Ya Toivo remembered on his would-be 100th birthday

An organisation aiming to teach the youth about Namibian struggle icon Andimba Toivo ya Toivo will start operating next year.

Ya Toivo, who died on 9 June 2017, would have marked his 100th birthday today – four days just before the country commemorates Heroes Day.
The Andimba Toivo ya Toivo Foundation hopes to start educating the younger generation on his legacy and the role he played in Namibia’s independence.

“We have registered a foundation in his name. The foundation is going to be brought into operation early next year and will focus on promoting the values Andimba represented,” the struggle icon’s widow, Vicki ya Toivo, said yesterday.

“He dedicated his life to his people. He never saw himself as being above anyone. He could relate to almost anybody,” she said.

Ya Toivo said he will be remembered as someone who believed in the potential of young people to take the country forward.

She said her late husband, who organised the Ovamboland People’s Congress in Cape Town to petition for Namibia’s independence and mineral wealth being taken away from the people, also fought for women to work alongside their husbands in working zones.

Toivo ya Toivo helped those who went into exile and recruited members to join the South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) on a bicycle.

The Ya Toivo family has planned an event at Heroes’ Acre today to commemorate the icon’s 100th birthday and reflect on his legacy.

Minister of home affairs, immigration, safety and security Albert Kawana yesterday said Toivo ya Toivo, along with Hendrik Witbooi and Samuel Maharero, were one of the heroes of Namibia who inspired people to take up arms to free Namibia from the bondage of apartheid and colonialism.

“We were inspired to the point that some of us during the 70s decided to join our brothers and sisters who went into exile to fight for this country,” he said.

Kawana said after independence, Toivo ya Toivo continued to preach national unity.

Former Namibian Broadcasting Corporation director general Ben Mulongeni said he considers himself fortunate to have met the struggle icon in person as a young freedom fighter and student while in exile at Sofia University in Bulgaria in the 1980s.

Toivo ya Toivo was leading a delegation to attend a United Nations symposium on Namibia in Bulgaria to discuss the issue of Namibian independence.

Mulongeni said Toivo ya Toivo was an inspiration for many young freedom fighters.

“I must have been one of the first young freedom fighters to have met him in person. Immediately or shortly after he was released from Robben Island,” he said.

“I went there to attend as a journalist, but as we met, I saw the legend is free and his freedom from jail was also kind of a good omen.”