Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma (Shafiishuna is Nujoma's battle name and means "lightening") was born on 12.05.1929 at Okahao. He visited the Finnish Primary School, Okahao, 1937-48. Thereafter he visited the Night School, St. Barnabas, "Old Location", Windhoek, 1949-1954. Nujoma has obtained numerous Honourary Doctorates.
He worked at the railways 1949-1957, then at the Windhoek Municipality. He entered active politics as a member of the Mandume Movement 1954. Nujoma was a founder member of both, SWANU and OPO, 1959. With Jacob Kuhangua he led the first Windhoek Branch of OPO, becoming OPO President the same year. He was elected to the SWANU Executive September 1959 when SWANU co-opted members onto the party executive. Having been fired from the South African Railways because of his trade union and political activities in 1957, Nujoma became one of the leading opponents of the South African authorities' decision to relocate all "natives" from Windhoek's "Old Location" to a new location far outside Windhoek, present-day Katutura. The organised resistance led in December 1959 to the "Old Location Uprising" with many people killed by the South African Police. Nujoma was arrested in December 1959 after the uprising.
Nujoma went into exile with the assistance of Hosea Kutako in February/March 1960. He went first to Botswana, where he was assisted by Ovambanderu Chief Munjuku Nguvauva II. From there he went into Tanzania via Botswana and Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) under the false name of David Shipanga. In Ndola (Northern Rhodesia) he met with Zambian UNIP leaders. From Ndola he went into Katanga to meet with Moise Tshombe and reached eventually Mbeya in Tanzania via Salisbury (present-day Harare). From Mbeya he sent a telegram to the United Nations requesting a hearing at the Fourth Committee of the UN. Tanzanian (British) post office authorities alerted the colonial police in Tanganyika and a manhunt was started while Nujoma was treated for Malaria in the Mbeya hospital with the aid of TANU's Ali Chandara. With the assistance of Julius Nyerere (then Member of the Legislative Council of Tanganyika), he received a passport. In April 1960 he travelled to Khartoum, meeting Fanuel Kozonguizi and Michael Scott. From there Nujoma travelled to Liberia which was in the process of taking the Namibia Case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Via Ghana and with the help of Kwame Nkruhma, he made to the USA with Kozonguizi and appeared before the UN Committee for SWA in June 1960.
In New York from April to November 1960, he met up with Mburumba Kerina and on 19.04.1960 the OPO was renamed and reconstituted as SWA People's Organisation (SWAPO) with himself as President. He returned to Tanzania and set up the SWAPO provisional headquarters at Dar-Es-Salaam 1961, where in 1963 his position as President of SWAPO was ratified. From Dar-Es-Salaam he spent much time travelling around the world in order to gain recognition for the liberation and independence of Namibia. Nujoma gained a major success in 1964 when SWAPO was recognised as a receiver of OAU aid - said to have been the result of his friendship with Tanzanian Foreign Minister and Chairman of the OAU Liberation Committee, Oscar Kambona.
After the 1966 ICJ judgement, Nujoma flew by charter back to Windhoek on 20.03.1966 with Lukas Pohamba to test the legalities but they were arrested by the South African authorities at arrival and deported the following day. Officially SWAPO committed to the armed struggle in 1966 after the International Court of Justice went against the UN and the first SWAPO cadres were trained in Egypt. "We started the armed struggle with only two sub-machine guns and two pistols. I got them from Algeria, plus some rounds of ammunition. I had to travel with the guns from Algeria to Cairo and then in transit through to Tanzania. The late Peter Nanyemba was our representative in Tanzania at the time, and I asked him to arrange a press conference at the airport when I arrived there. So I arrived in Tanzania with four bags of guns. So I find an immigration officer there ... Four times he looked me up and down. And then he asked me, what do you have in those bags? And I told him 'I have used clothing for refugees'. And then he looked at me again, and he laughed and let me pass. I was almost dead with relief". With Nanyemba they brought the arms through Zambia at night in UNIP Landrovers. From there they were taken by SWAPO soldiers across the Zambezi River to Katima Mulilo to Omugulu-gOmbashe where SWAPO's armed struggle started on 26.08.1966.
In 1969 Nujoma was reconfirmed as SWAPO President at the Tanga Consultative Congress and has retained the position ever since. He gained official recognition for SWAPO at the United Nations and official member status of the Non-Alignment Movement in 1979. Nujoma led negotiations with the UN, the Western Five, South Africa and the Frontline States in successive rounds of international negotiations for an acceptable settlement to the Namibia dispute since the middle of the 1970s and has attended numerous sessions of the UN, the OAU and other international forums. He has met with various private party-political delegations from Namibia on different occasions over the years and has repeatedly reassured Namibian "whites" that the party's policy is based on the policy of "national reconciliation". Nujoma was awarded with the Lenin Peace Price in 1968 and the November Medal Price 1978.
Nujoma returned to Namibia on 14.09.1989 with the implementation of the UN SC Resolution 435. He is the President of the Republic of Namibia since 21 March 1990. He served for three terms of five years each.
During the SWAPO Central Committee Meeting from 02.04.2004 to 03.04.2004 in Windhoek, Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (proposed by Sam Nujoma), Nahas Angula (proposed by Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo, seconded by Libertine Amathila) and Hidipo Hamutenya (proposed by Mosé Penaani Tjitendero, seconded by Hartmut Ruppel) were elected as the three SWAPO presidential candidates for the Presidential Election 2004 in order to succeed the President of the Republic of Namibia, Sam Nujoma.The sole SWAPO presidential candidate will be elected during an Extraordinary SWAPO Congress at the end of May 2004.
Sam Nujoma's willingness not to stand for a fourth term as President of the Republic of Namibia was endorsed by both, the SWAPO Politburo and the SWAPO Central Committee.
