Namibia: Namibia's founding president has stepped down after 15 years in power, handing over to Hifikepunye Pohamba, who has vowed to speed up land reform in the diamond-rich country.
Mr Sam Nujoma (75), a former guerrilla leader who guided the southern African country to independence from South Africa in 1990, received a standing ovation yesterday from thousands of cheering supporters in Windhoek as he took his leave in a stadium ceremony held in pouring rain.
"I am deeply honoured to have served as the founding president of Namibia," Mr Nujoma said, adding that under his watch the country had evolved into a viable democratic state. "As we enter a new chapter in our history of a new president and new government, the onus is on all Namibian people to work harder than before to ensure a brighter future for our society."
Mr Nujoma is expected to remain a political force in Namibia, however and will stay on as head of Swapo until at least 2007.
Mr Pohamba (69) is a former land affairs minister and long-time Swapo stalwart who is expected to follow his predecessor's lead and maintain policies which have given Namibia's 1.9 million people political and economic stability envied across Africa.
He still has to make his stamp on the country's leadership, but he has indicated that speeding up land reform will be a priority.
"I will uphold the legacy of Sam Nujoma through promoting unity, peace, security, stability and prosperity," he said after receiving Namibia's flag, constitution and national seal from the outgoing president.
Other African leaders, including South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe, were on hand to bid farewell to Mr Nujoma - long a fixture among southern Africa's liberation icons.
Mr Nujoma's retirement has put him among a small but growing band of African leaders who have ceded power to respect their constitutions.
Namibia has emerged as one of southern Africa's success stories and has seen its GDP per capita reach $2,350 by 2003 under Mr Nujoma, who was inaugurated as the country's first president in 1990 and won subsequent elections in 1994 and 1999.
Swapo scored another victory in elections last November, taking three-quarters of the total vote. Opposition parties challenged the polls citing irregularities including long delays in announcing results, but Namibia's High Court last week upheld Swapo's victory as free and fair.
Some analysts expect Mr Pohamba to serve just one term, allowing new blood to be brought into Swapo as the government contends with issues such as the huge disparities in income distribution. In Namibia, as in much of southern Africa, centuries of white domination have left much of the productive agricultural land in the hands of white farmers. This sparked violence in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where Mr Mugabe's government launched a campaign of forcible seizures of white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.
Mr Pohamba has said his government would seek to start expropriating land, albeit with fair compensation for owners. "If we are not doing something about the land question then a revolution will start," he said in his farewell to colleagues at the Land Ministry on Friday.