Joshua Razikua Kaumbi
AMID the sound of what Thabo Mbeki calls the pestilential mosquito, we are pre-set to enjoy our sleep and wake up to keep travelling. Whether thorn in the flesh or the feet, we are required to continue to travel on that one road at a time, however lonely (Robert Frost).
The late Theo-Ben Gurirab would have reminded us to focus on the main show while taking sight of the side shows, fitting sentiments from a man of many refinements, and unquestionable substance. To him, Namibia’s independence was not more important but the main show, compared to the re-integration of Walvis Bay, a side-show despite late Pik Botha’s initial understanding.
In hindsight, and having watched that impressive interview of Vice President Nangolo Mbumba with the Russian Television (RT), the author is tempted to regard the said delay as having been necessary.
Well done.
To make progress as a nation-state focus ought to be on moving basic ideas about the human condition and not on personalities. That aside and in abeyance.
With the understanding that mother earth remains the only planet with scenery and seasons worth enduring and all else an illusion, I joined the family of late Theo-Ben Gurirab, a very special friend of Nahas Angula and I at the Heroes Acre, to remember his passing five years ago ‘just like that’.
Theo-Ben Gurirab, during his last days became part of the post-independence Pan-Africanist trio consisting of him, Nahas Angula and Yours Truly. I am alive to the pre-independence Swapo Pan-Africanist trio consisting of President Hage Geingob, the late Hidipo Hamutenya and Theo-Ben Gurirab.
Gurirab was a fine gentleman from Usakos/Erongo, the golden thread between those who resisted colonialism and those who elected to banish it. Comrade Theo-Ben was a great mind…[who] discussed ideas… lauded for his diplomatic acumen, his wit and shrewdness, his aptitude and calculating nature, his patience and ability to direct an argument. (Dr Hage Geingob, edited).
Ambassador Kakena Nangula at the mentioned family gathering described the late Gurirab so befittingly when she observed his essence as being multi-dimensional, both emotionally and professionally. She made me relate playfully to her frustrations, in the presence of professor Tjama Tjivikua, when she remembered Gurirab falling under the group of an “executive aggressively wielding a red pen”.
Back to the gathering.
On his part, Tjivikua remembered Gurirab as the gentleman who took his space in a calm way and was not noisy about much.
Comrade Gurirab was part of a special generation whose commitment to this country at that critical juncture continues to challenge the young people to do their own commitment and dismantle the remaining, unliberated front of economic transformation. The continuation of a revolution defined independent of an excessive level of arrogance in public space.
I am yet to meet a male Namibian diplomat, in love with himself like Theo-Ben Gurirab was, the same way I am yet to meet a Namibian legal practitioner in love with themselves like advocate Gerson Hinda or advocate Dave Smuts. In no way should this be interpreted as an exclusion of Tuliameni Kalomoh, that Namibian diplomat whose love for himself (posture and selection of words), the author only observed from a distance.
Gurirab’s wife, Joan Guriras, narrated that her late husband was not only in love with himself but also an actor, and ‘stubborn’ for what was to be done right, because worth doing is worth doing well stubbornly. She said her husband must have realised at an early age that for an individual to love the other, self-love and the love for the self is the essence. It is only through self-love and the love for the self that we subjectively excel at whatever task life will entrust to us individually.
His aunt would aptly confirm his acting skills in that every time he would frequent the church in Okombahe, he would borrow a hymn book from a random lady and would return same with a N$100 note forgotten inside. This gesture led to competition the next time he would frequent the house of the Lord. One hand washes the other.
At a time when we tried to build a nation-state, the late Theo-Ben Gurirab was part of that process. A process put at risk by the noises underpinned by egotistic differences and personal preferences best kept out of the body politick and any nation-building discourse worth our time.
At whatever level a leader achieves more and better socially and economically desirable outcomes when flanked by other competent nationals with the same level of vigour, love and an acute sense of doing what is right at a particular time and moment for the collective. The nascent stage of our republic contains valuable and practical lessons worth borrowing from.
The sooner we realise and know that we only have usufruct in favour of future generations, as we all have a lifespan, the easier the march forward would be.
Unless we not only know and understand, but also reconcile ourselves with the fact that a country is not a toy, we will have what Hilda Basson, at the family gathering in tribute to the fine gentleman, called Mickey Mouse leadership at any level of interaction. I am sure she intended to magnify the void left by the departed vanguard of our nation-state.
I left Heroes’ Acre alive to the fact that this country had genuine and authentic sons and daughters, who attempted to serve the nation to the best of their abilities. A generation that discovered that their mission is more than achieving for your kith and kin and fulfilled it, whatever the contemporary engagement around this subject at any rational platform and or level.
*Joshua Razikua Kaumbi is a holder of BA Political Science and Sociology (Unam), LLB (Stellenbosch) and is an admitted legal practitioner, still on legal sabbatical, expressing his opinions in his capacity as a Namibian by birth.