By Paul T. Shipale
WHEN the late comrade Peter Nanyemba, affectionately called “Ndlimani Yomukunda Gwamupolo”, a member of the SWAPO Central Committee and Secretary for Defence, passed on in a fatal and tragic road accident on the 1st April 1983, the Central Committee of SWAPO announced the sad news of his passing on saying “the fatal road accident which took away the life of Comrade Eneas Peter Nanyemba, has dealt SWAPO and the Namibian Revolution a severe blow. It has deprived us of an outstanding leader, a consistent revolutionary and able commander who was a competent organiser and a prodigious thinker who possessed unique ability for incisive analysis of events and situation. He was, above all, a man of unlimited loyalty and belief in the aspirations of the people and in the goals of our national liberation revolution”.
The Central Committee of SWAPO also described Nanyemba as “a Comrade-in-arms, a respected leader, fearless commander, a valued advisor and an admired and sociable companion.” On his part, Comrade Sam Nujoma, in his capacity as then president of SWAPO and Commander-In-Chief of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the military wing of SWAPO, said the name Nanyemba would be written in the golden books in an independent Namibia.
The eulogy read by the late Peter Mweshihange, then SWAPO Secretary for Foreign Relations, said Nanyemba was born at Okatale in the area of Olukonda. He first joined the Ovamboland People’s Organisation (OPO) in 1958 in Walvis Bay. When SWAPO was formed in 1960, he became one of its leading activists since its inception and was elected its Secretary for the Walvis Bay Branch where he worked tirelessly and courageously to mobilise the masses of our people and urged them to join SWAPO.
His effectiveness as a political organiser and an inspiring leader caught the attention of the fascist South African colonial police in our country. As a result, he was arrested in 1961, detained, and finally deported to northern Namibia.
Upon his arrival in the northern part of Namibia, Nanyemba continued with his anti-colonial agitation and mobilisation of the masses of our oppressed people to resist colonial domination and economic exploitation. In 1962, Nanyemba left Namibia in order to join SWAPO’S revolutionary network abroad. He served for the year 1963 as SWAPO Chief Representative in the then British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, now Botswana. He then moved to Tanzania to become SWAPO Chief Representative in that country from 1964 to 1969.
It was during this period that the late Nanyemba gave the best of himself to build the nucleus of PLAN. It was at that time also that he came face to face with the challenge of international politics and diplomacy. As Chief Representative he acquired his first real practical schooling in the science of modern administration and international relations. In all these endeavours, Nanyemba distinguished himself as a highly competent and talented leader.
On the basis of his improvement, Nanyemba was elected in January 1970, to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of SWAPO as well as the Secretary for Defence, at the SWAPO Consultative Congress, held at Tanga, Tanzania.
In his capacity as Secretary for Defence, a position he held until his untimely death, Nanyemba had been intimately connected and closely identified with the growth, the expansion and the consolidation of PLAN, so much so that over the years it has become virtually impossible to think of PLAN without thinking about Nanyemba.
Nujoma said Nanyemba had, as defence secretary of SWAPO for 13 years, greatly contributed to the training, growth and strengthening of PLAN from a force of platoons to a popular army of companies, battalions and brigades, capable and prepared to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy forces. Nujoma also described the late Nanyemba as ‘a brilliant military strategist, a great tactician, a rapid thinker, capable of grasping and taking quick action in order to contain any eruptive situation’.
Indeed, in the process of the building and consolidation of PLAN, Nanyemba was able to distinguish himself as a brilliant organiser, an efficient administrator and a strategic and tactical genius. He would particularly be remembered for his remarkable sense of details and analytical depth, said the late Mweshihange in the eulogy.
Indeed, the very significant contribution which he made to the building and consolidation of SWAPO and PLAN, is in its self a towering monument to his brilliance as an organiser, and to his devotion to the cause of his people, as a Namibian Revolutionary who became inseparable from the successive military victories scored against the minority white South African apartheid regime.
True to type he fell as a hero in the execution of his duties and he is credited to have said the famous revolutionary words at the launching of the armed liberation struggle in 1966, “We will cross many rivers of blood through our long march to freedom.” His last words, at the threshold of the Namibian People’s complete victory over the forces of oppression, at 16h30 on April 1st, 1983, were “I know that I am in a critical condition, but the struggle and the war of liberation must continue.”
Nanyemba was a simple, humble and dedicated leader and one of the architects of the foundation of our independence. History has endorsed his foresightedness. I therefore applaud the Namibian Government’s decision to bring his remains, together with those of other brave sons and daughters of the land of the brave such as Commander Isack Shikongo “Pondo”, Commander Mac Namara, Secretary Kaluenya and Secretary Mavulu, back home to the land of their forbearers for which they laid down their precious lives.
• Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of my employer and this newspaper but solely reflect my personal views as a citizen.
South African