Honouring Namibia’s Founding Father

We received the message that our Founding Father, Dr Sam Nujoma, passed on at the age of 95. The 9th of February is also the day that the constitution was adopted 35 years ago. I first heard the name Sam Nujoma in my early school days.

It was a name that I would hear more frequently as the decades passed and one which would feature prominently when Namibia gained its independence in 1990 and Dr Sam Nujoma stepped in to lead the country into a new era. My first memories of hearing the name ‘Sam Nujoma’ were from my childhood days when at lunchtimes my family would sit around the kitchen table and switch on the radio.

It was the end of the 60s with eastern and western world powers at loggerheads. When at 1pm the news aired, the adults listened attentively and the conversation afterwards often turned to the plight of the world and especially that of South West Africa.

One of the stories I remember from that time was when I was six years old and Dr Sam Nujoma, as head of SWAPO (the South West African People’s Organisation) opposing South African rule, returned to the country from Zambia in a small aircraft and was promptly deported. It baffled a small boy’s brain, but things grew clearer as I got older. Little did I know then that he would play such a huge role in Namibia’s history and that our paths would cross on several occasions later in life.

My first encounter was at the build-up to the 1990 independence celebrations when Dr Nujoma returned from exile. I was a teacher at Concordia College in Windhoek and was given a media card by my friend and mentor Daniel Tjongarero, independence advocate and parliamentarian, to document the event. When parliament met for the first time, I was again on the scene with my treasured media card.

Dr Nujoma was the last of the elected parliamentarians to arrive and fortuitously took a seat right next to where I was standing. For a moment we made our eye contact before his attention was diverted to the proceedings. I was able to take a photograph, which I still have from that momentous time.

I had another opportunity at Windhoek’s international airport when he was receiving dignitaries from other African countries, among them Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda, to take some more momentous photographs – and to play the part, if not briefly, of a budding photojournalist. But, Dr Nujoma would only really make a huge impact on my life in the late 90s when he visited Canyon Lodge, Gondwana Collection Namibia’s first lodge on the eastern side of the Fish River Canyon.

I had met him and his entourage in the state park when I had been out to collect two new pigs for our self-sufficiency centre with Alain Noirfalise, Gondwana’s Operations Director. Recognising that it was the Founding Father, we stopped our vehicle and greeted him. Being a perfect gentleman, he didn’t comment on our pigsoiled clothes and grimy handshakes.

We invited him to visit Canyon Lodge, and two days later, much to the excitement of the staff and management, he visited the lodge. He received a warm welcome from the team and impressed with what he saw, called me aside to ask what our secret was, how we managed to have a team comprised of diverse ethnic groups working harmoniously together.

A few weeks passed and our new pigs were contently consuming leftovers from the kitchen, when I received a personal thank you, congratulating us on our diverse staff complement, something he saw as a crucial aspect of the new Namibia. I acknowledged the truth in his praise and how our diversity makes us stronger.

This is still an important truism, ethos and guideline at Gondwana Collection Namibia, which we value immensely. It was a defining moment in the history of the company.

When we returned to Windhoek Alain and I, and our wives, received a formal invitation for lunch at the state house as Dr Nujoma extended his hand in generosity and friendship.

Besides the hospitality, of the occasion, I remember the unexpected four courses of chicken. Dr Nujoma’s legacy and the many steps forward that he took for and with the fledgeling country, one of the ones that I admire the most is the positive impact he had advancing the rights of women and demanding equal representation in parliament. I take off my hat to him, in respect and gratitude. We met again when Gondwana Collection Namibia received the ‘Investor of the year’ award in 2002, and Dr Nujoma presented the trophy.

The last time I met up with a then retired and elderly Dr Nujoma was when I visited him at his homestead on the outskirts of Okahao several years ago with my friend Professor Kerina, who had spent years at the UN petitioning for an independent country.

Besides their contributions to Namibia, the two men had known each other from early days when they played soccer together as children. We sat in the shade at his home, sipped on colddrinks as the two old men reminisced about the past. We extend heartfelt condolences to his family. Namibia will feel the magnitude of his loss and will remember the large part he played in its history. The merit of ‘Diversity makes us stronger’ will remain with us forever