Joshua Razikua Kaumbi
Had the elders been alive, one would have started the conversation with: makuza, Uarotua uetuesa (apparently Uarotua has left us) and the elders would bore you with his act of bravery and defiance. Immanuel Uarotua Ngatjizeko uari ombande, uari okasino okatuezu. (Ngatjizeko was a hero)
We got introduced to Ngatjizeko’s name, Uarotua for two reasons. The first one was to scare you off the streets after hours (Ozondje Street, otjiherero word for Scorpion). They would tell you that ozotororisa zeja (the terrorist have arrived).
These would be either the Ngatjizeko or the Karumburumbu Kahimise. Back then, terrorists were regarded as those communist people with Afro hairstyle and beard, which must have been a form of rebellion. In the late eighties, we equated them with intelligence, their mastery of the English language and their rendition of the Marxist doctrine.
The presence of the Ngatjizeko and other terrorists would heighten the presence of the Land Cruiser of Dawie Kriek (that notorious sergeant from Suid Wes Afrikaanse Polisie, Swapol, who apparently would arrest all black people without any need for additional manpower) with the mounted aerial in the dusty streets of Omaruru.
Ours was the street that came all the way from town, a street of one big family.
It would also be used to inspire you when you refuse to go to school or study. They would urge you to take your studies seriously and be intelligent like Uarotua or especially Keripuu (Philip Tjerije).
To have your child attend Augustineum or Fort Hare University, South Africa, (Ko Unie, as they used to call South Africa) was the dream of ordinary labourers who also served as our parents at night.
Shortly after leaving Cabinet, I paid him a visit in 2018 to discuss the influence of Western ovaHerero in Swapo as the then liberation movement. I deliberately elected not to publish the story of the person who would address me by my Omaruru name.
That aside, during that visit, I encountered a very intelligent, calm and modest man, who would persistently deny his role, and rather shift the focus to Philip Tjerije for better recollection. It was when the latter did the same that I realised that great beings are alive to that primary truth of greatness being a result of a collective.
Immanuel Ngatjizeko, born in Otjohorongo, who together with his two brothers, late Ashipala, Philip Tjerije, et al were the first known open Swapo on the right side of my old lady’s house, went on to serve in the Windhoek branch of Swapo and later (1978) became the party organiser. On the left side of my old lady’s house was Philip Keripu Tjerije.
I am advised, which advise I verily believe to be true, that he was a bright student of Martin Luther High School, who served as the chairperson of the Windhoek branch in 1977 and deputy secretary for information and publicity of Swapo since 1979.
The presence of his brother Bience Ngatjizeko, would bring with it the sounds of what we later discovered to be liberation music, at that time banned.
Immanuel Uarotua Ngatjizeko was one of the few safe pair of hands entrusted with various positions inside the country before and after independence. He died on 5 March 2022 at the age of 69 in Windhoek, and was conferred a hero’s funeral by President Hage Geingob.
He will be laid to rest in Otjohorongo as per his own wish of being laid to rest under the shades of the Omutati (Mopani) tree. Otjohorongo is the name of the area north of Okombahe west of Omaruru and the first headquarter of the Otjohorongo Reserve, home to the Zeraeua Royal House and the White Flag of the ovaHerero.
It is the same area that gave birth to the now forgotten former Plan fighter Erenfried Karunamini Baby Jeomba.
When the ovaHerero of Western Herero domain, headquartered in Omaruru under the flag of Zeraeua were defeated by the German Imperial Forces, Josua Kaumbi et al were then sent to negotiate with the Damara leaders of Okombahe for grazing area.
When racist South Africa took over Namibia, Josua Kaumbi, et al petitioned that the said area be reserved for the ovaHerero of Western domain, resulting in Kavezemba, his cousin being appointed the first headman due to his bravery during the war of resistance.
Late Kavezemba, having been appointed a police officer by the Pretoria regime in Grootfontein, requested his cousin Kapia to act in his place and stead. Hence the naming of this area as Oresevate ja Kavezemba.
Hon Immanuel Uarotua Ngatjizeko, the young man from our street who grew into a freedom fighter and national leader and recently declared hero is going nowhere but home to our place of history to give it the same prominence he gave to the country.
It is the place of Daniel Tjongarero’s mother, Si Rikumbi Kandanga (first women to be declared a heroine and buried at Heroes Acre), et al and the burial place of Kavezemba Kavezemba, and the political capital of the Otjohorongo Reserve.
We remain indebted to President Hage Geingob for first and foremost having granted Alpheus Vehonga Muheua, may his soul rest in peace, a state funeral and attending in person and Hon Immanuel Ngatjizeko a heroes funeral.
It will be an unforgettable honour for our children to once again watch the presidential helicopter deflower the Omutati trees, just like it did when it landed in the mountains of Otjongundu on 26 February 2022.
The last time I saw late Hon Ngatjizeko at the shell service station in Omaruru, I knew his time to go to Otjohorongo has arrived. One could see the work of the constant harassment and beating by the Pretoria regime eventually having taken its toll in accelerating his ageing. A man should not become a shadow of his old self.
Go well Honourable, may your interment be a seed for a new one from that area to emerge. You were part of a special generation whose intention was to seek and define own identity.