By Summary
- Nujoma was Namibia’s first democratically elected president.
- Presidency says Namibia’s foundations “have been shaken”.
- Nujoma leaves behind complex legacy.
WINDHOEK, Namibia, Feb 9 (AfrikTimes) – Sam Nujoma, the activist and guerrilla leader who became Namibia’s first democratically elected president after leading the country to independence from apartheid South Africa, passed away at the age of 95 on Saturday, the Namibian Presidency said on Sunday.
Nujoma rose to head the thinly populated southern African country on March 21, 1990, and was later formally recognized as the “Founding Father of the Namibian Nation” through a 2005 act of parliament. While widely celebrated for his role in the liberation struggle, his legacy was also marked by criticism over his intolerance toward critical media, opposition to homosexuality, and the controversial 1998 constitutional amendment that allowed him to seek a third term.
A close ally of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, Nujoma supported Mugabe’s land seizures from white farmers. However, in Namibia, he adhered to a “willing buyer, willing seller” land redistribution policy.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma arrives at the airport in Abuja, Nigeria, January 29, 2005. African Union leaders are in Nigeria for the African Union summit.
“The foundations of the Republic of Namibia have been shaken,” the presidency stated in a post on X.
“Our venerable leader, Dr. Nujoma did not only blaze the trail to freedom – but he also inspired us to rise to our feet and to become masters of this vast land of our ancestors.”
According to the presidency, Nujoma had been hospitalized for medical treatment over the past three weeks. “Unfortunately, this time, the most gallant son of our land could not recover from his illness,” the statement added.
Namibia’s new president, Nangolo Mbumba, accompanied by Founding President His Excellency Sam Nujoma and his wife, Madam Kovambo Nujoma, visited former First Lady Madam Monica Geingos to offer condolences on the passing of the late Statesman, former President of Namibia, His Excellency Dr. Hage Geingob, at the Geingobs’ residence in Windhoek. Geingob passed away on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
A COMPLEX LEGACY
Nujoma served his three terms as president from 1990 to 2005 and sought to project himself as a unifying leader bridging political divides. In a country scarred by the legacy of apartheid and German colonial rule, Nujoma’s SWAPO party oversaw a national reconciliation program under the motto “One Namibia, One Nation”.
Throughout his presidency, he often repeated the phrase: “A united people, striving to achieve a common good for all members of society, will always emerge victorious.” His leadership was instrumental in establishing democratic institutions and fostering reconciliation, said Ndumba Kamwanyah, a political analyst and lecturer at the University of Namibia.
However, Nujoma’s presidency was not without controversy. His authoritarian tendencies, particularly his stance on press freedom and the harsh suppression of the 1999 Caprivi rebellion, clouded his legacy, Kamwanyah added.
“While Nujoma played a crucial role in shaping Namibia’s independence and governance, his leadership was not without flaws,” Kamwanyah said.
The Namibian Founding and First President, Sam Nujoma, shakes hands with his successor, the Second President of Namibia, former President Hifikepunye Pohamba, at the memorial service for the late Third Namibian President, Hage Geingob.
CAMPAIGNER AND GUERRILLA
Nujoma was born in a village in northwestern Namibia in 1929, when the country was under South African administration. South Africa had controlled Namibia since World War I, following a brutal few decades of German colonial rule, which is remembered for the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples.”
As a boy, he looked after his family’s cattle and attended a Finnish mission school before moving to the coastal town of Walvis Bay and then to the capital, Windhoek, where he worked for South African Railways, according to a biography posted on the website of Nujoma’s charitable foundation. His time in the capital fueled his commitment to dismantling apartheid.
Nujoma left his job on the railways to focus his energies on bringing down the apartheid system. In the late 1950s, he became leader of the Owambo People’s Organization, a precursor to the liberation movement SWAPO, organizing resistance to the forced relocation of Black people in Windhoek, which culminated in the police killing 12 unarmed people and wounding dozens more.
Sam Nujoma, Namibian independence leader (left), with Fidel Castro in an undated image. Photo by Ricardo Lopez Hevia, courtesy of Granma.
Nujoma was charged with organizing the resistance and arrested. In 1960, he went into exile. He travelled across Africa before reaching the United States, where he petitioned the United Nations for Namibia’s independence.
Made SWAPO leader in absentia, Nujoma established its armed wing and, in 1966, launched a guerrilla war against the apartheid government. It took more than a decade of pressure from Nujoma and others before a U.N. Security Council resolution in 1978 proposed a ceasefire and elections, and another decade for the ceasefire deal to be signed and elections to be held in late 1989.
With SWAPO securing a majority, Nujoma assumed office as Namibia’s first president in March 1990, marking the country’s long-awaited independence.
Namibia’s founding leader, Sam Nujoma, died at the age of 95.
