Sam Njoma, a revolutionary leader who led Namibia to independence from South Africa’s apartheid in 1990 and served as the first president for 15 years, passed away at the age of 95.
According to the Namibian presidency, Nujoma was praised as Namibian’s “founding father” and died on Saturday night after three weeks of hospitalization in the capital.
“The foundations of the Republic of Namibia are being shaken,” the presidency said in a Facebook post announcing his death. He added that there will be a period of “national mourning.”
And the revolutionary leader, he is Dr. Sam Shafishna Njoma. ” @drnangolombumba President Nujoma passed away on February 8th at the age of 95 in Windhook, Namibia. Read the full statement: https://t.co/aw4vpzp4y4
– President of Namibia (@namperresidency) February 9, 2025
Njoma was respected in his hometown as the figure of a charismatic father who led his country to democracy and stability after a long German colonial rule and a fierce war of independence from South Africa.
He was the last of African leaders who led their country out of colonial or white minority rule, including Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, and Zamora Machelle of Mozambique. It was the end of the story.
Njoma led the Southwest Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), which led the liberation struggle since its founding in 1960.
Swapo has been in power since independence, but Njoma finally quit in 2007 at the age of 78, two years after he rose from the presidency.
Many Namibians believe in Njoma’s leadership in the national healing and reconciliation process after the deep division caused by the War of Independence and the policy of dividing the South African nation into ethnic-based regional governments. Ta.
Even his political opponents praised Marxist branded Njoma, established a democratic constitution, and involved white businessmen and politicians in the government after independence. He was also known for his intense anti-Western rhetoric and railings against homosexuality. The railing against homosexuality was called “foreign and corrupt ideology” and supported it with “artificial biological weapons.”
However, he managed to establish a democratic system and advance the reconciliation, but his dictatorial tendencies overshadowed his legacy, saying that Numba, a lecturer and political analyst at Namibia University Kamwaniya said.
“Njoma’s presidency was based on the establishment of Namibian independence and governance, but it was not without flaws,” Kamwana said.
“The Greatest Leadership”
Born into a poor farmer from the Ovambo tribe in a small village in northwestern Namibia in 1929, Nujoma traced the awakening of political consciousness as a teenager, who moved to the port town of Walvis Bay.
Arrived at age 17, he lived with his aunt in a black town and knew adult conversations about black light forms under white control.
According to an autobiography published in 2001, Njoma’s first job was in 1949 as a railway cleaner near Windek and in 1949 as a railway cleaner near Windek. There he was introduced to the Chief of the Herero Tribe, Josea Kutaco. It was then known as South West Africa to end the Namibian apartheid rules.
Kutako became his leader and made the young Njoma a shepherd as he operated politically among the black workers in Windhook who were resisting government orders to move to a new town in the late 1950s.
At Kutako’s request, Nujoma began life in exile in 1960, first heading to Botswana, leaving his wife and four children behind. In the same year he was elected president of SWAPO, later closed from the capital to the capital in search of support, and in 1966 he began a low-level armed struggle.
More than a decade of pressure was put on by Nujoma and others before the 1978 UN Security Council resolution proposed a ceasefire and election. Another decade passed as the ceasefire contract was signed and the election was held in the second half of 1989.
Swapo won a majority in these elections, and in March 1990 Nujoma was appointed.
Upon retirement from the presidency, he enrolled in a master’s degree in geology, believing that the mountains of Namibia contain the wealth of undeveloped minerals.
“Njoma has not spared efforts to provide our nation with the greatest leadership and motivated all Namibians to build a tall and proud country among the countries of the world,” the president said. I did.
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