WINDHOEK – Born in February 1938 in Keetmanshoop of Ovambo parents, he was raised by his aunt and uncle who adopted him.
Ya-Otto was educated at a Rhenish School in Tsumeb until 1954.
He obtained a teacher’s certificate at Augustineum Training College in Okahandja and he became a teacher at the Herero School in Windhoek’s Old Location during 1950 to 1956 under Theo Katjimune.
Ya-Otto entered politics following the 1959 Old Location Massacre in Windhoek, in the same year he was approached by Sam Nujoma to act as an interpreter at a meeting with Baster leaders in Rehoboth where he tried to gain their support for the 1959 municipal boycott.
The following year he was appointed Swapo acting secretary general and as Swapo’s chief organizer up to 1966 when he travelled with other Swapo leaders in a Swapo car which was named Bluebird.
He was arrested in 1966 following the battle of Ongulumbashe, which was the opening attack by Swapo on South African military and police in the northern part of Namibia.
Ya-Otto also worked as an editor for a Swapo tabloid, and was one of the Swapo delegation to meet the chairman of the Special UN Committee on the then South West Africa-Namibia. In 1962 he was one of the delegates who met Vittorio Carpio in Windhoek.
In December 1966 he was arrested following the Battle of Ongulumbashe.
He and other Swapo activists such as Jason Mutumbulwa, Nathaniel Maxuilili and 33 others were arrested, with most of them receiving 10-year prison sentences, which he did not serve due to a lack of a case against him, therefore he received a five-year suspended sentence and was released in 1968 and deported to the then Ovamboland.
This did not stop him from pursuing his vision or dream of liberating the country from colonization and upon arrival in Ovamboland he helped to revive the Ondangwa branch of Swapo.
In 1972 he led a demonstration of 5 000 people at Oshakati airport to meet up with the UN secretary general Kurt Waldheim and later that year he met with Waldheim’s representative Alfred Escher.
This led to his arrest again in 1973 and he was accused of inciting violence. He was sentenced to six months in prison, but was released due to a pending outcome of an appeal.
After several arrests, in 1974 he fled into exile to Zambia via Angola, and was Swapo’s secretary for labour in 1976, and was also a leader of the National Union of Namibian workers in exile. He chaired the internal Swapo commission on consequences of the 1966 Swapo spy crisis. In 1979 he moved from Zambia to Angola and published the Swapo trade union magazine.
He established relationships with trade unionists around the world. In 1981, he published his book “Battlefront Namibia,” detailing Swapo’s and his own struggle for independence.
Ya-Otto together with Helmut Angula published Swapo’s first publication titled ‘Unity Wings’ in 1965.
In 1989 he was the editor-in-chief of the Namibian Workers in Exile, and in the same year he was elected leader of the NUNW in Windhoek.
Following independence, he returned to Namibia. Later, he was sent as a diplomat to Angola where he died in Luanda on 25 May 1994.
By Mwaka Liswaniso