1970s the name Damaraland was revived for a bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Damara people. A centrally administered local government was created in 1980. The bantustan Damaraland was situated on the western edge of the territory that had been known as Damaraland in the 19th century.
Damaraland, like other homelands in South West Africa, was abolished in May 1989 at the start of the transition to independence.
The name Damaraland predates South African control of Namibia and is the subject of an entry in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
