1958 | The OPC is renamed the Ovamboland
Peoples Organisation (OPO), as allegedly suggested by Mburumba Kerina. Ben Amathila becomes a member of the OPO. The Leader of the Cabinet Committee: Archives of
Anticolonial Resistance and the Liberation Struggle (AACRLS) at Epukiro Pos 3: Ben
Amathila: 8.07.2003 The Damara Tribal Executive Committee (DTEC) is founded under Dama Chief
David ||Goreseb in Franzfontein. Some members found a little later the Damara Executive
Committee (DEC) as a political party. The DTEC continues to operate. |
02.01. | Construction of the broad "Cape gauge" railway line begins at Kranzberg between Usakos and Karibib. |
15./22.04. | The First Conference of Independent African States issues the "Accra Declaration", concerning the future of dependent territories in Africa. |
May | The Good Offices Committee, under the chairmanship of Charles Arden-Clarke, holds a meeting with the SA Government, without any progress made. The committee decides that the supervisory authority of the UN must be clearly acknowledged as a minimum condition for any rapprochement with the SA Government. |
25.06. | Leader from ELOK becomes Missionary Alppo Hukka with Leonard Auala as his closest co-worker. |
September | The Independent South West Party is established in Walvis Bay for a short period. |
25.09. | Hosea Kutako and the leader of the
Witbooi Nama, Hendrik Samuel Witbooi and his nephew (son of Markus Witbooi) Hendrik
Witbooi again petition the United Nations. Consequently the Trusteeship Committee of the
UN rejects a plan by the UN Good Offices Committee to divide SWA and to incorporate the
southern portion of the territory into SA. Eric Louw, the representative of South Africa
objects and in the course of his objection attacks the credentials of the petitioners and
claims that they are unreliable witnesses. The UN General Assembly extends the mandate of the United Nations Permanent Committee on SWA for a further year. |
December | Herman Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo
succeeds in sending a petition to the United Nations, with the assistance of Mburumba
Kerina and Michael Scott. Consequently he is deported from Cape Town, first to
Keetmanshoop and Windhoek and later to Ovamboland, where he is placed under house arrest
in his home village Oniipa. On the way from Cape Town to Keetmanshoop, Toivo is
accompanied by Jariretundu Kozonguizi. In Keetmanshoop they enter into discussions with a
newly formed organisation, the Society for the Advancement of the African People in South
West Africa (SAAPSWA). They try to persuade the SAAPSWA leader Philip Musirika to launch a
new party , the Namaland Peoples Congress, but nothing comes of it. Toivo, although a member of the Anglican Church, stays in constant, close contact with Leonard Auala from ELOK. Because of OPOs (later SWAPOs) deep roots in the Ovambo people, ELOK subsequently gives its support to this national liberation movement. Members and supporters of SWAPO are also members of the congregation. The people, church and national liberation movement coincide. The new broad-gauge railway line reaches Omaruru. |
05.12. | The newspaper Namib Times is established by Paul Vincent. The newspaper is first published in Swakopmund (until 15.09.1961) and later in Walvis Bay. |