History of the National Archives of Namibia

The National Archives of Namibia then called the "South West Africa Archives Depot" was established in 1939 under the South African colonial rule in the building of the Administration for South West Africa (today's Parliament Building, or colloquially the "Tintenpalast").

The National Archives of Namibia moved to its current accommodation in the year 2000 housing pre-colonial, German colonial, records of the South African administration as well as those created under post-colonial times.

NAN is a division within the NLAS (National Library & Archives service) directorate under the Ministry of Education, Arts & culture regulated by the Archives act 12 of 1992 to provide for the custody, care and control over archives in Namibia including records in their current and semi current state.

NAN houses 9000 linear metres of records in total. It’s database catalogues over 525,000 items which include electronic records, photos, posters, audiovisual media, sound recordings (mostly oral history),maps and plans, microfilms including published material (Books, Articles, Biographies).