April 27 1976 – an event exiled in history

APRIL 27 marks a particular, but little remembered, chapter in the history of the ruling Swapo party, which celebrated its 47th anniversary last week.

Thirty years ago, a group of party members launched an international appeal to have more than 1 000 freedom fighters released who were languishing in a concentration camp in Zambia. Although most of them were released months later, a large group was transported to southern Angola where hundreds of them died in the Cassinga attack by the South African military on May 4 1978.The appeal, signed on April 27 1976 by Peter Shitongeni Shakumu, spokesperson of a concerned group of Swapo members living in Kenya at that stage, requested the United Nations to discourage detentions without trial of Namibians outside their home country.He also asked that a fact-finding mission be sent to the prisons.”We appeal to the Red Cross Society to send to Mboroma concentration camp immediate relief in the form of food, clothes and medicine,” the document, which is in the possession of The Namibian, requested.Zambia was home to thousands of exiled Namibians in those years.Many Swapo members had become increasingly frustrated with the Swapo leadership and the fact, that a long overdue congress had not yet materialised.The last Swapo congress had been held over the Christmas period 1969 to 1970 in Tanga, Tanzania, and a resolution passed that the next congress should take place in December 1974.This did not happen.PLAN COMPLAINTS Soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) also complained that they were continuously short of weapons, equipment, food and uniforms.They had sent several letters to the party leadership in Lusaka, demanding an improvement and also that the long-delayed congress should be held to – among others – address these issues.The reaction was that about 1 600 Plan fighters were rounded up by the Zambian military at the request of the Swapo leadership and taken to the Mboroma prison camp near Kabwe in July 1976, where they had to survive under appalling conditions.The then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was requested to “appoint a commission of inquiry to visit both the Swapo offices in Lusaka and the detainees in Mboroma concentration camp …” The appeal was supported by 31 other Namibian exiles, whose names were listed, among them Sakarias Elago, Nestor ya Toivo and Samson Ndeikwila.”We appeal to the governments of Zambia and Tanzania to help advise Swapo top leaders not to build themselves into a clique of dictators which the Namibian people will certainly be suspicious of and reject outright,” the document, which is regarded as authentic, stated.Mboroma was guarded by Zambian troops who “admit readily that they are following orders as laid down by Swapo top leaders in Lusaka”.The appeal document of 1977 stated that Namibians were also kept detained at Mongu in Zambia and the Lusaka central prison, Dodoma and Keko prisons in Tanzania.”We hope that this document will speak to people with a sense of honesty and who sincerely believe that detentions, how cruel and prolonged, are not the answer to resolving conflicts within a political movement; the solution lies in the democratic methods whereby people have to remove those leaders in whom they have less confidence,” the appeal paper stated.It concluded with the demand that a Swapo congress be held.SURVIVOR SPEAKS One of the survivors of Mboroma, Cornelius Motinga, told Pastor Siegfried Groth in his book ‘Namibia – the Wall of Silence’ that “we were in the mountains, fighting with the monkeys for the same food.We were living like animals, not humans.”In the same book, Groth quotes Gabriel Elago, who stated that “we compared our fate with that of the Jews in Germany in the Second World War”.After the April 27 1977 appeal received international news coverage, a few hundred detained Plan fighters were released.About 600 of them declared that they might return to the Swapo fold, if certain demands were met, such as receiving proper weapons and military command implementing better guerrilla warfare tactics.A small group of Swapo leaders was sent to Mboroma a month later to speak to them.On June 16 1977, they sent a report to the Swapo office in Lusaka about the trip.Richard Kapelwa-Kabajani, who later became Youth and Sports Minister, and Hidipo Hamutenya, later Foreign Affairs Minister and sacked by former President Sam Nujoma in May 2004, were part of the group.In the four-page report, which is in the possession of The Namibian, they stated that they put it to the “rebels” that they had to return unconditionally, which they eventually did.Approached to comment on the events of 30 years ago, Hamutenya told The Namibian this week that the meeting had taken place.”Some of them were taken to Nyango in Zambia and others were then brought to Angola,” he said.”The tragedy is that many of those who were brought to Angola died a little while later at the Cassinga camp, when South African forces brutally attacked it.”Despite the historic importance of the Mboroma crisis, even from a historical perspective there is no mention of it in President Sam Nujoma’s autobiography ‘Where Others Wavered’.Although most of them were released months later, a large group was transported to southern Angola where hundreds of them died in the Cassinga attack by the South African military on May 4 1978.The appeal, signed on April 27 1976 by Peter Shitongeni Shakumu, spokesperson of a concerned group of Swapo members living in Kenya at that stage, requested the United Nations to discourage detentions without trial of Namibians outside their home country.He also asked that a fact-finding mission be sent to the prisons.”We appeal to the Red Cross Society to send to Mboroma concentration camp immediate relief in the form of food, clothes and medicine,” the document, which is in the possession of The Namibian, requested.Zambia was home to thousands of exiled Namibians in those years.Many Swapo members had become increasingly frustrated with the Swapo leadership and the fact, that a long overdue congress had not yet materialised.The last Swapo congress had been held over the Christmas period 1969 to 1970 in Tanga, Tanzania, and a resolution passed that the next congress should take place in December 1974.This did not happen. PLAN COMPLAINTS Soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) also complained that they were continuously short of weapons, equipment, food and uniforms.They had sent several letters to the party leadership in Lusaka, demanding an improvement and also that the long-delayed congress should be held to – among others – address these issues.The reaction was that about 1 600 Plan fighters were rounded up by the Zambian military at the request of the Swapo leadership and taken to the Mboroma prison camp near Kabwe in July 1976, where they had to survive under appalling conditions.The then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was requested to “appoint a commission of inquiry to visit both the Swapo offices in Lusaka and the detainees in Mboroma concentration camp …” The appeal was supported by 31 other Namibian exiles, whose names were listed, among them Sakarias Elago, Nestor ya Toivo and Samson Ndeikwila.”We appeal to the governments of Zambia and Tanzania to help advise Swapo top leaders not to build themselves into a clique of dictators which the Namibian people will certainly be suspicious of and reject outright,” the document, which is regarded as authentic, stated.Mboroma was guarded by Zambian troops who “admit readily that they are following orders as laid down by Swapo top leaders in Lusaka”.The appeal document of 1977 stated that Namibians were also kept detained at Mongu in Zambia and the Lusaka central prison, Dodoma and Keko prisons in Tanzania.”We hope that this document will speak to people with a sense of honesty and who sincerely believe that detentions, how cruel and prolonged, are not the answer to resolving conflicts within a political movement; the solution lies in the democratic methods whereby people have to remove those leaders in whom they have less confidence,” the appeal paper stated.It concluded with the demand that a Swapo congress be held.SURVIVOR SPEAKS One of the survivors of Mboroma, Cornelius Motinga, told Pastor Siegfried Groth in his book ‘Namibia – the Wall of Silence’ that “we were in the mountains, fighting with the monkeys for the same food.We were living like animals, not humans.”In the same book, Groth quotes Gabriel Elago, who stated that “we compared our fate with that of the Jews in Germany in the Second World War”.After the April 27 1977 appeal received international news coverage, a few hundred detained Plan fighters were released.About 600 of them declared that they might return to the Swapo fold, if certain demands were met, such as receiving proper weapons and military command implementing better guerrilla warfare tactics.A small group of Swapo leaders was sent to Mboroma a month later to speak to them.On June 16 1977, they sent a report to the Swapo office in Lusaka about the trip.Richard Kapelwa-Kabajani, who later became Youth and Sports Minister, and Hidipo Hamutenya, later Foreign Affairs Minister and sacked by former President Sam Nujoma in May 2004, were part of the group.In the four-page report, which is in the possession of The Namibian, they stated that they put it to the “rebels” that they had to return unconditionally, which they eventually did.Approached to comment on the events of 30 years ago, Hamutenya told The Namibian this week that the meeting had taken place.”Some of them were taken to Nyango in Zambia and others were then brought to Angola,” he said.”The tragedy is that many of those who were brought to Angola died a little while later at the Cassinga camp, when South African forces brutally attacked it.”Despite the historic importance of the Mboroma crisis, even from a historical perspective there is no mention of it in President Sam Nujoma’s autobiography ‘Where Others Wavered’.