Sam Nujoma

Nujoma was born to Helvi Mpingana Kondombolo (1898–2008) and Daniel Uutoni Nujoma (1893–1968).

His mother Helvi was an Uukwambi princess by virtue of descent, and this fact would later reinforce Nujoma's charismatic influence during his political career.

He is the eldest of his parents' eleven children.

Nujoma spent much of his early childhood looking after his siblings and tending to the family's cattle and traditional farming activities.

His educational opportunities were limited.

He started attending a Finnish missionary school at Okahao when he was ten and completed Standard Six, which was as high as possible for blacks during the time.

During World War I, South Africa defeated the German colonial forces in South West Africa and established martial law in the colony after making a peace treaty in July 1915.

After the war, the League of Nations officially assigned the former German colony to the United Kingdom as a mandate under the administration of South Africa.

Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma, (born 12 May 1929) is a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first President of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005.

Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma was born at Etunda, a village in Ongandjera, near the town of Okahao, Ovamboland, Southwest Africa on 12 May 1929.

In 1946, at age 17, he moved to Walvis Bay to live with his aunt, where he began his first employment at a general store for a monthly salary of 10 Shillings.

He would later also work at a whaling station.

While there he was exposed to world politics by meeting soldiers from Argentina, Norway and other parts of Europe who had come during World War II.

When the National Party won the 1948 election in South Africa, it passed laws establishing racial segregation known as apartheid.

It applied these laws to South West Africa as well, which it governed as the de facto fifth province of South Africa.

In 1949, Nujoma moved to Windhoek, where he started work as a cleaner for the South African Railways (SAR), while attending adult night school at St Barnabas Anglican Church School in the Windhoek Old Location, mainly with the aim of improving his English.

He further studied for his Junior Certificate through correspondence at the Trans‐Africa Correspondence College in South Africa.

Nujoma became involved in anti-colonial politics during the 1950s.

Nujoma became involved in politics in the early 1950s through trade unions.

Nujoma's political outlook was shaped by his work experiences, his awareness of the contract labour system, and his increasing knowledge of the independence campaigns across Africa.

In 1957, at age 29, Nujoma resigned from SAR so he could devote more time to politics.

In 1957, a group of Namibians working in Cape Town led by Andimba Toivo ya Toivo formed the Ovamboland People's Congress (OPC).

OPC was opposed to South African policies in South West Africa including the inhumane contract labour system under which people were forced to work for meagre wages.

In December 1958 he was an organizer of the Old Location resistance and was arrested and deported to Ovamboland.

In 1958, ya Toivo sent a petition to the United Nations (UN) to force the apartheid regime to relinquish South West Africa to the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations.

In 1959, he cofounded and served as the first president of the Ovamboland People's Organization (OPO), a nationalist organization advocating an independent Namibia.

Nujoma was a founding member and the first president of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) in 1960.

Prior to 1960, SWAPO was known as the Ovambo People's Organisation (OPO).

He played an important role as leader of the national liberation movement in campaigning for Namibia's political independence from South African rule.

In 1960 he escaped and went into exile in Tanzania where he was welcomed by Julius Nyerere.

He established the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) in 1962 and launched a guerrilla war against the apartheid government of South Africa in August 1966 at Omugulugwombashe, beginning after the United Nations withdrew the mandate for South Africa to govern the territory.

Nujoma led SWAPO during the lengthy Namibian War of Independence, which lasted from 1966 to 1989.

Namibia finally achieved independence from South Africa in 1990, holding its first democratic elections.

SWAPO won a majority and Nujoma was elected as the country's first President on 21 March 1990.

He was re-elected for two more terms in 1994 and 1999.

He published his autobiography Where Others Wavered in 2005.

He has received multiple honors and awards for his leadership, including the Lenin Peace Prize, Indira Gandhi Peace Prize, and the Ho Chi Minh Peace Prize.

The Parliament of Namibia honored him with the titles "Founding President of the Republic of Namibia" and "Father of the Namibian Nation".

Nujoma retired as SWAPO party president on 30 November 2007.

In 2007 SWAPO named him as "Leader of the Namibian Revolution."