History has been distorted - Kerina

“People are left in the dark and children are being taught false history. Even now when you read some of this stuff, it is just junk.” These were the words of veteran politician Mburumba Kerina during a recent interview with Namibian Sun. Kerina feels that much of Namibian history has been distorted, including the role that the people of Rehoboth played during the armed liberation struggle. “We have many teachers, some of them fly-by-night who have joined the struggle after independence and are now pretending that they are members of Swapo since its inception,” said Kerina. “I have never given this history to anybody and I hope you share it with your youth and colleagues responsibly so that they can know where the struggle started and who the forerunners were.” He said before he left for America he was a junior tribal policeman. “At the time the OvaHerero Chiefs Council was not composed of the OvaHereros alone but had Namas, Damaras, Owambo-speaking people as well as the Beukes [family] from the Coloured community.” Kerina added that Reverend Michael Scott, who was key in the petition to the United Nations (UN) on the situation in the then South West Africa, was assisted by the Afro-Asian group, especially India, to present the first petition. After some time Kerina obtained a scholarship to study medicine and also travelled to America. “During the pre-med time Chief Hosea Kutako sent me a letter indicating that since I was a stone’s throw away from the UN, I should say something as a representative of the people born in South West Africa.” He said at the time Hermanus Beukes from Rehoboth was also petitioning the UN in letters written in Afrikaans, which were translated. Kerina went on to narrate the process leading up to him delivering his petition in front of the UN General Assembly in 1956. “Then came a question that the UN does not just give serious attention to petitions sent by traditional leaders, we must form a political party here and that party together with the traditional leaders should send petitions to the UN.” According to him, he started to make contact with Paul Helmuth, Founding President Sam Nujoma and struggle icon Andimba Toivo ya Toivo, who at the time was arrested and deported to the North. “I suggested to them that the only people who would understand the struggle and feel its pain were the contract labourers, so we started with the Okaholo area [under the Oukwanyama traditional leadership] people. “It was these young people who used to be sold by the chiefs in the north to the Boers. They were the first recipient of the idea that the party [Swapo] must be formed.” The party, initially called the Ovamboland People’s Congress (OPC), was formed with Reverend Theofilus Hamutumbangela, the first black Anglican priest in the country, as its chairman. Then came the idea that the name was too tribal and Jakob Kuhanga was one of the people advocating for a name change. “When that demand reached me in New York, I decided to send a message through Uncle Paul [Helmuth] to Windhoek that we must change the name to OPO and they did that.” The party members wanted an organisation that would not only be confined to the northern parts of the country, Kerina said, and he proposed the name Swapo. “[Nujoma], having become the first president of OPO, was elected at Brakwater as the first president of Swapo.” He said some of the people became tired of petitioning the UN and it was decided that young people should be send abroad for military training under the leadership of Nujoma, marking the start of the armed liberation struggle. “It was complementary to what was happening at the UN, and we continued. Today you have a free Namibia.” ELVIS MURARANGANDA