In the Otjiwarongo region (Northern Namibia), Vertisol-Kastanozem-Calcisol soil associations occur as patches of several hundred hectares in extent. They have formed in fine-grained Mid-Holocene sediments which accumulated on both sides of the subcontinental watershed between the Ugab River draining into the South Atlantic and the Omatako Omuramba draining into the Kalahari Basin. Kastanozem formation cannot be explained by the environments that exist at present. The humification suggests open savanna environments in the past and does not accord with the shrublands and thornbush savanna at present. Keywords: kastanozems, Namibia, soil erosion, environmental change, holocene.