Revered as “father of the nation” and the icon of Namibia’s liberation struggle, Sam Nujoma lived up to these expectations in more ways than one.
His warm, broad smile and easy-going manner made him likable and accessible.
Whether donning a tracksuit to join a fun-run along Windhoek’s Independence Avenue, or insisting his driver hang back from official motorcades, he aimed to be a man of the people.
Now, four decades after leading Namibia through a bitter guerrilla war against South Africa’s racist apartheid government and on to independence, Nujoma has died aged95.
He died on Saturday after being in hospital for three weeks due to “ill health”, President Nangolo Mbumba announced in a statement, adding that the death had “shaken” the country.
Fighting for freedom
The giant who shaped Namibia’s national identity leaves a void few can hope to fill.
Namibia, previously called South West Africa, suffered decades of looting and colonial violence at the hands of Europeans who had flocked to the country around the turn of the 20th Century.
Starting in 1904, German colonisers killed tens of thousands of Namibians in what has been dubbed the world’s “forgotten genocide”. German officers used black Africans as guinea pigs for horrific crimes later repeated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Namibia was under German occupation from 1884 until 1915, when Germany lost its colony in World War One.
Namibia then fell under the rule of white South Africa, which extended its racist laws to the country, denying black Namibians any political rights, as well as restricting social and economic freedoms.
The introduction of sweeping apartheid legislation led to a guerrilla war of independence breaking out in 1966.
By this stage, Nujoma was already involved in the fight against white-minority rule.
The self-confessed “elder son of a peasant family” from the northern village of Etunda had a modest start in life, with little more than a primary school education.
Married to Kovambo Theopoldine Katjimune with whom he had four children, and working on a railway, he held a deep passion for politics and yearned to see his people free from the injustice and indignity of colonialism.
Inspiration came in the stories of early Namibian resistance leaders, such as Hendrik Witbooi, who fought against the Germans in the 1880s.
By 1959, Nujoma had become the head of the Owamboland Peoples organisation, the independence movement that was a forerunner to Swapo.
A year later, aged 30, Nujoma was forced into exile. With no passport, he used his cunning to adopt different personas and blagged his way onto trains and planes – ending up in Zambia and Tanzania before heading to West Africa.
With the help of Liberian authorities who were early backers of black Namibians’ push for independence, Nujoma flew to New York and petitioned the UN to help grant Namibia its independence – but South Africa refused.
Nujoma was branded a “Marxist terrorist” by South Africa’s white leaders for leading forces that fought alongside the anti-apartheid movement, posing a formidable challenge to the oppressive regimes in several southern African countries.
With support from Cuban troops who were fighting in neighbouring Angola, Swapo guerrillas were able to attack South African bases in Namibia.
Returning from exile, Nujoma was swiftly rearrested by the South African authorities and deported to Zambia six years later.
“We knew that only military force and mass political mobilisation backed by the support of the people would force South Africa out of Namibia,” Nujoma narrated in his autobiography Where Others Wavered, which was published in 2001.
He led Swapo forces from exile, before returning to the country in 1989, a year after South Africa had agreed to Namibian independence.
South Africa was becoming more isolated internationally and the cost of military intervention was increasing. Namibia finally gained independence in 1990 after almost 25 years of warfare.
Building a nation
In Namibia’s first democratic elections in 1990, Swapo won a huge majority and Nujoma became the country’s first president.
Nujoma was especially concerned with the plight of children, introducing maintenance payments obliging absent fathers to contribute to the cost of raising their offspring.
He also championed the advancement of women, helping to change traditional patriarchal practices that forced widows out of the family home once their husband died.
He also appeared keen to preserve stability to ensure development efforts were supported by international donors.
Nujoma was re-elected for two more terms in 1994 and 1999 – when he was criticised for having the constitution changed so that he could stand for a third term in office.
When criticised for his style of government or questioned about his party’s political past, the wide smile could turn sour. Pointing a finger at whoever dared openly question or criticise, he would sometimes lose his countenance and hurl insults.
He openly abhorred same-sex relationships, but never went as far as changing the constitution or the law to make them illegal.
Nujoma always valued his close friendship with Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, yet as Namibia’s president he mostly steered clear of open aggression against those who did not agree with him.
However through the Swapo machinery, he would quite happily exert pressure on the common man to tow the party line and allow the party to delve into government coffers to ensure continued rule.
Nujoma’s cabinet was often dictated to rather than reaching decisions by joint debate, such was his power.
When he stepped down as president in 2005 and as Swapo president in 2007 after serving as the party leader for 47 years – he handed power to his successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba.
Even after leaving office, Nujoma still wielded considerable power over the party and government from behind the scenes.
Yet his achievements while in office are undeniable, with many Namibians praising him for leading the country’s smooth transition to democratic rule.
Since independence, Namibia has been seen as one of Africa’s success stories, with regular peaceful and democratic elections.
And, despite the humiliations and injustices heaped upon black Namibians by white colonisers, Nujoma upheld the country’s constitution in safeguarding the basic rights of all Namibians whatever their race or colour.
The policy of national reconciliation encouraged the country’s white community to remain, and they still play a major role in farming and other economic sectors.
Nujoma’s ability to unify a nation of three million people – across 10 ethnic and linguistic communities – won him many admirers.
In recognition of his towering achievement, the Namibian parliament granted him the official status of “Founding Father of Namibia” in 2005. Numerous international honours included the Lenin Peace Prize, the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize and the Ho Chi Minh Peace Prize.
In his latter years, Nujoma disappeared from the limelight, preferring instead to spend time with his large family.
He is remembered for his easy charm and unwavering conviction – father not just to a family but a whole nation.
(BBC)
