  Astronomy plays a major role in the scientific landscape of Namibia and
Southern Africa. Considerable progress has been achieved scientifically as well
as in terms of human capacity development in the field. In all wavelength
regimes accessible with ground-based instruments, the largest of those
instruments are situated in Southern Africa: MeerKAT, the Southern African
Large Telescope, and the High Energy Stereoscopic System. Because of the
excellent observing conditions from Namibian soil, further large-scale projects
such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array considered sites in Namibia and the
Africa Millimetre Telescope will eventually be built there. Against this
background, the current situation of astronomical research and education in
Namibia is reviewed, focusing on optical, radio and gamma-ray astronomy and
also including smaller scale projects. Further, the role of astronomy, with
particular focus on developmental aspects in the African context is outlined
and the progress in human capacity development is summarized.
