Damaraland refers to the north-central region of South West Africa, now known as Namibia, which was home to the Damara people. It was approximately bordered by Ovamboland to the north, the Namib Desert to the west, the Kalahari Desert to the east, and the Windhoek area to the south. In the 1970s, the termamaraland was adopted for a Bantustan, designed by the apartheid government as a self-governing homeland for the Damara community, located on the western edge of the historical Damaraland from the 19th century. After the Turnhalle Constitutional Conference, the Bantustan was replaced in 1980 with Representative Authorities, which were based solely on ethnicity rather than geographic areas. The Representative of the Damaras had both executive and legislative powers, consisting of elected Legislative Assemblies that appointed Executive Committees led by chairpersons. Damaraland, along other homelands in South West Africa, was dissolved in 1989 during the transition to independence. The name Damaraland existed before South African control of Namibia and was noted in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition as "the central portion of German South West Africa."