Gobabis

Gobabis is a town in eastern Namibia and the regional capital of the Omaheke region. A mission station was established there in 1856 by Friedrich Eggert of the Rhenish Missionary Society, and German colonial authorities proclaimed the Gobabis district in February 1894, occupying it with a garrison the following June. The 2023 census recorded 33,418 residents, a sharp rise from 13,856 in 2001 and 19,101 in 2011. Its Khoekhoe name, most likely meaning the place where people quarreled, sits alongside an older name meaning the place where the elephant came to lick, recalling tusks once stored in the settlement's well; today Gobabis sits at the heart of Namibia's cattle farming country and serves as a transport hub on the Trans-Kalahari Corridor linking Botswana's mines to the port of Walvis Bay.