In Memory of Karupumbura Veii
It was on this day, 9 August 2012, a decade ago, that a son of the soil, a friend and a comrade in the liberation struggle, in the personality of Karupumbura Veii, passed on.
For those who do not know him - he was the former president of the South West Africa National Union (Swanu) party; the embodiment of our people’s aspirations; and the first Namibian to be incarcerated at the notorious Robben Island prison, where the cream of our people were held.
The prison was a place of white men's revenge.
His only sin , in the eyes of the diabolic Pretoria regime, was when, on 4 December 1966, he asked about the whereabouts of Jason Mutumbulwa, Johny Ya Otto and Natanael Maxuilili after Omugulubashe, 26 August 1966.
And when the racist Pretoria, in their attempt to probe the incident, cast the dice on the three compatriots, Gerson Veii called tit-for-tat so that the whites could account for the missing three compatriots.
This is part of our rich history, unknown to friends, family, Namibians of all walks of life, comrades, and political leaders, who went into exile and returned in 1989 and know nothing about this, or alternatively, who know this but are involved in a banal disinformation campaign to relegate other people’s contributions to the footnote of history.
Paying tribute to his memory is important because he operated from a platform of a national liberation movement that was viewed as an outcast simply because of a strong adherence to Pan-Africanism, black nationalism, and black consciousness, which were antidotes to white liberalism and oppression.
Liberation
The platform advocated for a people’s republic. It was a platform that opposed both Pretoria’s internal neo-colonial designs and concessionary politics spearheaded by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) and tribal clowns; that struggled to convince the international community that baptising Swapo as the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people would not have the same synergy, latitude, and altitude to liberate our country.
This situation drove a schism between the national liberation movement and limited a section of our national liberation movement's ability to pursue its share of the liberation struggle, ultimately leading to tribalism, disunity, and regionalism, which we are currently complaining about in the current political climate.
The above constitutes the reasons why the late Karupumbura Veii’s name may deliberately not be included in the annals of our Namibian history, on account of having operated under the banner of a national liberation movement (i.e Swanu), which was an outcast.
Swanu’s political programme was dictated mainly by the minimum demands, wishes and aspirations of Namibians, which was unconditional liberation.
Our late Veii heeded the clarion call as part of the national liberation movement by engaging in underground, political and diplomatic struggles as part of the resistance against white oppression within the parameters developed by the UN General Assembly Resolution of 1960 regarding the principles of decolonisation for nations under the colonial occupation.
The narrative that he and others did not engage in the armed struggle, and therefore did not fight for national liberation, is pure rubbish.
Can the same narrative apply to Tjongarero, Maxuilili, Hoebeb, Thlabanello, Witbooi and the rest of the Namibians who belong to my sister party Swapo, who did not go abroad to join the theatre of military operations? Should they be equally labelled that they did not fight? Nonsense!
Principled
The late Veii’s contribution may be summed up in few paragraphs.
He evaded military conscription on the principle that it was imposed on able-bodied Namibians aged 16–35 and left for exile in July 1980 with Willy Kusch.
He took the Namibian political and diplomatic struggle back to Nicosia, Cyprus in 1982, where his national liberation movement was expelled in 2968 from the Afro-Asian People’s Organization (AAPSO), after denouncing co-habitation with imperialism under the guise or pretext of peaceful co-existence.
I had the distinct honour of working with him for three years in the south of the Federal Republic of Germany.
In a post-colonial dispensation, he remained the engine of our politics that defied modern Namibia with its material attraction, detractions, and opportunism in fulfilment of what Steve Biko, and Uatjindua Ndjoze, once remarked, respectively: "That leadership is incompatible with security and comfort", and "it takes both convictions and commitments for a revolutionary to be glued to his political principles".
His contributions are non-exhaustive. They include making contact with the Schlettwein Foundation, which paved the way for the repatriation of relevant Swanu documents on the liberation struggle. He represented us at the ECN Parties Liaison Committee (PLC) and was the contact person with the Embassy of Cuba during 2000.
Despite the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs, he left a legacy that represents the Welwitschia mirabilis.
He passed on a decade ago, but we take comfort from Soren Kierkegaard, who once remarked: "The tyrant dies and his rule ends, but the martyr dies and his rule begins".
*Dr Rihupisa Kandando was a liberation struggle activist who also served as President of Swanu from 1999 to 2007.
For those who do not know him - he was the former president of the South West Africa National Union (Swanu) party; the embodiment of our people’s aspirations; and the first Namibian to be incarcerated at the notorious Robben Island prison, where the cream of our people were held.
The prison was a place of white men's revenge.
His only sin , in the eyes of the diabolic Pretoria regime, was when, on 4 December 1966, he asked about the whereabouts of Jason Mutumbulwa, Johny Ya Otto and Natanael Maxuilili after Omugulubashe, 26 August 1966.
And when the racist Pretoria, in their attempt to probe the incident, cast the dice on the three compatriots, Gerson Veii called tit-for-tat so that the whites could account for the missing three compatriots.
This is part of our rich history, unknown to friends, family, Namibians of all walks of life, comrades, and political leaders, who went into exile and returned in 1989 and know nothing about this, or alternatively, who know this but are involved in a banal disinformation campaign to relegate other people’s contributions to the footnote of history.
Paying tribute to his memory is important because he operated from a platform of a national liberation movement that was viewed as an outcast simply because of a strong adherence to Pan-Africanism, black nationalism, and black consciousness, which were antidotes to white liberalism and oppression.
Liberation
The platform advocated for a people’s republic. It was a platform that opposed both Pretoria’s internal neo-colonial designs and concessionary politics spearheaded by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) and tribal clowns; that struggled to convince the international community that baptising Swapo as the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people would not have the same synergy, latitude, and altitude to liberate our country.
This situation drove a schism between the national liberation movement and limited a section of our national liberation movement's ability to pursue its share of the liberation struggle, ultimately leading to tribalism, disunity, and regionalism, which we are currently complaining about in the current political climate.
The above constitutes the reasons why the late Karupumbura Veii’s name may deliberately not be included in the annals of our Namibian history, on account of having operated under the banner of a national liberation movement (i.e Swanu), which was an outcast.
Swanu’s political programme was dictated mainly by the minimum demands, wishes and aspirations of Namibians, which was unconditional liberation.
Our late Veii heeded the clarion call as part of the national liberation movement by engaging in underground, political and diplomatic struggles as part of the resistance against white oppression within the parameters developed by the UN General Assembly Resolution of 1960 regarding the principles of decolonisation for nations under the colonial occupation.
The narrative that he and others did not engage in the armed struggle, and therefore did not fight for national liberation, is pure rubbish.
Can the same narrative apply to Tjongarero, Maxuilili, Hoebeb, Thlabanello, Witbooi and the rest of the Namibians who belong to my sister party Swapo, who did not go abroad to join the theatre of military operations? Should they be equally labelled that they did not fight? Nonsense!
Principled
The late Veii’s contribution may be summed up in few paragraphs.
He evaded military conscription on the principle that it was imposed on able-bodied Namibians aged 16–35 and left for exile in July 1980 with Willy Kusch.
He took the Namibian political and diplomatic struggle back to Nicosia, Cyprus in 1982, where his national liberation movement was expelled in 2968 from the Afro-Asian People’s Organization (AAPSO), after denouncing co-habitation with imperialism under the guise or pretext of peaceful co-existence.
I had the distinct honour of working with him for three years in the south of the Federal Republic of Germany.
In a post-colonial dispensation, he remained the engine of our politics that defied modern Namibia with its material attraction, detractions, and opportunism in fulfilment of what Steve Biko, and Uatjindua Ndjoze, once remarked, respectively: "That leadership is incompatible with security and comfort", and "it takes both convictions and commitments for a revolutionary to be glued to his political principles".
His contributions are non-exhaustive. They include making contact with the Schlettwein Foundation, which paved the way for the repatriation of relevant Swanu documents on the liberation struggle. He represented us at the ECN Parties Liaison Committee (PLC) and was the contact person with the Embassy of Cuba during 2000.
Despite the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs, he left a legacy that represents the Welwitschia mirabilis.
He passed on a decade ago, but we take comfort from Soren Kierkegaard, who once remarked: "The tyrant dies and his rule ends, but the martyr dies and his rule begins".
*Dr Rihupisa Kandando was a liberation struggle activist who also served as President of Swanu from 1999 to 2007.
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