Lahja Nashuuta
President Nangola Mbumba’s biggest dream was to become a school principal one day. For him, that was the pinnacle of success.
It is a dream that he has gone on to accomplish. But occupying the highest office in the land, the Presidency, would have been a tall order, a dream too big to envision, for the 82-year-old. Mbumba, however, would ascend to this position on Sunday, following the passing on of President Hage Geingob, who was also his best friend beyond public gallery and political theatre.
Being a dark horse for most of his career, operating in the background and shadows of political giants, many Namibians know little about Mbumba, whose private life has been kept private.
This article seeks to go down memory lane to understand who Nangolo Mbumba really is, for starters.
Those who have worked closely with him have described him as pragmatic, a unifier and negotiator of note, who played a leading role in the smooth transition and handover of Walvis Bay from South Africa to Namibia in 1994, a key event in Namibia’s total political independence.
The beginning
Born in the small settlement of Olukonda in the Oshikoto region on 15 August 1941, Mbumba is a teacher by profession.
He graduated from a university in Connecticut, and began a teaching career at Harlem Preparatory School in New York City.
Leaving New York in 1978, he would return to Africa, and began work as head of the science department at the Namibia Education Centre in Cuanza Sul, Angola. In 1980, he was promoted to the post of principal of the centre. He had made it in life by then after having fulfilled his biggest dream, not knowing that a bigger assignment lay
ahead.
He lasted in that position until 1985, before swiftly transitioning into politics.
Politics
Mbumba’s senior political career can be traced back to 1987, when he was appointed as personal secretary to the then Swapo president, Founding President Sam Nujoma.
Post-independence, Mbumba served in the National Assembly and the Executive.
He held ministerial portfolios at Agriculture, Water and Rural Development (1993-1996), Finance (1996-2003), Information and Broadcasting (2003-2005), Education (2005–2010), and Safety and Security (2010-2012).
The journey
Chronicling his journey was liberation icon, former Prime Minister Nahas Angula.
He described Mbumba as a tested leader, who had demonstrated intellectual capabilities during the liberation struggle and afterwards.
“I grew up with comrade President Mbumba, from the Oshigambo High School to exile, and back to independent Namibia. All I can say is that the president is indeed a good leader, a civil servant who believes in humanity”, he added.
Narrating the new head of state’s journey into exile, Angula said their comradeship started at that school when the two of them and two other friends agreed to sneak out of
the country into Botswana to join the liberation struggle. “I met President Nangolo Mbumba in 1963 at the Oshigambo Secondary School. He was my senior not only at grade level, but also by age. We became friends, and in November 1965, we and the other two decided to go into exile. We travelled through Ohangwena into Kavango West and East, and into Botswana. In Botswana, there was a small town called Shakawe, where people used to be recruited as South African mine labourers by the apartheid government”, Angula narrated.
However, him and Mbumba could not be hired because of their age.
“We then left Shakawe through Mamuno to Francistown, where Swapo had an office headed by Gideon Kashita. [It was the] Swapo Botswana office of refugees, and we were registered as such,” he added.
Their journey did not end there, as the two would cross into Zambia. There, they were enrolled into the Nkumbi International College run by Americans.
Upon completion of his studies at Nkumbi, Mbumba got a scholarship to further his education in New York, leaving Angula behind, who had decided to stay and complete his tertiary education in Zambia.
In 1975, Angula moved to New York City, where he again rubbed shoulders with Mbumba, who was a teacher.
Angula later left New York to set up the Namibia Education Centre in Cuanza Sul, Angola. In 1989, President Mbumba and Angula all moved to Namibia to prepare for the 1990 elections.
Immediately after independence, Mbumba became Secretary to Cabinet, while Angula was appointed as Namibia’s founding education minister.
Presidential
Fast forward to 2018, and Mbumba would get his first taste of the Presidency when the late Geingob appointed him as vice president to replace Nickey Iyambo, who had succumbed to ill-health.
“I wish him well on his new journey as a president. It is of course for a short period, but like any other Namibian, our expectations from him is to use the authority to bring changes on the pledges made to the Namibian people,” Angula continued.
Father figure
Khomas governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua, who has worked closely with Mbumba both at government and party levels, described
him as humble, down-to- earth, a lovable being, and zealous administrator.
“President Mbumba is a comrade and a father figure. I met him in Angola at the Namibia Education Centre in Cuanza Sul, where he was a principal, and by then I used to work for the centre as a teacher. In exile, some of us were on our own without parents. Thus, working under him, he was like a father and a protector to me and many other Namibians at the centre,” McLeod-Katjirua stated fondly.
“After independence, I was privileged to work with President Mbumba as his deputy secretary general of the Swapo Party when he was the secretary general (SG) of the party”.
Mbumba was elected as SG at Swapo’s 2012 watershed congress.
“I learned a lot from his wisdom. President Mbumba believed in proper consultation and administration. He couldn’t take a decision without consulting his deputy, and ensuring that we all understood the impact of the decision we were about to endorse,” she recalled. McLeod-Katjirua has no doubt in Mbumba’s ability to steer the Namibian ship for the remainder of the Geingob tenure.
“He is indeed the right candidate to occupy the [position of head of] state and as per our Namibian constitution, that was the right transfer of power. We couldn’t do it better than that. We have demonstrated to the world that Namibia is indeed matured in handling catastrophic issues in a peaceful and matured manner”, she emphasised.
The governor continued: “Namibians have accepted the new president. Our social media is flooded with congratulatory messages, and that’s a signal that Namibia is the Land of the Brave, where things can be done in a smooth and procedural way. I urge Namibians to have faith in our president, give him support, remain peaceful, focused and united.
“Now that the mourning period is declared as of today (yesterday), we want to urge Namibia to be calm, and to rely on the updates and official information from the responsible authority”, she added.
- lnashuuta@gmail.com