Mourners from across Namibia are gathered at Onambutu village to pay their final respects to the late national liberation hero, Matias Kanana Hishoono.
He passed away on 14 January, aged 89.
Among the mourners gathered for the official memorial service at his residence are vice-president Lucia Witbooi and prime minister Eliajah Ngurare.
Namibia’s second president Hifikepunye Pohamba and speaker of the national assembly, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila are also attending.
Pohamba and the late Hishoono were among the last of the original founders of the national struggle for Namibia’s liberation from the apartheid colonial regime.
They are among the founders of the Owamboland People’s Organisation (OPO) in 1959, which later evolved into Swapo.
With Hishoono’s passing, Pohamba (89) and Helao Vinnia Ndadi (97) are among few remaining original founders of the national revolution for independence.
Namibia’s fourth President, Nangolo Mbumba, and the Ohangwena Regional Governor, Kadiva Hamutumwa, are also attending.
Hishoono’s political activism started in the late 1950s and played a role in spreading the ideals of liberation while he was a contract labourer in Tsumeb.
In 1968, he was tried alongside the late Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo in Pretoria for his political activism.
This followed his arrest at Rundu in 1966, where he was brought to Ondangwa, and tortured by the colonial police before being taken to Pretoria, where he was eventually acquitted.
In exile, Hishoono was sent to study political science in Cuba, where he later played a leading role in political education during the struggle for independence.
After independence, he served as the second secretary of the Swapo Party Elders Council for 20 years since 1997.
For a long time, the late Hishoono also served as a political advisor to Namibia’s Founding President, Sam Nujoma.
He will be buried in a state funeral at the Eenhana Shrine on Saturday.
He is survived by his widow, Ndeshipewa Elina Hishoono, seven children, 50 grandchildren, and 28 great-grandchildren.
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