WALKING THE BOEING 707

The ultimate goal was to seek freedom:”‘It is time to rise up! It’s time that all Namibian people rise up against the apartheid regime” I mumbled to myself as I tried to balance the bucket of water on my head during the cold winter month of July, 1974, weeks before I left Namibia to join SWAPO and fight against the South African colonialists.

I was born in January, 1960 and named Lydia Nghinanghone Shaketange. My traditional name means: ‘I don’t have bad feelings against anybody.’ My home at that time was in Ohakadu, in what is now the Omusati Region of northern Namibia. My relatives still live in Ohakadu, although my father passed away in 1988.

At the age of two, my parents gave me to be brought up by my Uncle Jonas who is also my godfather. I was sent to live in his household as a traditional sign of kindness according to my culture. The Owambos at that time participated in this practice as a means of helping other people, especially those who had few children. Uncle Jonas and his wife, Aunt Olivia, had only three children, but we were eight in our family; seven girls and one boy, called Petrus. I stayed with Uncle Jonas and Aunt Olivia from age two until I was fourteen. During my stay with my Aunt and Uncle, I used to visit my parents, sisters and brother, regularly.

UNCLE ELIA

I heard Uncle Elia talking about freedom! It was his influence that focused my young mind on the evils of apartheid in Namibia. Uncle Elia Ndume, was a younger brother of my Aunt Olivia, with whom I was living from 1962–1974. My Uncle Elia influenced me greatly. He was a freedom fighter. It was said in the village at the time that he went into exile in Tanganyika (now called Tanzania) and later was captured by the South African soldiers around 1966–67. He was said to have been taken to jail in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa. Even now, nineteen years after our independence, the circumstances around his capture are not known to me. But, I can imagine that he was probably among the many other SWAPO fighters who were captured at the front line of the struggle.