After nearly a century of isolation, Africa’s last closed town is open for tourism

There’s a clatter, like someone upturning a stand of walking sticks, in the otherwise soundless desert, and I’m suddenly distracted from the chilly wind that has my nose running. Two male South African oryx (or gemsbok in Afrikaans) clash heads, interlocking their long straight horns in mock fighting.

Barren ground behind a local building supplies store is not my usual place for antelope and other African wildlife sightings. But Oranjemund, on the Namibia-South Africa border, isn’t a normal town. Located between the rocky outcrops and sand dunes of the Namib Desert to north and east, the mouth of the Orange River to the south, and Atlantic Ocean to the west, before 2017 it wasn’t legally a town at all.

Instead, it was a privately operating state-within-a-state, wholly owned by diamond conglomerate De Beers and its successor Namdeb. Making other gated communities seem like welcoming public spaces, Oranjemund was a sealed town, requiring anyone wanting to visit to obtain a pre-approved permit which took several weeks to process, even to call on family.

But it’s a place I’ve waited most of my life to visit.

Situated within Namibia’s Sperrgebiet ‘forbidden zone,’ spanning 10,000 square miles and set up in 1908 to secure the region’s alluvial diamond deposits, ‘unauthorized persons’ could be fined huge sums (USD$23,000 in today’s money) or imprisoned for a year, merely for entering.

“This equated to a town with good infrastructure and services for the inhabitants, but one which was completely isolated from the rest of Namibia and the world,” Alfried Ipinge, communications and projects officer at OMD2030 tells me. OMD2030 is an independent community organization with stakeholders that include Namdeb, the town council, residents, community leaders, local businesses, and NGOs.

“… With diamond resources being finite, it became obvious that Oranjemund would have to diversify its economy if it was to survive in the long term.”

- Alfried Ipinge, communications and projects officer, OMD2030

“It was a privileged place for those employed here, yet a place of immense isolation,” Ipinge adds. An unwelcoming, secretive, and almost mysterious entity to most Namibians, equivalent perhaps to a civilian version of Area 51 in the US, Oranjemund was by all accounts a model town for those who lived there. It had great facilities, and residents shared a common goal. But with the permit system in place workers could go months without seeing family living beyond Oranjemund’s borders, meaning you also had to be able to hack the emotional and physical isolation.

Although the desert landscapes ensured it was never widely inhabited, the presence of ancient rock art depictions of rhinos and oryx, a large antelope species, at the nearby Daberas Pass shows that the creation of the Sperrgebiet prevented the Indigenous San accessing their traditional lands. Hunter-gatherers, the San continue to face high levels of discrimination and poverty in Namibia, not helped by the lack of compensation for the loss of these ancestral lands.

Oranjemund’s story begins with South African diamond prospector Hans Merensky striking north from the Orange River’s South African border into what was then known as South West Africa, a League of Nations (forerunner of the United Nations) mandate territory. It was governed directly from Pretoria until 1978 following its capture by South African troops fighting colonial ruler Germany in 1915 during the First World War. Namibia would eventually gain independence in 1990.

Although it’s hard to find concrete facts, it seems Oranjemund’s closed status ended due to a decline in the diamond industry. Political responsibility was passed to the Namibian government in 2011, before Oranjemund was declared an open town for the first time in its history on 14 October 2017.

“Namdeb had quite literally been the town’s lifeblood for decades, supplying everything from jobs to utilities,” says Ipinge. “But with diamond resources being finite, it became obvious that Oranjemund would have to diversify its economy if it was to survive in the long term.”

The Namdeb mine remains a major employer for the 8,000-strong population, as the steady flow of workers from the site on the western side of town testifies. The heart of Namdeb’s operations, the company still directly employs 1,500 people in the area, who together uncovered 2.3 million carats of the world’s best quality diamonds in 2024, with a per carat value of USD$417.

One area of growth OMD2030 identified was tourism. “I recall the first proper tourists arriving here,” Mike Alexander tells me. Born in Cape Town to Scottish parents, Alexander has lived in Oranjemund for over 50 years and is the owner of the local Spar supermarket. “They were a retired couple and hailed from Germany and were traveling in one of those big blue overlander trucks. ‘Why are you here? Why Oranjemund?’ I’d asked.”

“The old man went on to tell me that his wife was browsing the internet and happened upon a photograph,” recalls Alexander. “It was of some children playing on a swing in a park, having fun, a beautiful green lawn surrounding them. But the man added that what caught his wife’s attention was that just five meters behind the children was a herd of oryx eating the grass.”

It was Oranjemund.

“For many Namibians, Oranjemund was seen as a ‘rich man’s farm’. Oranjemund has become warmer, more open, and more willing to share its beauty not just with tourists and visitors, but with anyone who longs to feel at home here.”

- Debbie Virting Ashipala, local businesswoman, and GM, OMD2030

The chance to encounter these semi-habituated desert dwellers, alongside flocks of ostrich, pairs of jackal, and birdlife drawn to the Orange River simply by wandering haphazardly through Oranjemund is an obvious attraction for wildlife-loving tourists otherwise taking safaris in the likes of Kruger National Park in neighboring South Africa. Conservative lists put the number of bird species in Oranjemund at over 160. But even without stumbling upon a resting oystercatcher or prancing klipspringer, a short stroll among Oranjemund’s handful of gridiron streets has me similarly eager to grab my camera.

With its mine on its western outskirts, there are few signs of heavy industry more centrally. Leaving my four-room guesthouse, I walk along broad, traffic-free streets lined with small mom and pop stores, which in the sun gives Oranjemund the air of a well-heeled coastal community anywhere in the world.

Sculptures such as Ismael Shivute’s 2021 ‘Oryx’, made from recycled machine parts, form a town art trail alongside two-story murals. These works of art depict everything from the mining industry to locals hiking in an ocean-like desert, and are as brightly colored as the children’s playground equipment which, unusually for the region, are scattered across Oranjemund’s Namdeb-subsidized green spaces.

At Jasper House Museum just around the corner from the sculpture, you can admire relics of the ‘Bom Jesus’, a 16th-century Portuguese nau (multi-masted sailing ship), rediscovered in the desert in 2008. The neighboring Bean Tree Café does a decent breakfast, and is where I find many locals relaxing.

Some residents, including supermarket owner Alexander, are already aware of unwanted changes in the town. “Crime has increased,” he tells me anecdotally, since official statistics are unavailable. ”Roads and street lighting are no longer maintained to the same standard.” This follows the transfer of responsibility for such features from Namdeb to the town council. “Yes, it’s the real world arriving, but we could have done with a few more years in the Fool’s Paradise. Whilst this might create jobs and bring in much needed foreign currency, it is slowly strangling that special thing that we were known for.”

Debbie Virting Ashipala, born and raised in Oranjemund, local businesswoman, and general manager of OMD2030, takes a different view. “For many Namibians, Oranjemund was seen as a ‘rich man’s farm.’” And now? “Oranjemund has become warmer, more open, and more willing to share its beauty not just with tourists and visitors, but with anyone who longs to feel at home here,” she says. Ashipala actively chose to stay in Oranjemund and make it her home

In contrast to Alexander, she sees it as one of the safest towns in the country, “authentic, genuine, and deeply personal,” as she tells me. “Since the town opened in 2017… its people are more diverse, new industries are finding their place, and residents like me have been able to buy homes and truly plant roots.”

As the town turns 90 and seeks to add to the 3,000 visitors that have arrived to date, Oranjemund’s unique connection with the region’s desert-dwelling wildlife provides an alternative to safari experiences in big national parks like Kruger.

It’s something proponents of tourism in Oranjemund are keen to promote while also highlighting the town’s other attractions. “If Kruger provides the ‘Big Five,’ Oranjemund provides the ‘Big Three’ says Ipinge. “A special history, matchless natural beauty where desert and ocean meet, and the spirit of a community shaping its own destiny.”

As someone who has waited most of my life to visit, my heart is torn between the delight at being able to watch its lawn-cropping oryx first hand, and a desire to keep Oranjemund’s distinctive identity secret. Tourism will undoubtedly support the town’s efforts to diversify away from its mining heritage, but opening up to the world doesn’t come without risks.

****

Adventure.com strives to be a low-emissions travel publication. We are powered by, but editorially independent of, Intrepid Travel, the world’s largest travel B Corp, who help ensure Adventure.com maintains high standards of sustainability in our work and activities. You can visit our sustainability page or read our Contributor Impact Guidelines for more information.