Kerina: A family man full of Namibian stories

The late Mburumba Kerina was a man who prioritised his family, inspiring the young ones to get educated and to respect their elders.

So say two of his nieces, who share fond memories of the man who gave the country the name ‘Namibia’.

Kerina is widely known as one of the first black petitioners to the United Nations and as an author, liberation hero and politician.

He was the son of Johannes Shivute Kambandi from the village Uukwandongo near Okahao, whose totem was an African elephant.

The late politician was born on 6 June 1932 at Tsumeb, where he also grew up.

He married Naomi Kikii Zauana in 2017. She died shortly thereafter.

His niece Selma Amakali (55) remembers Kerina, who fathered five children, as a man who loved his family.

“He would send us clothes and blankets, especially during winter. He would give them to my cousin Abraham Kanime to take to us. Tatekulu Mburumba loved his family,” she says.

Although she only met Karina for the first time in 2012 at the Oshakati Totem Expo, Kerina was always supportive, Amakali says.

She says she came to hear of him when he returned to Namibia from exile in 1989.

“My uncles knew him since he was young, because he would visit the family at Uukwandongo village when he was young. He returned here in 2017,” she says.

Amakali says when Kerina fell sick in 2019 and spent weeks at the Roman Catholic Private Hospital in Windhoek, she went to stay with him for a month.

“I learned he did not like people fighting. He loved his family,” she says.

Amakali says she would love to attend Kerina’s funeral, but cannot due to gatherings of more than 10 people being prohibited.

She says her elders told her Kerina liked soccer and was a fast runner in his young days.

“They said he had ambition. He had potential and was intriguing. And he loved education,” she says.

Amakali’s older sister Ndapewa says she knew Kerina for nearly five years.

She says this was when Kerina went to visit his paternal family at Uukwandongo near Okahao in the Omusati region.

“We had a reunion at home. He came to our house to see the family he left when he was young,” Ndapewa says.

“He was a family man . . . I learnt a lot from him. He loved us, he knew a lot of people, and he was a friend to many. He liked telling stories about Namibia. He was an adviser, and he encouraged us to be respectful towards our elders. He liked to read a lot,” she says.

Kerina was a lecturer in the United States in 1979 and an associate professor in the African studies department of the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College from 1972 to 1975.

He obtained a doctorate in political science at the Pandjaran State University of Bandung, Indonesia, where he met the then Indonesian president Sukarno, who encouraged him to give South West Africa a more suitable name.

This was how the name Namibia was coined.

Kerina was also a member of the Constituent Assembly in 1989, representing the Federal Convention of Namibia.

In 1990 he resigned from politics, but returned in 1998 as the regional Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) councillor for the Aminuis constituency.

In 2003 he quit DTA after being a member for five years.

Kerina rejoined Swapo in 2003 after being expelled in June 1961 for forming the Independence and National Convention Party.

On 14 June he succumbed to Covid-19 in Windhoek at the age of 89.

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