By Mashuna Timoteus
Narrating his ordeal at the hands of the South African police following his capture in the aftermath of the Omugulugombashe attack on the 26th of August 1966, the late Hipangerwa, in an unpublished interview conducted by the National Museum of Namibia in August 2002, noted that before he was sentenced to the Robben Island prison he had endured brutal beatings and electrocution by the colonial authorities. “On the 10th of July 1967, I was arrested in the area around Ondangwa and they took me to prison in Ondangwa. I was tortured and shocked with electricity. The next morning they took me to the Oshakati prison and the next day a plane came from Kavango and took me to Pretoria central prison. I stayed there for nine months in solitary confinement,” Hipangerwa commented in the interview done before his death in 2013.
Hipangerwa was born on the 18th of August 1932 at Emono village in the present day Oshana Region. Details regarding his childhood upbringing and education are rather sketchy in the researched biographical materials, however his political participations go as far as the late 1950s. It was in that period that he started attending political mobilisation meetings held by pioneers of the Namibian liberation struggle, which ultimately led to his political enlightenment and desire to fight for the liberation of his motherland. “I became politically conscious in 1957 after listening to a speech by comrade Theofelus Hamutumbagela. He told us that when we return home from contract labour they [the boers] always confiscate our belongings at Onamutoni gate. These included scented soaps, lotions and good clothes. That is when I came to realise we were being oppressed by the South African government in Namibia,” commented Hipangerwa.
Therefore on the 5th of October 1960, he decided to join the Ovambo People’s Organisation (OPO) in order to fight oppression in his motherland. When OPO was transformed into SWAPO, he also joined SWAPO in 1961 and began to take an active role in politics. “During that year, I became the executive member of the branch and with my comrades, we continued to hold meetings in the country to inform the nation that we must be united in order to fight the South African colonial government,” said Hipangerwa.
It was perhaps a result of his earlier political orientation that he forged good relations with the first groups of SWAPO’s military commandos who after completing their training in exile were sent into the country to conduct political mobilization and give basic military training to fellow citizens in preparation for the launching of the armed liberation struggle. It was the likes of Hipangerwa who offered a hand of support for the SWAPO commandos to be able to establish camps inside the country and provide military training.
However, his involvement in politics and relations he had with the SWAPO commandos ultimately made him the target of the South African colonial police. After the attack on the 26th of August 1966 which resulted in the imprisonment of people suspected to have supported the then “terrorists”, Hipangwera also became one of the prime suspects and as a result was arrested in 1967. He spent time in Pretoria and Windhoek central prisons whilst awaiting his prison sentence. On the 22nd of August 1969 he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island where he again continued to endure inhuman conditions. Nonetheless, Hipangerwa noted that despite all the suffering he endured during his prison term he never gave up his hope for a free and independent Namibia. “I believed that Namibia will become independent,” he said.