Windhoek
The Windhoek City Council last Friday honoured late King Kahimemua Nguvauva by naming the longest street in the new suburb of Academia Extension 1 after him.
Ovambanderu Paramount Chief Kilus Karearua Munyuku III Nguvauva, who is also the deputy minister of works and transport, in his acceptance speech said his great grandfather made a remarkable contribution to the liberation struggle for which he paid with his life. The king was the first leader to be executed by German forces because of his political beliefs and ideals during the battle of Otjunda in 1896.
Nguvauva thanked the city fathers for the fitting acknowledgement as the naming took place on the eve of commemorating heroes like late chief Munjuku II Nguvauva and late chief Peter F Nguvauva at Okahandja over the weekend.
Windhoek mayor Muezee Kazapua said the council pledged to undo the legacy of the divided past and would revitalise the hope of a Namibia that is rising from the ashes of the brutal colonial occupation that King Nguvauva sacrificed his life for. “It is in this spirit that over the past years the Windhoek City Council has been naming and renaming streets around the city,” he said.
Kazapua described King Nguvauva as one of the greatest patriots of the national resistance against colonial oppression, which was imposed upon Namibians of all races by German forces in the 1880s.
Many streets in Academia Extension 1 are named after Namibia’s fallen heroes and heroines.
According to mayor Kazapua streets in the city with names that have no meaning will be changed in future.
The council recently renamed Monte Cristo Road after the late Peter Nanyemba, who was the commander of the Swapo military wing, the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia, during the liberation struggle.
Legion Street in Soweto was renamed after Reverend Bartholomeus Karuaera, who died in 2013 at the age of 93. His father was one of the prisoners at Shark Island at Lüderitz during the German genocide in Namibia. Karuaera was a leading member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church as well as Swapo member. He was also part of the resistance against the relocation of Namibians from the Old Location to Katutura during the apartheid era.
As chairman of the Chief’s Council of the late Chief Hosea Kutako, Karuaera was involved in the drafting of petitions to the United Nations arguing for Namibia’s independence. Another street, Spreuke Street in Katutura was renamed after Archbishop Peter Daniel Tjijombo. He was the founder of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission in Namibia. The 79-year-old liberation stalwart founded the ministry in the late 1950s.
Tjijombo suffered at the hands of the apartheid regime due to his affiliation to Swapo and this also led to some in the OvaHerero community labelling his church a Swapo ministry.
The bishop is one of the beneficiaries who received a house under the veterans programme. He was also part of the Swapo delegation that consisted of Chief Munjuku Nguvauva II, Daniel Kaova, Jaendikua Tjongarero, Nathaniel Maxuilili, Hendrik Witbooi, Reverend Erwin Tjirimuje and others who went to Zambia to meet the party’s leadership in exile to brief them about the struggle inside the country.
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