Namibia is a large and sparsely populated country on Africa's southwest coast. The low population can be attributed to the country's harsh geography—the coastal Namib Desert, central semiarid mountains, and Kalahari Desert east of the mountains. About 87 percent of the residents are black, and 6 percent are white. During World War I, South Africa captured the area from Germany—ethnic Germans are still a sizable minority. Independence from South Africa was achieved in 1990. The multiparty, multiracial democracy inherits an economy based on mining (mostly diamonds), sheep and cattle ranching, and fishing.