By Lily Kampani in Windhoek, Namibia:
Hundreds of mourners including current and former heads of state and government, as well as other foreign dignitaries including Malawi’s Vice President Dr Michael Usi, came together on Friday at the Independence Stadium in Windhoek, Namibia, to honour and memorialise former Namibian President Sam Nujoma.
The leaders highlighted late Nujoma’s lifetime achievements as a true African hero and Namibia’s liberator.
Nujoma, who led his country to independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990 and later served as its first president from 1990 to 2005, died on February 8, at the age of 95.
Namibian President Dr Nangolo Mbumba paid tribute to Nujoma’s spirit of iron discipline, stoic endurance, decisiveness, daring determination and fearlessness, driven by the vision of the total independence of Namibia and freedom of its people.
“Sam Nujoma has left his revolutionary footprints across the continent and the world at large. Throughout his life, Nujoma would consistently extol the revolutionary virtues of other valiant heroes, who preferred death over slavery, and invoked their resistance as the legitimate spiritual foundation, on which the Namibian liberation struggle was anchored,” Mbumba said.
Mbumba noted that although Nujoma climbed to the highest peak of achievement, becoming the Founding Father of the Nation and the Leader of the Namibian Revolution, his ultimate triumph and success lay in the obstacles he faced in his life and overcame them with courage, determination and elegance.
Angolan President, João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, who is also the acting chair of the African Union, commended Nujoma for being an outstanding figure in contemporary African history, a hero of the Namibian people and an unbreakable symbol of Southern Africa’s liberation struggle against colonial domination and the Apartheid regime.
“To men with the temper of Sam Nujoma and other great leaders in the history of Africa’s liberation, to us who today have the responsibility to follow them, inspired by the examples they left us.
“It is up to us, in the context of an almost impossible mission, to internalize their spirit of selflessness and dedication to African causes and lead our continent in such a way as to achieve the dreams and objectives for which they fought and believed until the end of their days, those of being able to build a free, developed Africa that is jealous of its values deeper,” he stated.
Zimbabwean President and current SADC Chairperson, Emmerson Mnangagwa, also venerated Nujoma’s legacy saying his humility, compassion and steadfastness motivated all who knew him.
“He taught us that leadership is not about power but serving people. We must continue to work together as a nation in the southern region and African continent so that his vision can live on through our collective efforts as Africans,” he emphasized.
Nujoma will finally be laid to rest on Saturday at Heroes Acre, a war memorial for brave individuals who fought for the independence and dignity of the nation.
