Tribute to Ida Jimmy Ha-Eiros 

Peya Mushelenga

Formidable, courageous, persistent and relentless-these are attributes that immediately come to my mind when I reflect on the life of the distinguished freedom fighter and unwavering heroine of the Namibian liberation struggle, Ida Jimmy Ha-Eiros, affectionately known as Ouma Ida.

Ouma Ida’s life is a tale of suffering, sacrifice and endurance. Born on 16 November 1945, the ever-smiling and collected woman should not be mistaken for a submissive princess who can be taken for granted. She belongs to the scorpio zodiac fraternity and truly became a stinging scorpion, piercing through the flesh of the colonial administration and pumping venom into its central nervous system. Her involvement in the liberation struggle can be traced back to 1966, when she started supporting Swapo. She later joined Swapo in 1972 at Oshikuku, northern Namibia. She teamed up with other comrades like Zephania Kameeta and Daniel Tjongarero, and became a thorn in the flesh of the colonial administration.

Ouma Ida was not your passive comrade who would sit on the fence, waiting for miracles to deliver her people from oppression and exploitation. She vowed to put her head on the block to break the yoke of colonialism. Accordingly, she became involved in underground activities, furthering the cause of the liberation struggle. And since roasted coffee always smells, Ouma Ida’s involvement in liberation politics did not go unnoticed by the colonial authorities. What followed were frequent arrests, detentions and imprisonment. Hers became a life of shuttling between her house and jail.

This distinguished daughter of the Namibian soil walked through forests of thorn bushes, and navigated her way through hails of bullets. She swam through crocodile-infested rivers and swarms of bees, fearlessly pursuing the freedom of her people and the independence of her motherland.

Ouma Ida was a fearless freedom fighter in the truest sense of the word. One day, while addressing a Swapo rally in the presence of the colonial administration forces, she said, “Comrades, give the Swapo freedom fighters food, shelter, and water, as I did yesterday.”

This is what the colonial masters were looking for, namely self-incrimination. The inevitable happened. She was immediately arrested. During one of Ouma Ida’s imprisonments, she spent eight months in jail with her baby son, Natangwe Jimmy, who is currently a reporter for the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) TV.

There was also a time when Ouma Ida was arrested while expecting and gave birth to her son while in prison. When the baby was three months old, he was put under the care of Ouma Ida’s mother, Ouma Justina Gouws. The baby later passed on, and Ouma Ida was refused to attend the funeral. Oh no! And we shouldn’t say that the colonial administration was primitively brutal and viciously gruesome? Come on! Despite the troubles that she went through, Ouma Ida’s face was always full of smiles and symbolised peace.

Ouma Ida passed on the torch of revolution to her children, Michael and Ndeshi Jimmy, whom I met in the Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso), and who developed a bond of siblings rather than just comrades. As a matter of fact, even before active student politics, Ouma’s children have long been involved in the struggle, carrying food to combatants of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) during the holidays in northern Namibia, where their father was staying.

Following Namibia’s independence, Ouma Ida was elected as a member of the central committee of Swapo at the 1991 congress. The following year, she was elected as the first regional councillor for Keetmanshoop Urban. After serving the first term, Ouma Ida retired. After her retirement as regional councillor, she opened the old-age home for black people in Keetmanshoop and took care of senior citizens.

An old adage in my language says “Honey is not eaten from another person’s hand”, meaning one would rather pour honey on your own hand to eat at your own pleasure. But for Ouma Ida, Namibians ate honey from her hands. She chose to eat humble pie while affording others the opportunity to eat cuisine. She took a back seat, making others better off in the front row. The true epitome of selflessness!

Ouma Ida was content to be in an independent Namibia, and did not bother about political positions or wealth. I remember one day in Lüderitz, during an engagement between small entrepreneurs and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics, Natural Resources and Public Administration, which I was chairing, she told me that all was well with her, and that she was content with the small gemstone business that she was involved in. Our lioness from the south never complained or demanded rewards.

What is in a name? Ida is a German name meaning “work” or “labour”. Indeed, Ouma Ida worked without resting to advance the cause of Namibia’s independence and socio-economic development in post-independent Namibia.

She has fulfilled her earthly task, and it is now time to go and rest in eternity. I visited her in the Windhoek Central Hospital at the beginning of this year, when Ndeshi informed me about her admission and, thus, had an opportunity to bid farewell to a formidable woman and colossal stalwart of note. In her sick bed, Ouma Ida still remained strong in spirit.

May her soul rest in eternal peace!

*Peya Mushelenga is Namibia’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.