Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma

(756 total words in this text)
(236 Reads)  

Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma (born May 12, 1929) was the first President of Namibia. He was inaugurated in 1990 and was subsequently re-elected in 1994 and 1999, serving until 2005.

Early life

Nujoma was born in the north of the country, in o­ngandjera, Ovambo. His mother, Mpingana Helvi Kondombolo, was still alive as of 2005, and over 100 years old.

 President of SWAPO

In 1960 he became the first President of SWAPO (South West African People's Organization), having co-founded its forerunner, the Ovamboland People's Organization, in the late 1950s. At the time South Africa administered the land under a policy of apartheid, or division, in which the best resources were reserved for those classified white, while indigenous Namibians were treated as inferior and forbidden from active participation in their country. After years of asking the UN to ensure the ruling power South Africa released control of South West Africa, he authorized armed resistance in 1966.

During the struggle, Nujoma took the combat name "Shafiishuna", meaning "lightning", as the name was in his family o­n his father's side.^[1]

SWAPO's struggle for independence the South African military easily dealt with SWAPO while simultaneously being busy with military campaigns in other countries.There has also been a question mark over how much fighting, if any, Nujoma actually took part in.

 President of Namibia

As head of SWAPO, Nujoma was unanimously declared president upon the victory of SWAPO in a United Nations-supervised election in 1989, and was sworn in as president by UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar o­n March 21, 1990.

In 1992 Norway decided to stop drought relief to Namibia in response to purchase of a new expensive presidential jet and two new VIP helicopters. The planes were bought just few weeks after Sam Nujoma had appealed to the international community for drought relief aid.^[2]

Nujoma initiated a plan for land reform, in which land would be redistributed from whites (who, despite constituting o­nly a small percentage of the population, own a disproportionately large amount of the nation's farmland) to blacks, although the land reform is being done o­n a more gradual and long-term basis than nearby Zimbabwe's land reform. Nujoma has been vocal in his support for Zimbabwe and its president, Robert Mugabe, in the face of the criticism the Zimbabwean government has received from the West for its land reform program. Under Zimbabwe's land reform programs, white farmers' lands have been seized without compensation.

Nujoma was elected to another term in December 1994 with 76.3% of the vote.^[3] The constitution of Namibia was changed to allow Nujoma to run for a third five-year term in 1999; this was justified o­n the grounds that Nujoma was not directly elected for his first term, and the change applied o­nly to Nujoma. He won the 1999 election with 76.8% of the vote.^[3] The constitution did not allow Nujoma to run again in November 2004 for a fourth term, and there was not much enthusiasm even within SWAPO to change it again; Hifikepunye Pohamba, described by some as Nujoma's "hand-picked successor", was elected as the candidate for the presidential election instead during the SWAPO congress held o­n the 30 May 2004, winning against two other candidates, Nahas Angula and Hidipo Hamutenya. The latter had been dismissed from his post of Foreign Affairs minister by Nujoma barely two days before the SWAPO congress. Pohamba was elected with a large majority and was sworn in as president o­n March 21, 2005. Nujoma will remain head of the SWAPO party at least until 2007 and remains a powerful and influential figure in the country.^[4]

 Post-presidency

While Pohamba replaced Nujoma as the president of Namibia, Nujoma stayed o­n as president of the ruling SWAPO party. There is speculation that he will be re-elected as SWAPO leader in 2007 and that he is planning to run for president again in 2009.^[5] In the coming months before the party conference a lot of discussion is expected about Nujoma's intentions for not letting the presidency of SWAPO go to someone else. Some say it's about fear that actions from his past will come out and partly destroy his image as the o­ne who did not waver. His alleged connections to the CIA are being exposed by the director of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in Namibia.^[6]