Ester Mbathera
The 9th of February signalled the end of an era of African liberation giants.
Oliver Tambo, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Mwalimu Nyerere, Robert Mugabe, Samora Machel, Nelson Mandela, and Sam Nujoma have all passed.
Political analyst Henning Melber, in an interview with South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Sunday, described Nujoma as the personification of Namibian independence.
“Sam Nujoma is an iconic, legendary figure when it comes to the liberation of Namibia. He personified like nobody else the struggle for independence. He was the founding president of Swapo. He was president for almost 50 years. He was a lasting influential figure until a few years ago when his health deteriorated, and he kind of stepped back from the public limelight,” said Melber.
Nujoma was the only president to serve three terms in office.
He was appointed president at independence by the Constituent Assembly, and later, the National Assembly amended the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term.
According to Melber, Nujoma is largely considered a unifier who managed to guide Namibia towards national reconciliation despite the deep scars left by settler colonialism.
“Sam Nujoma was very keen to not enforce the divisions but to find a way to bring together the Namibian people. He managed to do so. Namibia has, since independence, not had a single politically motivated killing. Keep that in mind and compare it with your own country (South Africa). The whites have not left the country. They are, in their majority, better off now than they were prior to independence. They remain the most privileged single particular group,” he said.
Among the many tributes pouring in from across the continent, former South African President Thabo Mbeki reflected on Nujoma’s enduring relationship with the African National Congress (ANC).
In an interview with SABC on Monday, Mbeki described Nujoma as more than just a leader of Swapo, but a leader in the broader anti-apartheid and decolonisation struggle.
“I’m saying that President Nujoma was to us one of our leaders. Not a leader of Swapo but a leader of our own struggle. That’s the connection between the two organisations because we both had one oppressor, which was the apartheid regime. Therefore, this common struggle for liberation was a common struggle to defeat the same enemy and therefore the two organisations worked very well together in that context,” said Mbeki.
The apartheid regime, a common enemy, forged the historical ties between the ANC and Swapo.
Both liberation movements faced brutal repression from the apartheid South African government, which occupied Namibia under a League of Nations mandate that extended its policies into the territory.
According to Mbeki, the ANC and Swapo recognised that their fates were intertwined and worked together to dismantle the system of racial oppression.
Mbeki recalled that even in exile, ANC and Swapo representatives operated as a single force.
He cited their time in Nigeria, where both organisations shared offices, produced joint publications, and strategised together despite formally being separate entities.
“We both published journals but with one editor. I led the group publicly. We spoke as two different organisations but functioned as one. Even when President Nujoma came to visit Nigeria, we told him that we reported that we were functioning as one office. He was actually not very happy with our report in this sense. ‘He said, but why do you think it is necessary for you people to report that because that’s exactly how you’re supposed to work?” said Mbeki.
One of the defining moments of Nujoma’s post-independence leadership was, according to Mbeki, Namibia’s role in securing regional stability.
In 1998, when war broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Namibia, along with Zimbabwe and Angola, intervened to defend the DRC’s sovereignty.
Mbeki said the intervention aligned with the principles of regional solidarity established during the liberation struggle, where countries that had fought for their own independence saw it as their duty to support others in distress.
Mbeki recalled that while Nujoma was not a traditional diplomat, his directness was never meant to offend but to assert the truth.
“He was indeed a straight talker. He was never a diplomat, but it was never intended to offend people. It was not unnecessary. Aggressiveness. It was the need to state clearly what the correct positions were and he had that capacity to do that,“ he said.
Mbeki credited the strong relationship between the ANC and SWAPO, especially the way the two governments handled the transfer of Walvis Bay from South African control to Namibia in 1994 without dispute.
The Cuban government has declared an official and national mourning following the passing of Nujoma. The official mourning began at 06:00 on 10 February and will last until midnight on 11 February.
A period of national mourning will ensue, lasting until 12 February.
During this time, the Cuban flag will be flown at half-mast on all public buildings and military institutions as a mark of respect.
Additionally, all public celebrations and entertainment events will be suspended throughout the mourning period.
