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Home / Rev Nampala: Go well extra-ordinary man of the people … Tribute to the first governor of Oshikoto Region

Rev Nampala: Go well extra-ordinary man of the people … Tribute to the first governor of Oshikoto Region

2018-09-24  Staff Report 2

Rev Nampala: Go well extra-ordinary man of the people … Tribute to the first governor of Oshikoto Region

Dr Peya Mushelenga, MP

Likeable, dignified, collected, distinguished and cool-headed – that is how I can sum up the character of the first Governor of Oshikoto Region, Reverend Hosea Nampala, affectionately known as HN (pronounced Hee Nee).

HN was born on 15 May 1927 in Onamulunga, Oniipa, Oshikoto Region to David Nampala and Maria Enkali. He belonged to the Aakwanambwa clan of the royal family of the Uukwaluudhi Traditional Authority. HN grew up at Oshigambo where he attended elementary school. After obtaining a certificate from the Teacher’s Seminary at Oniipa in 1948, he briefly taught at Ontananga before furthering his education at the Strydom Training Institute in Bloemfontein, from 1950 to 1952.

Thereafter, he taught at the Teacher’s Seminary at Oniipa and later at Ongwediva and Oshigambo. It is worth mentioning that his former students include Bishop Emeritus Kleopas Dumeni of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN).
HN served as inspector of education in Kavango, education office in Ondangwa, and Circuit 8 in the present-day Oshana and Oshikoto regions. As an educationist, he was also appointed member of the council of the then Academy of Education until 1991, an institution, which was transformed into the University of Namibia in 1992. 

HN was ordained as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Owambo-Kavango Church (ELOC), later ELCIN, and served as a pastor in Oshigambo and Oshitayi parishes, and chaplain in Ongwediva Teachers’ Seminary. As a pastor, he embraced all people, as he believed everyone deserved salvation and no one should be condemned into the wilderness outside the holy ecclesia. 

HN was a patriotic Namibian committed to Namibia’s independence. For many years, he served as an under-cover hard-core aide of the members of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), a military wing of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO). 

His house was, therefore, a safe haven for freedom fighters, where his wife, Hilja – popularly known as Mukwamhani, a nurse treated wounded PLAN fighters. For many years, the colonial government blindly thought that HN was just a mere clergyman, until oh gosh! Before he knew it, they discovered his true colours in 1979. 

The inevitable happened – the self-styled notorious and disgraced gang of the colonial regime police arrested him and left him to languish in the gaol for three months – poor shepherd of the flock! I should also mention here that his wife too was arrested the following year.

No amount of intimidation and torture in prison could stop HN from fighting against colonialism. As a school inspector, he had a government vehicle at his disposal, as a tool of his trade, and he wasted no time to instead use the vehicle to transport PLAN fighters and their ammunition. 

On one occasion, PLAN fighters needed transport.  Of course, HN knew that to be spotted by the colonial government informers driving with PLAN fighters in a government vehicle and later alone, a while later, would land him in hot water. Accordingly, he handed over the vehicle to PLAN fighters and advised them to abandon it far after use, while he would pretend that it was confiscated from him. 

HN drove his own vehicle and headed for Oniipa to the house of his best friend, Hans Daniel Namuhuja, where the two strategised on what he would say about the government vehicle. Listen to this! But, shhhh!! Don’t say it loud! HN was given a bicycle and cycled from Oshigambo to Ondangwa where he informed his supervisors that PLAN fighters had seized the government vehicle. 

Mind you, his profession (who would not believe a man of cloth’s version?) Never underestimate a man of the collar! HN believed that taxpayers’ money should be put to good use, i.e. in support of the struggle for Namibia’s independence than funding childish picnics and mischievous errands of the colonial government.

HN’s life was full of goodwill and humanity. He was the embodiment of generosity and bountifulness; an extra-ordinary man of the people who opened the doors of his house to many and took in his fold the homeless, including those who were not related to him or his wife – yet he gave them fatherly love in the same manner that he provided for his children.
I had great admiration for his charitable lifestyle and humanitarian gestures. He wiped away the tears of those who were weeping and brought a beaming hope to those in desolation. He paid school fees for many people and turned their erstwhile destitute life into prosperity. 

Following the first Regional Council elections in 1992, HN got what he undoubtedly deserves. He became Regional Councillor of Oniipa Constituency, Governor of Oshikoto Region, a position he served until 1998. In 2011, President Pohamba appointed him Special Advisor to the Governor of Oshikoto Region, a position he served until 2014. HN passed on peacefully at his home on the morning of Friday, 21 September 2018.
May his soul rest in eternal peace!

* Dr Peya Mushelenga is Namibia’s Minister of Urban and Rural Development 


2018-09-24  Staff Report 2

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