1952 | The SWA Student Body (SWASB) is
formed by "black" SWA students studying at SA universities. It continues the
work of the African Improvement Society (AIS). It seeks to prepare the ground for a broad
nationalist movement. Mburumba Kerina (alias Eric Getzen) leaves for the USA to take up a scholarship at Lincoln University. The UN General Assembly demands, for the seventh time, the Union of South Africas trusteeship administration of SWA. This is rejected by SA. Lobster workers in Lüderitz strike for higher wages. It is here that the South African trade union opens a branch of the Food and Canning Workers Union (FCWU). Ovambo contract labourers also go on strike Walvis Bay during this year and in 1953. The strikes are ruthlessly crushed by the SWA Administration. In 1953 several workers are shot dead. |
March | The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) obtains a foothold in the Ovambanderu congregations under their chief Stephanus Hoveka. The Rhenish Missionary Society tries to stop this development, but without success. |
22.06. | Ben Ulenga is born in Ontanga in the Uukwambi area. |
20.09. | At the time of Frederick
Mahareros death(11.09.1952)(he is only permitted shortly before his death to return
to his motherland), the Okahandja Municipality demands from Hosea Kutako that he signs an
undertaking that henceforth any other descendants of Maharero will be buried at other
places than the historical grave side alongside Fredericks forefathers. Thus Hosea
Kutako and Clemence Kapuuo are later buried next to Jonker Afrikaner's grave.
Grave of Frederick (Friedrich) Maharero in Okahandja:
Otjozondjupa Region: August 2003 |
30.09.-04.10. | The Rhenish Missionary Society holds a Missionary Conference at Swakopmund. There it is agreed that the mission should draft a transitional constitution to establish a united church under the continued guidance of the missionaries. |
15.12. | The Ovambanderu (Mbanderu Council)
of Epukiro and Aminuis appoints Ombara Onene JovaMbanderu (traditional title)
Munjuku Nguvauva II as Ovambanderu Chief.
The Leader of the Ovambanderu Community: Chief Munjuku Nguvauva
II (right, Prof. Mburumba Kerina left)at the Meeting with the Cabinet Committee: Archives
of Anticolonial Resistance and the Liberation Struggle (AACRLS) at Epukiro Pos 3:
28.07.2003 The Leader of the Ovambanderu Community: Chief Munjuku Nguvauva
II at the Meeting with the Cabinet Committee: Archives of Anticolonial Resistance
and the Liberation Struggle (AACRLS) at Epukiro Pos 3: 28.07.2003 One of the Councillors of the Ovambanderu Community: Peter
Nguvauva at the Meeting with the Cabinet Committee: Archives of Anticolonial
Resistance and the Liberation Struggle (AACRLS) at Epukiro Pos 3: 28.07.2003 Councillors of the Ovambanderu Community at the Meeting with the
Cabinet Committee: Archives of Anticolonial Resistance and the Liberation Struggle
(AACRLS) at Epukiro Pos 3: 28.07.2003 |
1953 | The UN General Assembly resolves
to supervise the mandate of SWA even without SA co-operation by way of the Ad Hoc
Committee on SWA, without any concrete results. The UN then establishes a UN Permanent Committee on South West Africa in terms of UNGA Resolution 749 A which functions until 1961. Among its seven members are Norway, Syria, Thailand, Uruguay and the USA. A Kaokoveld Trust Fund is created on the recommendation of the tribal council of the Kaokoveld. SWA has 3 008 km of trunk roads, 7 312 km of main roads, 14 336 km of district roads and 24 432 km of farm roads. The Wage and Industrial Conciliation Ordinance provides for the creation of a Wage Board without "blacks". David ||Goreseb is elected Chief of the Dama in Okombahe. This causes serious rivalry between urban and rural Dama. Josephat Gawanab negotiates for peace between the factions. |
03.03. | The Chief of the Bondelswarts
(!Gami-#nun), Nathanel Christian (|Gariseb #Khami !Nansemab), dies. Due to the Apartheid
policy of the SWA Administration no further Bondelswart chiefs are sworn in. The next two
in line, Wilhelm Christian (Gôa-khoeb |Garisemab) and Jakobus Christian (!Hao-||êib
Taosemab), are only councillors. Nathanel Christians daughter, Anna Katrina
Christian (!Garisema !Nanse Gôa-Khoes), becomes the Bondelswarts Chief on 20.05.1977.
The Cemetery in Warmbad: Grave of the Bondelswart Chief Nathanel
Christian of Warmbad |
April | Elections for the Legislative Assembly take place, with another victory for the National Party of SWA. |
May | The South African Governor General Ernest George Jansen visits SWA. |
August | SWA Administrator Albertus Johannes Roux van Rhyn is replaced by Daniel Thomas Viljoen. |
12.08. | Jacques Pierre Niehaus of the UNSWP pleads for "greater autonomy for South West Africa" and a "review of existing economic relations between the Territory and the Union of South Africa". |
23.12. | Nekwaya Loide Shikongo, mother of the present-day ELCIN bishop Nangolo Leonard Auala, performs an epic poem (oshiweto) on the deposed Uukwambi King Iipumbu ya Tshilongo. |
1954 | The Uniao das Populacoes de Angola
is founded to launch a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonialism in Angola. Sister Helin of the Finnish Missionary Society establishes a missionary station at Mpungu in the Kavango for the San community of the Uukwangali area. A municipal bus service is introduced in Windhoek. |
January | Grievances of contract labourers against the illegal confiscation of goods at a road block at Namutoni are focussed on by an early spokesperson for contract labourers and later SWAPO leader, Eliazer Tuhadeleni. He is supported by an Anglican priest Theophilus Hamutumbangela. |
April | After there is no reaction by the
SWA Administration, Hamutumbangela directs a petition to the UN. He continues his
political work with leaders such as Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma (until his deportation from his
parish Onekuaja in Ovamboland to Windhoek, 1957. Sam Nujoma and Jariretundu Kozonguizi
influence the "Anglican Bishop of Damaraland", Vincent, to convince the South
Africans to allow Hamutumbangela to return home (beginning 1958). Nujoma and Kozonguizi
are successful in order to organise Hamutumbangela's return. Hamutumbangela actively
supports the liberation struggle of the Namibian people in the North for many years until
his death on 28.11.1990). Nujoma contacts the Herero Chiefs Council under Hosea Kutako. He also makes the contract labourers in Windhoek politically conscious and organises them into a significant political force. |
21.05. | New mining legislation is promulgated in the SWA Legislative Assembly. |
08.06. | The power to grant rights to the "black" population, held by the various SWA Administrators since 1928, is transferred to the SA Government as proposed by the SA Minister of Bantu Administration and Development, H Verwoerd. This is also valid for the functions of the Ovamboland Affairs Proclamation, No. 27 of 1929, which are transferred to the SA Minister of Bantu Administration and Development in terms of Act 56 of 1954. |
24.08. | SA Prime Minister DF Malan declares that the "mandate over South West Africa has lapsed" and that "the territory and South Africa are united as one political entity". |
31.08.-03.09. | The Evangelical Lutheran Ovambo-Kavango Church (ELOK)(from the ex- Finnish Mission) is founded during a Missionary Conference at Engela in the Uukwanyama area in Ovamboland. |
November | The first ordinary synod of ELOK takes place in Ovamboland. Missionary Birger Eriksson becomes leader of the new church with Leonard Auala as his closest co-worker. |
15.11. | SWA obtains a new definitive stamp issue with animal and native pictorials of the territory as motives (with multiple springbok head water mark). |