WORKING as a teacher in the apartheid colonial government education system did not deter Ester Shangeelao Ndeutepo from engaging in the activities of the liberation struggle.
Reaffirming this in an interview conducted by Betty Hango-Rummukainen for the National Museum of Namibia which highlights that Ndeutepo is one of the Namibian women who played a critical role in supporting the Peoples Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) combatants, as well as civilians fleeing the country to join the liberation struggle in exile.
Born on the 20th of November 1939 at Ohaingu, a village in the present day Ohangwena Region, Ndeutepo excelled in school. She enrolled at Oshigambo High School, and there she did not only receive higher education training. The school also served as a centre for her political orientation that laid the foundation for her involvement in the liberation struggle. “I joined the liberation party in 1963 when I was a student at Oshigambo High School. The idea of fighting for independence was brought to us by the boys of our class, Jessaja Nyamu and Nangolo Mbumba. They explained to us where we can get Swapo membership cards. I got my membership card from Tate Andimba Toivo ya Toivo at Oluno. My objective of joining Swapo was to fight the apartheid administration and liberate our country from colonial oppression,” comments Ndeutepo during an interview with Hango-Rummukainen. Married to Sakaria Alfeus who was also a staunch Swapo supporter, Ndeutepo with the assistance of her husband became resourceful to both the combatants operating inside the country and the civilians who needed assistance to go into exile. Citing this in the interview with Hango-Rumukainen, Ndeutepo noted that “in 1976 we had been transporting the people who crossed the borders from Namibia into Angola to fight for independence. We have also been transporting PLAN combatants who crossed the border into Namibia.” Besides aiding combatants and civilians in support of the liberation struggle, her house also served as a storage facility for items donated by the local people to Swapo. “We were requested by Maija-Liisa Tiusanen, a finnish missionary so that our house could serve as a logistics centre for the necessities of PLAN combatants donated by Swapo supporters. These goods had to be collected by PLAN combatants from our house,” says Ndeutepo during the interview.
The colonial authorities later became aware of their political activities such that in 1977 her husband Alfeus, sister-in-law Maria Djulume and her cousin Fransina Shitaleni were arrested. Ndeutapo was away from home teaching at the then Ongwediva Seminary and was arrested the following day. She was taken to the police station for interrogation, but she was released shortly after she refuted the allegation that she was providing medicine to combatants and training them how to inject one another. Following her short stint in detention, Ndeutepo noted that life has never been easy since then. “Though I was released, life has not been easy at college where I was a teacher, because it was a colonial government school. The Boers used to call me “you the wife of terrorists. They did not give me my monthly salary sometimes. I suffered extremely.”