TEXTILE AND CLOTHING INDUSTRY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Africa’s Clothing and Textile Industry: The Case of Ramatex in Namibia By Herbert Jauch Namibia attained its independence in 1990, when the former liberation movement, the South West Africa People‘s Organisation of Namibia(SWAPO) became the rul­ing party. SWAPO enjoyed the overwhelming support of Namibian workers, par­ticularly those organised under the umbrella of the country‘s largest trade union federation, the National Union of Namibian Workers(NUNW). The NUNW is still affiliated to the ruling party, hoping that this would help the labour movement to influence policies in favour of its constituency. 1. The Economy and Employment Namibia‘s population of 1.9 million people is relatively young. More than half of the population is less than 20 years of age and more than 40% are less than 15 years old. In 2001, only 33% of the population lived in urban areas compared to a rural population of 67%. These figures are changing steadily due to increasing urbanisation that has taken place since independence. In 2000, 888,009 Namibians were 15 years or older and the Labour Force Survey classified 541,447 people as economically active and 346,157 people as economically inactive. The bulk of those classified as economically inactive were students(52.3%), followed by ‚home-makers‘(20.8%), retired and old people (18.4%) and those affected by illness and disability(6.9%). The number of econom­ically inactive women(211,718) was significantly higher than the number of men (134,439). The agricultural sector was the largest sector in terms of employment in Namibia, accounting for 123,297(or 28.6%) jobs. It is, however, important to point out that this figure included about 78,000 communal/subsistence farmers, 1,623 commercial agricultural employers and 4,354 ‚own account‘ self-employed agricultural workers. There were 26,480 farm workers on private farms and 2,730 workers on public farms. Agriculture accounted for 53% of rural employment. Other important sectors in terms of employment were community, social and personal services with 47,517 jobs(11.0%);‘real estate, renting and business 212 FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG