The only blot on its reputation for tolerance is its government's policy of forcing the once nomadic Bushmen, a tiny minority now known as the San, from the Kalahari desert to settle in villages.
The tool is particularly effective when employed by skilled traditional hunters, such as San bushmen in Botswana, some of whom were the first to use it.
Namibia itself is an uneasy mixture of Africa and Europe, where the 1.5 million sons and daughters of Bushmen, Germans and Brits, try to live side by side.
Studies of Kalahari Bushmen and other nomadic groups show that hunter-gatherers, even in the most inhospitable landscapes, typically spend less than twenty hours a week obtaining food.