“Go well-accomplished freedom fighter who never blew his own trumpet.”
Some people are boastful about having fought for independence, even those who were typically spectators, while the truest freedom fighters play down their effective and meaningful roles in the struggle for independence.
Though an accomplished freedom fighter, effective mobiliser and weathered diplomat, Obed Tulinane Emvula was a humble man who did not blow his own trumpet. Those who met him after independence would think he was not a big shot in the struggle for Namibia’s independence.
He was born of Gabriel Emvula, a school principal and preacher who founded Okando Lutheran Parish in Omusati region and Martha Nahenda Ndengu, who previously worked as a house helper for Finnish missionaries. He acquired reading and writing skills at Okando missionary school and later went to Nakayale Boys’ School, before proceeding to Ongwediva, where he performed outstandingly and was selected to be among the first pupils for Standard Six that was opened at Okahao.
He returned to Ongwediva where he completed Form II and proceeded to Form VIII at the prestigious Oshigambo High School where he matriculated in 1965. Subsequently, Tulinane attended Paulinum Theological Seminary at Otjimbingwe, from 1968 to 1969 and thereafter continued theological studies at Maphumulo Theological College Natal, South Africa, from 1970 to 1971. Though a trained theologian, Tulinane was not ordained, but just worked for the church at Oniipa.
While at Oniipa, he became a member of the SWAPO Regional Executive Committee, a movement he joined earlier in 1962. That leadership, under John Ya Otto GwaNiipupu was in constant liaison with Patrick Iyambo, well known as Lungada, a SWAPO guerrilla fighter who played hide and seek with the colonial administration for nine years, since the first battle at Omugulugombashe, until his return into exile.
During the period from 1972 to 1974, Tulinane distinguished himself as an effective mobiliser and astute political organiser. To mention, but a few, in 1972, he was among the SWAPO leaders who organised a peaceful demonstration to meet the United Nations Secretary-General, Dr Kurt Waldheim, at Ondangwa, to present to him the situation in Namibia. In 1973, he was part of the SWAPO leadership that organised a rally at Engela, during the difficult time when the movement was banned, and in August of the same year, they organised a large rally at Ondangwa, in support of SWAPO leaders who were being tried by the apartheid colonial regime.
Being a handyman, he invented a loudspeaker, which was used to address people at the rallies, but oh no! – it was smashed by the colonial forces at a SWAPO meeting in Okahao, on the instruction of a well-known member of the Bantustan government.
On 18 June 1974, Tulinane left for exile together with Eddie Amkongo, Erastus Shamena, Nghidimondjila Shoombe, Jimmy Amupala and Andreas Nuukwawo and the following year, 1975, he was appointed SWAPO Deputy Chief Representative in New York, deputising Theo-Ben Gurirab. Following the election of Aaron Shihepo as SWAPO Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs in 1976, Tulinane succeeded him as Chief Representative of SWAPO in Algeria, where he served for two years, from 1977 to 1979.
On 13 October 1978, SWAPO opened a representational office in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and in the following year the movement deployed Tulinane to that country as Chief Representative. That mission also covered Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania (until a mission was opened in 1982) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
Tulinane was an assiduous diplomat, during whose tenure about 300 Namibians received tertiary education in the GDR. The GDR government further sponsored the highest number of SWAPO students in vocational training institutes, totalling about 600.
From 1981, following discussions between SWAPO and the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) Party, tickets were made available for 90 children from SWAPO refugee camps in Angola to go to school in Germany. The SED further provided a house belonging to Woermann Brock family in Bellin, a town 200 outside Berlin. A kindergarten was opened for SWAPO children coming from Refugee camps in Angola and Zambia, with seven women, including Kovambo Nujoma, the wife of SWAPO President Sam Nujoma, as teachers and guardians.
During Tulinane’s diplomatic tenure, the GDR further provided military support to SWAPO in the form of training, uniforms and equipment, placing that country second in terms of military support to the armed struggle for Namibia’s liberation.
Wounded PLAN combatants were treated at a special clinic Klikumbuch, in Berlin. Tulinane’s hardwork did not go unnoticed as in 1986, he was promoted to the position of SWAPO Deputy Secretary for Mobilisation and Orientation, deputising Kaveke Katamila. This took him to his old hobby prior to leaving for exile and he continued to perform his duties with distinction.
Following the implementation of UNSC Resolution 435 of 1978, Tulinane returned to Namibia on 18 July 1989 with the SWAPO leadership headed by Hage Geingob, the current Head of State. In 1990, he was appointed Deputy-Director General of the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), specifically tasked by SWAPO to ensure transformation. This onerous task brought him in constant collusion with members of the old dispensation at the NBC, including the Director-General, resulting in the board relieving the two top brass of their duties. The SWAPO leadership appreciated his efforts and President Nujoma appointed him Member of the Public Service Commission, in 1997.
He served in that position until 2008. He remained active in community affairs, especially in ELCIN mission activities, until God called him home on 01 January 2024.
Tulinane’s personality was largely shaped by the totems of the two clans where he descended from. His Akuusinda (member of the snake clan) attributes manifested themselves in his activism as a political mobiliser. Like a black mamba, he pumped poison into the enemy, sending chills in his entire political nerve system. The attribute of his paternal clan, Aakwanangombe (cattle clan) shaped his diplomatic perspicacity and equanimity.
Tulinane was further an easy going person. I vividly remember his sense of ubuntu when I spent some hours with him at his house in Okando a few years back. He would time and again call me to give genuine advice on what the government should do to address the plight of the people. May his soul rest in eternal peace!
* By Dr Peya Mushelenga, MP
Minister of Information and Communication Technology.