Pleistocene palaeo-upwelling characteristics of the shelf north-west of Luderitz are investigated by analysing the ostracod faunas, sediment textures and mineralogy of three large-volume gravity cores. Q-mode factor analyses using previously published transfer functions allow predictions for benthic environmental parameters. During the Late Pleistocene the area experienced less-intense upwelling and lower primary productivity than at present, in an environment equated with a modified Peninsula cell (B6): B7 cell (9.6°C, 34.73‰, 3.2 ml/l, 3.9%), Neocaudites lordi, Ambostracon (A.) keeleri, Bairdoppilata simplex, Paracypris lacrimata, Parakrithella simpsoni, Xestoleberis hartmanni, Ruggieria cytheropteroides and Pseudokeijella lepralioides. In Middle and Early Pleistocene/Late Pliocene times, the core sites lay closer inshore, adjacent to evaporite (halite) and authigenic (phosphorite)-rich lagoons, with a high-intensity upwelling Walvis-like cell (B1) to the north-west, and a low-intensity upwelling cell (B7) to the south.