By Rev. Willem Simon Hanse
THE deceased Reverend Bartholomeus Gerhardt Karuaera was a retired presiding elder, a superannuated preacher of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Karuaera came into contact with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, at 22 years of age long before the said church denomination was established in Namibia, when he was introduced and enrolled through the influence of the late Jonas Katjirungu at the AME Church’s ‘Wilbeforce Institute’ in Evaton, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Research and oral tradition have shown the isolated presence the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Namibia can be traced to 1923 when sailors entering through Lüderitz and Walvis Bay had established worship assembly points “though on a small and insignificant scale.” During April 1945, the youthful Karuaera became aware of the pleas of the African people with the Rhenish Missionary Society since 1934 for the upliftment of the socio-economic and political situation of our people in the land of their birth. Archival materials show that correspondence between the late Rev. Christian Spellmeyer, a German Missionary and the late Evangelists Petrus Andreas Jod, Markus Witbooi and Zacheus Thomas contained the basic issues of discontentment, which were later issued as the Memorandum of Agitation. Since its inception, the Rhenish Missionary Society leadership positions remained solely reserved for the missionaries, whereas Africans served at best as evangelists and workers of the mission. In this context the late Karuaera had played a significant role in the formal establishment of the AME Church and the Oruuano Church in 1946 and 1948 respectively.
Given his education and training, it became impossible for the late Karuaera to be associated with the Rhenish Missionary Society schools known for availing only limited knowledge restricted to only basic arithmetic and reading skills. Together with the late Zacheus Thomas, Markus Witbooi and Petrus A Jod, the late Karuaera is legendary in AME folklore for their particularly suspicion of Pastor H Vedder, a German missionary, who later turned out to be ambitious of a political position in the South African Senate. His other contemporaries within the AME Church included Jakobus Jod, Johannes Dausab, Erwin Tjirimuje, A Lonake, J Lakay, Traugott Dausab, Nicholas C Christians, Francis H Gow, J R Molahloe, M M Sephula, Albert E Koopman, Markus Kooper, Jeremias Baisako, Willem Moses Jod, Petrus A Schmidt, Johannes Ludwig, Michael Haman, and Dirk van Neel. He served actively under the following bishops of the AME Church: I H Bonner, F D Jordan, F H Gow, H J Bryant, G D Robinson, F C James, D G K Ming, J E Hunter, H B Senatle, H A Belin Jr, M Young and G G M Ingram, and enjoyed retirement under the following bishops: S L Green Sr, W J Messiah, E E McCloud Jr and D R Daniels Jr. The late Rev. Karuaera was highly vocal on Otjiherero matters concerning the Tjamuaha/Maharero Royal House and Namibia’s freedom struggle. Not only was he pivotal in the Katutura uprisings of 1959 and led the forceful removal of the AME Church from the Old Location to the present location at Sigem Street, ‘Malaka Draai’, Katutura, but was also the AME Church’s presiding elder of Windhoek since 1975 and later of Hoachanas during the difficult days of apartheid racism. This branch or local church of the AME Church in Malaka Draai is named after him as the BGK Ebenezer AME Church, Katutura.
On behalf of the AME Church, the late Karuaera became a founder member of the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) and became increasingly a source of agitation against the apartheid regime in Namibia. He was vehemently opposed to the installation of Clemens Kapuuo as the successor of Chief Hosea Kutako and later formed and became secretary of the Association for the Preservation of the Tjamuaha/Maharero Royal House. This association disbanded in 1974 and the majority of its members joined Swapo in the national freedom struggle. The late Karuaera has travelled widely and used many international platforms afforded by the AME Church to reject the Odendaal Plan of 1968. He was fearless and co-signed, together with Bishop James H Kauluma, Preses Hendrik Frederick, Father Daniel Bruno, Bishop Kleophas Dumeni, Landesprost Wilfried Blank and Rev. Dr. Abisai Shejavali, numerous ecumenical documents, including a letter opposing military conscription of all men aged 17-55 years of age. The late Karuaera was a founder member of the African Improvement Society, viewed by some as a kind of secretariat for the Herero Chiefs Council, but which was mainly a cultural and educational fellowship advancing entrepreneurship amongst the African people. The African Improvement Society owned a small café in Windhoek, where he rubbed shoulders with Berthold Himumuine, A S Shipena, A E Mogale, A S Mungunda, Clemens Kapuuo and David Meroro amongst others. The late Karuaera was vehemently opposed to any South African fabricated ethnic solution proposed with the view to replace United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 of 1978. His pride was affected when Clemens Kapuuo and others defected to the Turnhalle Conference from the known anti-colonial and anti-Apartheid struggle under Swapo. He is also known for his personal petitions written to the League of Nations, the United Nations and the Organisation for African Unity. He was constantly under the eye of the National Security Branch and was in 1979 also detained incommunicado under the notorious AG 10 of 1978. The African Methodist Episcopal Church salutes a brave fighter for freedom, independence and justice in the person of Bartholomeus Gerhardt Karuaera. He has preached the Good News to thousands; he has won thousands of souls for Christ; he has baptized hundreds of Christians and comforted many at the gravesides of loved ones with the hope of eternal resurrection in Jesus Christ. And we hear his last shout loud with the apostle Paul ringing in our ears: “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.”
*Rev. Willem Simon Hanse is a pastor of St. Mark AME Church in Gibeon and the presiding Elder of AME Church, Lüderitz district.