The headline, as it stands, is a better way of describing the Founding Father of the Republic of Namibia, Dr Sam Nuyoma. He is renowned for being an architect of the liberation struggle to unfetter Namibia from the apartheid regime of South Africa.

He was the founder of South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), which waged an armed struggle against apartheid. Dr Nuyoma led the struggle until Namibia achieved independence in 1990. Namibians overwhelmingly elected him to become the first President of a free Namibia.

He retired and was conveyed the title of Father of the Nation. After such a hectic struggle and leading the country for 15 years, President Nujoma decided to go back to school to study Geology. That move made him a unique leader. He believed “if you have to succeed, you have to invest in education.”

During his lifetime, Dr Nuyoma scooped many international honour awards, which include Lenin Peace Prize (Russia), Medaglia Pontifical Prize (the Pope’s Medal, Vatican), and Ho chi Minh Peace Award in (Vietnam). Others are Indira Gandhi Peace Prize (India), Order of Jose Marti (Cuba), Order of the Nation Flag (Korea), Order of Liberty (Portugal) and Order of Good Hope (South Africa). Above all, Dr Nuyoma has attained 15 honorary doctorates from different universities around the world.

Dr Nuyoma had a second home in his heart, Tanzania. He was not only a friend of Tanzania, but also a person who once travelled around the world as a Tanzanian citizen in the name of Sam Mwakangale.

Who’s who Tanzania is grateful to Dr Armas Shikongo of the Department of Psychology at the University of Namibia for travelling from Windhoek to Otavi to conduct this interview for us. May you always be blessed Dr Shikongo.

Shikongo: Please, tell us about your journey to Tanzania.

Nuyoma: I arrived in Dar es Salaam around June 1959. Mwalimu Julius Nyerere had just returned from New York, where he had gone to petition the United Nations (UN) on independence matters for Tanganyika. The British had agreed that Tanganyika should proceed with independence towards the end of 1960 or 1961. Mwalimu briefed me on how to petition the UN since I was also on my way to New York to appeal to the Committee of South West Africa. He also arranged accommodation for me next to his residence. I travelled to Dar es Salaam without a passport.

By that time, Tanganyika was still under the British Protectorate, so Mwalimu Nyerere went to the British Governor and told him that I was in Dar es Salaam. The Governor asked how I had entered the country and Mwalimu replied that he didn’t know. The Governor was kind enough and allowed me to stay, but advised me to find a way out as I had entered the country. Mwalimu Nyerere assisted me to buy an air ticket from Dar es Salaam to Ghana via Nairobi and Khartoum, where I stayed for about a week. From Khartoum, I flew with Air Lebanon to Lagos, then to Accra, where I attended a Pan-African conference organised by Nkwame Nkrumah.

From Accra, I went to New York to petition before the Committee of South West Africa, the UN’s committee which was dealing with decolonisation issues. I stayed in New York for six months, and then in January 1961, I returned to Dar es Salaam to establish SWAPO’s operational headquarters with the assistance of Mwalimu Nyerere. In fact, all freedom fighters from Namibia (South-West Africa) at that time), South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia were in Tanzania. We all centralised our freedom activities in Dar es Salaam and Mwalimu Nyerere supported us. I must say that, Mwalimu Nyerere was a far-sighted revolutionary leader of our time. He told us that some of us would not get freedom easily and peacefully like they had done in Tanganyika because of colonial systems in our countries.

For example, the Boers such as Malan and Verwoerd really wanted to make Southern Africa their permanent colony for themselves. Mwalimu Nyerere later provided for us a training ground at Kongwa, near Dodoma, as our military training camp to prepare ourselves and fight for our liberation. President Nyerere invited the Chinese to train our people and cadres in modern guerrilla warfare tactics. That was how we started training our freedom fighters. Tanzania was the only country that got its independence peacefully, the rest of us were accommodated there as our base for the liberation struggle. That was the unique role that Mwalimu Nyerere played in the struggle for the liberation of Africa as a whole, particularly Southern Africa.

Shikongo: How long have you been in contact with Tanzania because one of the questions asked here is how people in Tanzania seem to have so much love for you?

Nuyoma: I have been in Tanzania since mid-1959, although I have been in and out. I have been just like a Tanzanian, I acquired Tanzanian citizenship. My name was Sam Mwakangale. The name Mwakangale is for an ethnic group in Mbeya, a region in southern Tanzania that boarders Zambia.

Shikongo: The most common language in Tanzania is Kiswahili. Did you learn some Kiswahili?

Nuyoma: Yes, “Habari gani? or “Unatoka wapi?” Kiswahili is a mixture of Bantu languages, so I easily learnt Kiswahili.

Shikongo: How did you find and experience the people of Tanzania?

Nuyoma: I was in and out of Dar es Salaam, our capital and I had many friends. So, I was welcomed well. I was like half-Tanzanian and half-Namibian.

Shikongo: What was the role of Nyerere and Tanzania in the struggle for Pan-Africanism?

Nuyoma: President Nyerere was a Pan-Africanist, who believed in African unity and he did everything to ensure the total liberation of the continent of Africa was achieved. So, Tanzania spent more money on assisting national liberation movements in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola as well as Kenya and Uganda – the countries which were not independent by that time. All of them were assisted practically and financially by the Tanganyika Government and when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was formed in 1963, President Nyerere and his Tanzanian government offered free buildings for offices and accommodation in Dar es Salaam for the Headquarters of the OAU Liberation Committee. There was total commitment on the part of President Nyerere and the Tanzanian Government towards the total liberation of the African Continent. This made Tanzanians treat us as friends and relations.

Shikongo: This is quite important, even for us in Namibia, we need to know about this history for us to be informed about it as much as possible because this connection is critical for us to understand the support and the commitment that different African leaders really gave to our freedom fighting in Namibia. Your Excellency, would you also tell us about SWAPO Tanga Conference?

Nujoma: We needed the Tanga conference to organise ourselves. By that time, we in SWAPO, were not well-organised and so we needed that kind of gathering to prepare ourselves in a more structured way to liberate our country by using armed struggle.

Shikongo: Tanga was a place where the conference was held. From what did the name Tanga come?

Nujoma: It is the name of a town in Tanzania. During that conference, we re-organised SWAPO. We

decided that if the apartheid regime of South Africa did not grant us freedom and independence, we would launch armed liberation. So, our Secretary of Defence was tasked with the responsibility of training SWAPO cadres at Kongwa in Tanzania and it was there, where we trained our freedom fighters and later in Egypt and Algeria. I got from Algeria two PPSH machine guns, two TT-pistols and brought them by plane from Algiers to Cairo, Nairobi and to Dar es Salaam. From Dar es Salaam I took them by road through Zambia across Zambezi River and Kwando River into Namibia and our freedom fighters took those weapons to Omugulugwoombashe, where we launched the armed liberation struggle on August 26, 1966. Without the assistance of Tanzania, we wouldn’t have probably found weapons to launch the armed liberation struggle. Our liberation struggle wouldn’t have continued without the help of President Nyerere. Tanzania through Mwalimu Nyerere helped us with training and all facilities until we achieved our independence.

Shikongo: Yes, I remember reading about this part also in your autobiography and recently there was a documentary called “the Paths to Freedom” and for me it was moving to see the vision and the commitment especially the first group that came with those weapons. That was for me very touching and in fact I showed it to my students and some of them didn’t even know about this history and were so moved and they really wanted more of this history.

Nujoma: Yes, our freedom fighters walked from Tanzania, the Indian Ocean, to the Atlantic Ocean, where we launched the armed liberation struggle at Omugulugwoombashe with weapons that I took from Algiers.

Shikongo: In Kongwa-Dodoma there is a graveyard of some of the sons and daughters of Namibian freedom fighters. How does the Republic of Namibia ensure Namibians know about this graveyard, basically keeping in touch, visiting them and honouring them?

Nuyoma: From time to time we visit Tanzania and also Kongwa to honour our comrades who are laid to rest there.

Shikongo: Is it more like from the party’s side (SWAPO) or the Government?

Nuyoma: Well, normally it is from the Government, especially from our High Commission in Tanzania.

Shikongo: What message do you have for Tanzanians?

Nuyoma: I would like to express our profound gratitude and appreciation to the revolutionary thought of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania. We will always remember when he said: “Let us fight for the liberation (of Africa) for nobody will fight for us if we don’t fight and liberate ourselves”. We remember him, and when we achieved our independence, President Mwalimu Nyerere came to Windhoek and addressed the University of Namibia.

Shikongo: Yes, I remember, I attended that address. It was my first time to see him live and hear him directly speaking. He was a very humorous man and liked to make jokes.

Nuyoma: Tanzania played a vital role in the liberation of the African Continent. Without writing the history properly, I don’t think we can do justice to the history of the liberation of the African Continent. In the region of SADC, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) achieved independence in June 1960 before Tanzania, but there was confusion at the beginning. The Belgians did not want to leave and they killed Lumumba in that process and that confusion started, but President Nyerere made it clear that the African Continent was liberated. We are grateful to Tanzania for having committed itself to the liberation of the African Continent.

Shikongo: Your Excellency, we are wondering when you will next visit Tanzania. It is like they are missing you a lot!

Nujoma: I just visited Tanzania on the 50^th Anniversary of the Tanganyika-Zanzibar Union in Dar es Salaam, but I look forward to visiting Tanzania very soon because I have many friends there. Some of them like Ambassador John Malecela, who was Tanganyika’s and later Tanzania’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

Shikongo: Is he still alive?

Nujoma: Yes, he is still alive although many of the colleagues have departed, but some of them are still alive. So, Tanzania is still my second home in my mind.

Shikongo: Yes, I definitely imagined, and can now understand why. Well, anything else you would like to say in addition to what you have already told us, may be some extra words with regard to Tanzania?

Nuyoma: I just wish that the total achievement of Africa under one government under one flag will be achieved. That is why here in Namibia we still fly the African flag along the National Flag and we sing our National Anthem alongside the African Union’s anthem.

Shikongo: For me now, if I can also reflect back home and I am sure 100 per cent certain that it was mainly because of you and your influence that some of these Pan-Africanist messages and activities come from. You know, you made me curious to find, to want to know how Tanzania got its independence because I do not think I am very well-informed about it.

Nujoma: Tanzania achieved its independence because the British agreed that a former German colony, which became the UN Trusteeship territory, to be prepared for self-determination. It was when President Nyerere and other politicians under Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) demanded the British to give them independence.

Shikongo: Did they fight an armed struggle or was it through negotiations?

Nuyoma: No. it was just through political mass mobilisation. Oh! Yes, Nyerere was a very organised political leader, they started with political parties, through Pan-Africanism. We learned much from President Nyerere that is why even at our University of Namibia you still find Prof Mwandemele.

Shikongo: Now that you have spoken about Prof Mwandemele, would you please briefly tell us about him?

Nuyoma: Mshingeni is a true Pan-Africanist, the one who founded the University of Namibia (UNAM) and from time to time he is still coming to Namibia. He is the brainchild of that university.