Postage stamps and postal history of South West Africa



Postage stamps were issued in the South African-administered colony of South West Africa from 1914 to 1989.

History
The South African Army overran German South West Africa in 1914–15 and, in 1922, a League of Nations mandate gave South Africa the responsibility of administering the colony, now renamed South West Africa. South Africa controlled the postal service until Namibian independence in 1990. After World War II, the mandate was supposed to transform the colony into a United Nations Trust Territory, but South Africa objected to it coming under UN control and refused to allow the territory's transition to independence, regarding it as a fifth province.

Stamps issued by the Union of South Africa were used from 1914 until 1953. The first stamps inscribed "South West Africa" were issued bilingually in English and Afrikaans (Suidwes Afrika) on 1 January 1923. From 1970, the abbreviation "SWA" was in general use. However, some postmarks featured German as well as Afrikaans and English.

In 1973, South West Africa became part of the South African post code system, using the number range 9000-9299. This was withdrawn from use after the territory gained independence as Namibia in 1990. In addition, Afrikaans was removed from postmarks, which, following independence, were in English only.

In 1989, the last definitive stamps of South West Africa were a set of 15 depicting minerals and mining. Following independence, most of the designs were kept with only the name changed (cuprite was dropped and willemite added for the Namibian issue) and the removal of Afrikaans names.

Another problem was that one of the stamps, for boltwoodite, had an error in its chemical equation. This was corrected in the Namibian issue. Namibia has issued regular definitive and commemorative stamps since independence in 1990, NamPost being its postal authority.