Tomas Nehale

There is nothing more painful than an untimely death of someone young and dear to the heart. The harrowing grief surges from a bottomless well of sorrow, drowning the mourner in a torrent of agonizing pain; an exquisite pain that continues to afflict the mourner with heartache and loneliness long after the deceased is buried and gone.

On the afternoon of 3rd October 2022, the Elombe community suffered a gloomy shock by untimely losing its entertainment guru who always bore his community at heart. Thus, it is difficult to pay tribute to this fascinating young man who did a myriad of activities in a normal but extraordinary way - yet amazing to uplift his village.

Erastus was a part-time teacher, artist, DJ, radio presenter and local comedian. He is bravely known to have pioneered Miss Elombe beauty pageant, Ndatelela Kampunda cup, local based comical films and he composed a repertoire of praisal songs that he devoted to his mighty village, one of the commonly known songs is titled ‘Elombe lyetu sutu’, which means our village is the best. Furthermore, the most important thing that he is going to be remembered for is that he fought tirelessly to promote social cohesiveness, togetherness and sense of humanity among the Elombe youth via entertainment endeavors. Therefore, without fear of contradiction, I would locate his life and works to a league of man who immeasurably loved the continent Africa and partly changed it forever, namely; Kwame Francis Nkrumah, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Tomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Andimba Toivo yaToivo, just to mention, but a few. May their souls rest in eternal peace.  During his last days, he portrayed overt and foreseeable signs of losing hope in life and deteriorating standard of living due to depression, I guess. As a result, he eventually realized his downfalls and went to several doors knocking for help, but all his efforts ended up in a cul-de-sac. Most regrettably, family members, neighbours, friends and the entire community drastically failed to socially, spiritually and psychologically resuscitate and aid Erastus back to his normal stance and prime status. So, forgive us sincerely! However, I cannot shift the blame to anyone, neither the late nor to the intimate ones. The mere fact is that only the omniscient God knows! He left a praiseworthy legacy, but the question is - who will continue from where he ended?

It is commonly said, always do sympathize and remember those who you shared a cup or a bed with, so, I shared the latter with him.

There is an Oshiwambo adage that says “ngoka eshi uunkogo wondjamba, haangoka ashike ha ka konga ondjamba, naangoka e enda nomukongo ota vulu oku ya muukongo wondjamba.” To literally translate it; he who knows how to hunt an elephant isn’t necessarily the only one who would successfully hunt the elephant, but even those who usually accompany the hunter would be able to hunt the elephant in the absence of the expert hunter. In other words, Erastus ran his race, and passed us a relay button, therefore the rest is upon us the youthful Elombeans to tightly hold the button and cross the finishing line without dropping it.

In conclusion, in the book of Ecclesiastes, there are courageous scriptures that say “for surely no one knows when their hour will come, as fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.” My condolences to the bereaved family, friends and the Elombe community at large. May his soul rest in eternal
peace.