The main aim of this study was to analyse fertility change in Ovamboland (North-Central
Namibia) (1927–2010) and the Kavango region (North-East Namibia) (1935–1979)
in Northern Namibia. According to the results, the fertility change was quite similar in
both areas: fertility declined during the 1950s compared to the preceding period,
1935–1949. We can assume that the main reason for this early fertility decline was
changes in the number of migrant workers (out-migration), which caused changes in
both the marriage age and birth intervals. In both Ovamboland and in the Kavango
region, fertility increased from the late 1950s into the early 1960s and the fertility transition
started at the end of the 1970s. In both areas, the increase in fertility during the
late 1950s and early 1960s was probably due to the improved health situation. Fertility
transition started at the end of the 1970s, but mortality had already started to decline
before that. The main causes of this declining fertility at the end of the 1970s and during
the 1980s were improved access to modern methods of contraception and probably also
the increased level of education. As a result of the HIV epidemic, mortality increased
in Ovamboland at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s. The declining fertility in the
same period was probably linked to this increased mortality due to AIDS, while the increased
fertility after 2008 is, in turn, probably linked to management of the HIV epidemic.