OUR school teacher the late Comrade Nghidimondjila Shoombe played a crucial role in my awakening to liberation politics. He requested me to continue politically mobilising my peers, though he warned me not to tell anyone that had been given a SWAPO membership card. I remember very well that after I got the card, I hid it in the kraal until I left the country to join the liberation movement in Angola in early 1977.
My political conviction became part of my learning process at school. It was at this time that I became aware that what we were learning was nothing but an education system crafted by colonial masters for the inferior race. At that moment I chose to resist this system – a reflection of a youth with a liberated mind.
This would not have happened, had it not been for the late Cde Shoombe’s courage to pass on the revolutionary torch.
He was, as I would remember, the only teacher at our school who openly declared his political conviction and took up the challenge to wage political campaigns against the colonial system in the country.
Events took a sudden twist when I chose not to cooperate with teachers whom I perceived to protect the political system of the time, and ended up being a ringleader of troublemakers at the school. My behaviour and that of other learners who shared my convictions prompted the principal to give me a final warning of expulsion from school if I continued with my ‘disruptive behaviour’. Sensing imminent expulsion from Omusheshe Combined School, I decided to leave on my own volition.
I decided to enrol at Okatana Catholic School in 1975. However, my stay at Okatana was short lived, as I left within two months after I fought with a teacher who discriminated against me for no apparent reason. After I left school. My father sent me to the cattle post at Onheleiwa in Okambebe area near the Namibia-Angola border.
I stayed there until April 1975 before I returned after the pastures at our village improved. I met Angolan cattle herders while herding cattle across the Namibia-Angola border. These cattle herders told stories about the liberation war between the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA) and the Portuguese security forces. The cattle herders also explained the political situation in Angola. This was my first time to learn of concrete politics of the liberation struggle waged by the Angolan people against the Portuguese colonial authorities in Angola. My political exchanges with fellow cattle herders broadened my political horizon on liberation politics.
However, towards the end of 1976, I chose not to cooperate with the principal, as I had different views about his anti-political activities stance at school.
Moreover, the principal’s warning came at a time when I was completely ill-disposed towards the entire colonial system of the time. Occasionally, I would find myself inciting other leaners to disobey teachers’ instructions. By early 1977, I had won over a dozen boys to my side, a development that strengthened our resistance to the education programme at school. Studying had become secondary, as none of my group members showed any interest in learning. At the time, we would spend most of our time intimidating other learners with the long traditional knives (omikonda) we made.
The principal on noticing our unusual behaviour would from time to time call us to the administration block to counsel us to concentrate on education. Many a time he would be heard shouting, “Hekandjo, what is actually in your heard?”
None of us bothered to understand his hidden concern. Knowing too well that we had nothing to lose in the event that we were expelled from school, we continued to intimidate those vulnerable learners who chose not to dance to our tune.
Instead of studying, we spent much of our time networking and mobilising others to join our group. Mind you, this was the time when we were secretly preparing to leave for Angola. When I say we, I mean my comrades such as Hashonditila Sam Samuel, Junias Kalundingo, Festus Shiindi, and Amukwaya Shonena Weyulu, among others.
We urged my classmates, namely Sam Samuel, Festus Shiindi and other local boys to show total disregard for the then apartheid education system and those spearheading it without any remorse.
My friends and I finally agreed to leave the country to join SWAPO in exile in early 1977. If my memory serves me right, none of us had discussed our plan with anybody else other than ourselves. Before we left, our friend John, who knew where to find PLAN fighters, had thoroughly briefed us. John had encountered PLAN fighters during his visit to Ehomba village in the western part of Oukwanyama in former Ovamboland.
He told us what he had seen – the type of guns used by the freedom fighters, their uniforms and their general appearance, which had greatly impressed us. It took us almost two weeks to set the date for our departure for the unknown destination. Our strategy was to mobilise as many youngsters as possible to join our group, a difficult task indeed, since the mobilisation was done secretly. On my part, besides what John had told us, I had had the opportunity to tune in to the SWAPO radio broadcasting from Luanda, Angola, almost on a daily basis. The radio was very informative, as it broadened my understanding about the struggle waged by SWAPO; no wonder I took a leading role in mobilising others to go into exile.
We agreed to spend the night at Tate Kalundingo’s homestead and proceed with our journey the next morning. Before we left, Junias’ mother prepared an Oshiwambo traditional porridge called ‘onghuta’ for us. She was sympathetic to our cause, hence, she served the porridge on a traditional plate known as ‘ongalo’ where a needle was also placed. The needle signified that whatever danger and difficulties we would encounter on our way we would overcome them. With Meme Kalundingo’s blessing, we left at around 04h00.