Hidipo Hamutenya – a tranquil force

• ALFREDO TJIURIMO HENGARION SATURDAY 15 October 2016, the remains of one of Namibia’s most brilliant warriors Hidipo Hamutenya, affectionately known as HH, were interred at one of the capital city’s most iconic sites, the Heroes Acre.

Different narratives, moving and powerful, have been pronounced in honour of a man, small in frame, but a talisman in deeds.

They all reveal what the French writer Andre Malraux wrote in ‘La creation Artistique’ – ‘pour l’essentiel, l’homme est ce qu’il cache’ (for the best part, man is what he conceals). For this reason, I can only count three partially revealing encounters with HH, whose most enduring legacy is the manner in which he galvanised two generations – an exile and a post-freedom generation.

For some of us after-freedom students of political science in the 1990s at the University of Namibia, only a handful of politicians ignited consistent, but intense intellectual scrutiny.

The late student leader Colin Kamehozu, Ben Uugwanga, James Punny Mathelemusa and myself would dedicate unhealthy hours discussing obsessively what the destiny of this country had to look like in as far as presidential politics were concerned.

To my chagrin, my South African friend, Punny (though on my side) would often ask clarifying questions without taking this or that side in those passionate moments.

The conversations, oftentimes in Ben or Punny’s well-resourced room, or somewhere on campus in between lectures, would focus on the Great 3 – Hage Geingob, Hidipo Hamutenya and Nahas Angula. The G3 would at times morph into a G3 plus 1, with Namibia’s well-read diplomat Theo-Ben Gurirab entering the fray as a potential future president.

Notwithstanding Gurirab’s finesse on the diplomatic front, his absence from the ugliness of domestic policy made him anecdotal.

Kamehozu and Uugwanga as student leaders would discuss HH and Nahas Angula on the basis of their lived interactions, specifically with Nahas Angula, whose intelligence they respected greatly.

Even though I admired these men immensely, I had the disadvantage of having never met these freedom fighters who studied at some of the leading universities of the world: McGill (HH), Columbia (Nahas) and The New School for Social Research (Hage).

Still, based on their presence in the arena, I was particularly charmed by the idea of a Hage presidency and its transformational potential for our democracy. My reasons for Hage were substantive (an educated freedom fighter with proven executive ability), in as much as they were superficial (debonair and effervescent). The latter were never deployed in these revolutionary political conversations with the sartorially challenged, but erudite Kamehozu.

I took my defence of ‘the idea of Hage and not Hidipo’ a step further when in the spring of 1997, I penned an opinion piece in the pages of The Namibian, agitating malevolently why the Founding President Sam Nujoma had to be succeeded by Hage Geingob.

Without doubt, that searing piece altered my innocent life as a 22-year-old teacher at A. Shipena Secondary School in Katutura.

It was my first public encounter with HH, a man defined by many as tactful and strategic. Giving credence to his qualities as strategic, Hidipo’s men and women rebutted with equal venom, if not more, what I had written. It left me naively bewildered as to why I had thrown myself under the bus.

My second encounter with HH was in 2002 in Gobabis after I had been freshly minted as the senior special assistant to the Prime Minister. My discomfort with meeting HH was total since I was firmly invested in the inevitable factional politics of succession. But HH reassuringly and genially asked about my studies and return from Stellenbosch University, including my general well-being.

Our exchange was brief, but fatherly, scary and disarming, as if to reveal his enduring qualities – self-effacing, tactical and strategic.

That episode, in addition to my observations of Hage’s interactions with HH whenever the two met, changed my outlook of HH. Yes, political competition defined the relationship.

They both wanted the summit of politics, and only one of them could win the prize. But I also observed mutual admiration, and a deep sense of a shared historical trajectory.

Whenever I met Norah Appolus and Kela Hamutenya on my occasional returns home from Paris, I would always ask how HH was doing. Norah would inform that HH would appreciate a visit from me, and I immediately agreed.

I then met HH for the third time at his home in 2010 or 2011 (if I recall correctly), which also served as his office as president of the RDP. I sat with HH for a two-hour long conversation.

As if 2004 marked the end of history, we spoke less about adversarial politics or the RDP, but more about the general state of our nation.

That encounter revealed disappointingly less about his legendary ready sword for the gritty, dangerous, brawn-infused world of politics.

Still, the nostalgia of the party he had left and dedicated the best years of his life to was palpable.

I could sense the hesitation in HH about the RDP. This reminded me of the contrasting destiny of his comrade, who during one of the most trying hours in his political career determinedly said to me in the cacophony of August 2002: ‘I will die in Swapo’.

HH was a crafty drafter and strategist, but never a talented raconteur. He appeared hermetic and one-dimensional.

Yet, he was this tranquil force spanning two generations, able to mobilise many around him. It is because he was a clever and subtle subterranean politician who annoyingly spoke thriftily, but willingly accepted the urban legend and fiction about his hand being everywhere in the plot for power. It was all part of his vintage charm and mystery. From where I sat, his strengths were also his major weaknesses!

Oddly, the autobiography by Founding President Sam Nujoma ‘Where others Wavered’, provides pointers about the unwavering role of HH, and his father Aaron Hamutenya in the crafting of our liberation struggle. Still, later generations and historians should winnow and excavate details about the life and times of our valiant warrior Hidipo Hamutenya.

Rest in Peace tranquil force HH.

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