THE FOUNDER OF SWAPO by Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro* “WINDHOEK – It all started as the Ovambo People’s Congress (OPC), then it became the Ovamboland People’s Organisation (OPO), later the South West Africa People’s Organisation and eventually today it is known as the Swapo Party of Namibia. Today it is the governing, or the ruling party of the country, as most would popularly refer it to. “I am not one of the founder members of Swapo, I am the founder,” veteran politician, Andimba Toivo ya Toivo puts the historical records straight as he takes us down memory lane to the foundation of the organization that day, 19th April 1960, 50 years ago. Toivo and his fellows had been working in Cape Town from 1952 to 1958, where the idea of a vanguard organization to especially spearhead the demands of contract workers was mooted. In 1957, they first called it the Ovamboland People’s Congress (OPC). By that time the spirit of freedom had set in and ya Toivo and fellows were campaigning for South Africa to let go of her colonial possession of Namibia. In this regard, ya Toivo sent a recorded message to Professor Kerina Mburumba in New York for transmission to the United Nations for South Africa to relinquish Namibia. The demand then was for South Africa to cede Namibia to the Ovaherero Chief’s Council. The organization was first named the OPC because of the initial impression among the community of Namibian workers in Cape Town that only people from the North suffered under the contract labor system, whereby they could only reside in urban areas with a worker’s permit, the notorious pass as it was then known. That recorded message to Professor Kerina in 1958 led to ya Toivo’s deportation from South Africa the same year. Fellow Namibian workers like Emile Apollous, Jacob Kuhanga and Solomon Mifima, however, continued with what they started, renaming the organization the Ovambo land People’s Organization (OPO) in 1959. Under the OPO banner they mobilized the workers towards agitation for liberation. Sooner they also realized that the name OPO was exclusive and not representative of all oppressed Namibians, hence the change to the South West Africa People’s Organization, Swapo, founded in 1960. When hopes for independence were dashed by the negative pronouncements of the International Court of Justice that ruled in favor of Apartheid South Africa continuing its occupation of Namibia, then South West Africa in 1966, the seeds for an armed liberation struggle had already been sown. Namibians were prepared to pay the highest price for their liberation – their blood and their lives. As much as against a strong military force that Apartheid South Africa was then. Toivo and the late Jariretundu Kozonguizi arrived back in Namibia together following his deportation, stopping over in Keetmanshoop for security reasons, thus avoiding falling into the hands of the then South West African security forces, who of course must have been tipped off by their South African security masters of the imminent return of the two and their “terrorism” activities. Through their liberation cells, especially through the contacts of Philip Musirika in Keetmanshoop, then a court interpreter, they obtained the necessary papers under false names to remain in the town where they stayed for four days. Strategically and tactically Kozonguizi proceeded to Windhoek where ya Toivo joined him later where they linked up with the Chief’s Council. The latter wanted him to stay in Windhoek fearing for his security in the North but ya Toivo thought otherwise. The North instead needed intensified mobilization. He was also prepared to face the South West African security might. Indeed, the suspected happened, with him initially detained for three weeks. He also later found himself in chains of the traditional authority of Chief Kambonde for three months. The intimidation, harassment and intermittent arrests by security forces notwithstanding, ya Toivo continued with his mobilization efforts, together with the likes of Eliaser Tuhadeleni, Mzee Kaukungua and Reverend Hamutumbangela. Women activists then were few and far between, according to ya Toivo, he only recalling a certain woman advocate then. At the time of the foundation of the organization, ya Toivo was restricted to the North. Stationed in the North then, ya Toivo could not have been much witness to liberation operations and operatives in central Namibia, especially in view of the security measures that were at their highest peak. Nevertheless he touts the working relationship between Swapo and the Chief’s Council as excellent. These mobilization efforts culminated in August 26, 1966 when the first bullet from the guns of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia was fired at Omuguluwombashe. This unchained bouts of arrests of leading members of the Swapo Party – like Jason Mutumbulwa, John ya Otto and Toivo himself, who landed on the notorious Apartheid South Africa political prison of Robben Island. There he was incarcerated for 20 years, charged under the Terrorism Act. There he met the likes of Nelson Mandela who was to become a non-racial South Africa’s first ever black President. Fifty years later, Namibia is free and the Swapo Party of Namibia has ever since been the leading political force. Twenty years after the country’s independence, ya Toivo would go six feet down a happy person. What he set himself out to achieve has been done. Namibia is free and independent. His only disappointment thus far is the mushrooming of political parties – as much as these may be natural to multiparty democracy. But as many as they are, he thinks of them as of little significant meaning to the country’s democratic system. “The political parties that are mushrooming now to me are taking us back to tribal organisations, which are unfortunate. “We have to have one Namibia and one Nation. When we have one or two opposition political parties – that is fair in checking on the government. That is democracy,” opines ya Toivo. Slowly he thinks the Swapo Party of Namibia has been maturing into a political party, from a liberation movement that it was. Divisions that may have seemed in the party to him are mere disagreements that are expected in human nature. “Even a husband and wife have their disagreements,” says he. On the party’s 50th anniversary, ya Toivo reminds all Namibians that they are brothers and sisters. They are one Nation and together they must preserve what others sacrificed their lives for – the independence and peace that they enjoy today. Together they must build on this for future generations. - (SWAPO 50th Anniversary) *Source: New Era online, April 22 2010”
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 15:01:08 +0000
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