HER uncle, Dr Kenneth Godfrey Abrahams (80), “was always the calm in the storm”, Esi Schimming-Chase said at the liberation icon’s memorial service at Windhoek’s Gateway Centre on Saturday.
Apart from keeping his composure during challenging times, the renowned medical practitioner was also “an extraordinarily witty man. Uncle Kenny took irony to a whole new level,” she said during a moving tribute.
She explained that he was the confidante of all his nieces and nephews “even when it came to boyfriends”, and would always encourage them to be who they truly are, also as young children in the presence of adults. “We were told to speak up, to be ourselves, to be an intellectual powerhouse.”
It was difficult to be treated by a doctor other than their uncle, because he always took great care in explaining to them what was wrong with them to the point where they became well-versed in medical terms, she said.
During his tribute, Dr Shaun Whittaker, a local clinical psychologist, said Abrahams, “who had been influenced by the ideas of non-collaboration of the unity movement, was not only a leader of the Cape Peninsula Students’ Union, but was also part of the formation of OPO (Ovamboland People’s Organisation (Swapo’s predecessor), the drafting of the Swapo constitution, and ultimately played a significant role in changing Swapo into a guerrilla movement. Throughout his life, he refused to collaborate with the ruling elite, and remained committed to the principle of internationalism, as witnessed by him joining up with Namibian migrant workers in Cape Town in the 1950s, or later being the people’s doctor in Lusaka, where he treated fighters from various national liberation movements in southern Africa.”
Whittaker said the political life of Abrahams certainly was not in vain. “In fact, on the contrary, he had made a remarkable contribution to the national liberation of Namibia and the advancement of left-wing ideas in the country.”
According to Dr Yvette Abrahams, “it’s strange to share your parents with the struggle. You don’t have parents, you have activists”.
She said her father taught them that there was no such thing as race other than the human race. “I never heard the word ‘coloured’ until I was 21,” she remembered.
Abrahams said her late father treated 30% of his patients for free, whilst also giving away another 30% of his income. “And he brought us up well with the other third of his income.”
When Dr Kenny, as he was affectionaly known, was diagnosed with renal failure in October 2014, he decided against dialysis because of the negative impact it would have on his quality of life. He was told that he would live for only three months, Yvette Abrahams said. “So, we had an extra three years more [with him] than expected.”
After his family took him home from hospital last week, he died peacefully within hours of arriving home.
“He took his last two sips of Coke and stopped breathing.”
According to fellow liberation struggle icon and his life partner of more than five decades, Otillie Abrahams, she “can’t think of a more wonderful man to have spent my life with. I could not have had a happier life”.
Dr Kenneth Abrahams is survived by his wife, four children, seven grandchildren, seven brothers and sisters and extended family.
