THERE have been different reactions to His Excellency President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s wonderful and well-deserved recognition of getting the Mo Ibrahim leadership award. Without going into details of some of such reactions it just suffices to state the following: What makes some of us happy is that the overwhelming majority of people who reacted to this noble event were positive.
Those who do not know Pohamba’s liberation struggle background should know that he not only deserves the recognition of what he did in Namibia as President of the country for the 10 years but he, indeed, has an indisputable long history of heroic liberation struggle credentials that ought to be known by generations to come and be appreciated by all of us. He sacrificed a lot for this country and its people.
To mention but a few sacrifices and achievements of the man who got this recognition by the Mo Ibrahim leadership award, I just can say some of the things he did as I knew him.
When I was the SWAPO Secretary for the Windhoek Branch, Hifikepunye Pohamba and Eliader Muatale were sent back by SWAPO in 1962 to South West Africa from abroad to come and mobilise the people in the country. On their way back to South West Africa they were arrested at Plumtree in the then Southern Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe) and imprisoned in Bulawayo before they were taken to Johannesburg and then returned to South West Africa. They were imprisoned in Windhoek and later deported to Ovamboland. I remember Pohamba making a statement when he was being deported to the North saying that he did not care because ‘South West Africa is my house and Ovamboland is my bedroom’. Pohamba was deported to the Uukwanyama and Muatale to Uukwambi. Later on Pohamba escaped abroad again where he continued with the struggle for the independence of his country. After several years on 20 March 1966 Comrade Pohamba in the mission of Comrade Sam Nujoma took yet another highly dangerous and risky decision to come back to South West Africa and bravely challenge colonial regime. They were arrested, locked up in detention and sent back the next day in the same plane on 21 March to Livingstone, Zambia. I came back from my studies in Europe in 1975 and started working in the SWAPO office in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. Things were not up to date and perfect in Dar-Es-Salaam’s SWAPO office, therefore Comrade Pohamba was sent to Dar-Es-Salaam to remedy the situation. When he came there he changed the whole situation and the administration of the party became normal and effective.
Many people during that time were being sent to Kongwa for military training and I used to go with Comrade Pohamba to Kongwa military training camp from time to time.
Comrade Pohamba was one of the leaders who were very honest and committed in whatever he was doing. He could never do anything wrong which he did not want other people to do and he was always honest, serious and open in his dealings with those he was working with. He was never moody and I had not seen him in a bad temper. If there was something he did not want he was always open and serious and told you so.
In Tanzania he worked closely with the OAU Liberation Committee which was coordinating the efforts of liberating the rest of Africa and he got the necessary equipment and materials for our liberation struggle which made SWAPO a force to be reckoned with. It was also there in Tanzania where he worked with Joaquim Chissano who was a representative of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and later former President of Mozambique and who also later became a recipient of the same award that is now awarded to him. When we were transferred to Luanda, Pohamba worked with the financial issues of the party in the most efficient manner.
There are, indeed, a lot of things I could say about this great son of Africa. However, I can only say that he, indeed, deserves the recognition he has got and we should be happy that Comrade Pohamba got this leadership award by Mo Ibrahim. I wish him all the best in his retirement.