Namibia’s founding president, Sam Nujoma, dies aged 95

Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma, Namibia’s founding president and leader for 15 years, died in Windhoek on Saturday at the age of 95.

He leaves behind his wife, Kovambo (91), and children.

“It is with the utmost sorrow and sadness that I make the announcement this morning on the 9th of February to the Namibian people, African brothers and sisters, and the world at large about the passing of revered freedom fighter and revolutionary leader, his excellency Dr Sam Nujoma,” Mbumba announced on Sunday morning.

His death comes four days after Namibia commemorated the death of its third president, Hage Geingob, who died on 4 February last year.

Nujoma, a freedom fighter, led Namibia from 1990 to March 2005.

One of his famous quotes was: “A people united, striving to achieve a common good for all the members of the society, will always emerge victorious.”

FREEDOM

Nujoma rose from a modest childhood herding cattle at a village in northern Namibia to leading the country’s struggle for independence.

He is considered the key architect of Namibia’s independence.

In the late 1970s, Nujoma led talks with major Western powers that produced UN Security Council Resolution 435. Passed in September 1978, the resolution set out a plan for free and fair elections in Namibia.

Turning this diplomatic coup into reality took another decade. South Africans dithered, and then United States president Ronald Reagan insisted that Cuba first withdraw from Angola.

Namibia’s independence process got off to a rocky start on 1 April 1989 when Nujoma ordered Plan combatants to cross from Angola into Namibia to report to UN officials. The South African security services gunned them down.

Nujoma returned home to a hero’s welcome on 14 September 1989. His long exile had transformed him into a near-mythical figure.

His 89-year-old mother and the rest of the Swapo leadership greeted him at Windhoek airport.

He immediately hit the campaign trail for UN-supervised elections only two months away.

Swapo won 57% of the vote in that election, and grew only more popular in the next ones.

While Nujoma shaped Namibia’s democracy in its early years, he had no difficulty in retaining cordial relations with brutal dictators such as Suharto of Indonesia and Sani Abacha of Nigeria.

Similarly, Nujoma only had words of solidarity for Robert Mugabe, despite the ruinous effect of his rule on Zimbabwe.

He found it hard to tolerate any disloyalty, dismissing those who crossed him as traitors.

Nujoma’s presidency, especially from the mid-1990s onwards, was marked by angry outbursts during which ‘homosexuals’ and ‘Boers’ were often lambasted.

Nujoma’s approach to politics was pragmatic rather than ideological. While he was at pains to give credit to the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc and Cuba for aiding Swapo during the struggle, he was keen to point out that he was never a Marxist-Leninist and that Swapo was not communist.

A LIBERATION ICON

Former People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) chief of operations Elisa Haulyondjaba says he met Nujoma for the first time in Zambia in 1969.

He says a year later, Nujoma hosted him and other Plan soldiers for dinner in Luanda after a successful battle in Angola.

“At times when he would visit us at Plan’s headquarters, he would demand to accompany us on missions, but we never wanted him to go with us, because he was our overall commander,” he remembers.

“He would call me Mzee,” Haulyondjaba says.

He says Nujoma had a signature word he used when visiting his Plan fighters – ‘tupambane’, which means ‘let’s fight’ in Kiswahili.

Former prime minister and education minister Nahas Angula has reflected on Nujoma’s legacy.

He says the founding president prioritised education, health, agriculture and housing.

“He was committed to education and encouraged young people to remain in school.

“When he was president, we expanded the literacy programme in the country, as well as established the Namibian College of Opening Learning (Namcol),” Angula says.

‘MAN OF ACTION’

Former Swapo think tank member Ben Mulongeni describes Nujoma as a man of action who could speak his mind.

“He did not please people. His leadership style was people oriented,” he says.

Mulongeni says he worked with Nujoma on the Tsumeb-Ondangwa-Oshikango railway line in northern Namibia in the early 2000s.

He says he personally saw Nujoma planting maize and rice at the Etunda irrigation project in the Omusati region and the Kalimbeza rice project in the Zambezi region, respectively.

‘OPEN HOSTILITY’

One of Nujoma’s fiercest critics is NamRights executive director Phil ya Nangoloh. He criticises Nujoma for ruling with open hostility towards his opponents or critics, which, he claims, allowed him to “get away with so many wrongdoings”.

As a result, Ya Nangoloh argues that Nujoma’s legacy has left Namibia reaping the consequences of his actions – both before and after independence.

Ya Nangoloh says corruption in the public service has its roots in Nujoma’s rule. He also attributes the ongoing problems affecting former People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) combatants to Nujoma’s unchallenged leadership style.

Another critic, former Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) president Jeremiah Nambinga, said Nujoma was surrounded by trusted advisers, which he credited with allowing Nujoma to effectively lead the country during challenging times.

However, Nambinga also acknowledges that Nujoma’s leadership was not without its flaws. Specifically, he cited Nujoma’s decision in 2004 to dismiss his foreign affairs minister, Hidipo Hamutenya, in the run-up to the Swapo extraordinary congress. This, Nambinga says, tainted Nujoma’s otherwise good leadership qualities, leading some party members to leave Swapo in disillusionment.

Nambinga also recalls the bitter fallout from Nujoma’s speech at the Swapo electoral college in October 2004, in which he condemned certain individuals, including Nambinga himself and president-elect Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, as “agents of imperialism”.

A LONG LIFE

During his 94th birthday held at his home village in May 2023, Nujoma’s eldest son, Utoni Nujoma, said his father was blessed with a long life and good health.

“Our father taught us discipline, respect for others, our cultural values, as well as the culture of hard work,” Utoni said at the time.

Nujoma’s last public appearance was at the late president Hage Geingob’s memorial and burial last February.

BIOGRAPHY (FROM THE SAM NUJOMA FOUNDATION)

Nujoma was born on 12 May 1929 at Etunda village in the Omusati region.

He was the firstborn child of Daniel Uutoni Nujoma and Helvi Mpingana Kondombolo to a family of 11.

Like all boys of those days, he looked after his parents’ cattle and helped with chores at home, including cultivating land.
Nujoma received his primary education at Okahao Finnish Mission School from 1937 to 1945. In 1946 he moved to Walvis Bay to live with his aunt Gebhart Nandjule.

In 1947, at the age of 17, he secured his first job at a store where he earned 10 shillings per month.

It was at Walvis Bay that he got exposed to modern world politics through meeting soldiers from Argentina, Norway and other parts of Europe who had been brought there during World War II.

At the beginning of 1949, Nujoma went to live in Windhoek with his uncle Hiskia Kondombolo in Windhoek, where he started working for the South African Railways.

During this period, he attended night school for adults at St Barnabas in Windhoek’s Old Location. He obtained his junior certificate through correspondence at the Trans-Africa Correspondence College in South Africa.

On 6 May 1956, Nujoma got married to Kovambo.

Before he went into exile, he worked as a railway worker in 1957. In 1959, he was elected as the leader of the Owambo People’s Organisation (OPO), which was transformed into the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) in 1960. As OPO president, Nujoma petitioned the United Nations (UN) in the late fifties for the country’s independence.

Other petitioners were Ovaherero paramount chief Hosea Kutako, ǀKhowesin leader Samuel Witbooi, Anglican priest Theophilus Hamutumbangela, and Robben Island prisoner Andimba Toivo ya Toivo.

All of them demanded that the then South West Africa be placed under UN trusteeship.

On 10 December 1959, Nujoma, together with Uatja Kaukuetu of South West Africa National Union (Swanu) and Moses Garoëb, who later became Swapo secretary general, organised a protest against the forced removal of Old Location residents to resettle them at the new township of Katutura.

On that day, 12 unarmed people were reportedly killed by the police, while several others were wounded. After this incident, Nujoma was arrested and charged for organising the resistance.

On 1 March 1960, Nujoma went into exile. He went via the then British Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana) with the help of Swanu’s Daniel Munamava.

From Botswana, Nujoma made his way to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Tanganyika (Tanzania), Kenya and Sudan.

In April 1960, he attended a conference organised by Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah opposing the French atom bomb test in the Sahara Desert.

After Ghana, Nujoma went to Liberia and finally reached the United South America.

In June 1960 he petitioned the UN, demanding the end of the South African colonial administration of South West Africa.

In March 1966, Nujoma, accompanied by former president Hifikepunye Pohamba, returned to Windhoek from abroad. They were arrested upon their arrival at the airport and were deported to Zambia that month.

From 1977 to 1978, Nujoma led negotiations between Swapo and the Western Five Contact Group, which culminated in the adoption of the UN Security Council’s Resolution 435 in 1978.

On 16 February 1990, the National Assembly unanimously elected Nujoma as Namibia’s first president. On 21 March 1990, he was sworn in as president.

Nujoma was re-elected for two more terms in 1994 and 1999, respectively.

He stepped down as Namibian president in March 2005.