WINDHOEK – Namibia’s founding President, Sam Nujoma, has died at the age of 95.
Nujoma, who led Namibia’s fight for independence from South Africa, passed away on Saturday after a prolonged illness.
He had been hospitalized for the past three weeks, battling a condition from which he “could not recover,” President Nangolo Mbumba announced in a statement on Sunday.
With the “utmost sorrow and sadness,” Mbumba said he was announcing “the passing of our revered freedom fighter and revolutionary leader.”
“Our Founding Father lived a long and consequential life during which he exceptionally served the people of his beloved country,” he added.
Born to poor farmers from the Ovambo tribe, Nujoma was the eldest of 10 children.
In 1949, he took a job as a railway sweeper near Windhoek while attending night classes.
There, he met Herero tribal chief Hosea Kutako, who was lobbying to end apartheid rule in Namibia, then known as South West Africa.
Kutako became his mentor, guiding him as he became politically active among Black workers resisting a government order to relocate to a new township in the late 1950s.
At Kutako’s request, Nujoma began life in exile in 1960, leaving behind his wife and four children.
That same year, he was elected president of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) and shuttled from capital to capital, seeking international support for Namibia’s independence.
SWAPO launched an armed struggle in 1966 after South Africa refused a UN order to relinquish its mandate over the former German colony, arguing that it was a buffer against the advance of communism in Africa.
The resource-rich sub-Saharan country finally won its independence in 1990.
Nujoma won the first democratic election and, over his three terms, presided over a period of relative economic prosperity and political stability.
His policies on AIDS earned him international recognition, though he faced criticism for refusing to rehabilitate several hundred SWAPO members who had been imprisoned in Angola as suspected spies for apartheid South Africa.
Nujoma was also known for his strong rhetoric against homosexuality, which he called “madness,” and in 2001, he warned that gays and lesbians would be arrested or deported.
His handpicked successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, easily won the presidency in 2005, but Nujoma was widely seen as the power behind the throne and remained politically influential for several more years.
“He inspired us to rise to our feet and to become masters of this vast land of our ancestors,” President Mbumba said.
President-elect Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah paid tribute to Nujoma’s “visionary leadership and dedication to liberation and nation-building,” saying his efforts “laid the foundation for our free, united nation.”
“Let us honor his legacy by upholding resilience, solidarity, and selfless service,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah, who will be sworn in as president on 21 March after winning last November’s elections.
Nujoma’s leadership and his role in Namibia’s liberation struggle align him with some of Africa’s most significant independence-era figures, including Robert Mugabe, Samora Machel, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, and Kenneth Kaunda. These leaders played pivotal roles in their respective nations’ fights against colonial and apartheid rule, shaping the continent’s political trajectory.