Mburumba Kerina

Mburumba Kerina , born as William Eric Getzen (born June 6, 1932 in Tsumeb , South West Africa ), is a Namibian politician , party founder and inventor of the name of his home country, as well as professor and author .

Kerina is a founding member of the political parties SWAPO , NUDO and FCN as well as RLF . In 1989 he was a member of the Constituent Assembly of Namibia and then a member of the National Assembly and the National Council , ie both chambers of the Parliament of Namibia .

Childhood and education

Kerina is descended from the Ovambo and Herero . He is the great-grandchild of the explorer , big game hunter and trader Frederick Thomas Green , from whom his last name Kerina comes ( Otjiherero for green; German  green ). Kerina changed his name after he learned how his maiden name came from missionaries .

Kerina grew up in Walvis Bay and went to a Christian school in Windhoek . Here he made the acquaintance of Pastor Michael Scott, who later enabled him to study in the United States . From 1953 Kerina studied at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania . He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957 before he did a Ph. D. at Padjadjaran University in Bandung , Indonesia between 1960 and 1962 . During his stay in Indonesia there was a meeting with President Sukarno , who allegedly asked him to find a better name for his homeland, which is striving for independence. Kerina then wrote a comment in an Indonesian newspaper about the aspirations of a Namib country . Kerina is considered the inventor of the Republic of Namib , whose inhabitants he called Namibians (German Namibians ).

Political career

Kerina campaigned from 1956 for the independence of what was then South West Africa. He was one of the first, along with Hosea Kutako and Sam Nujoma , to bring this wish to the United Nations .

After the uprisings in the Old Location at the end of 1959, two political parties were founded, the South West Africa National Union (SWANU) and the Ovamboland People's Organization (OPO). The bloody suppression of the uprising led to the decision to continue the struggle for independence by force with the establishment of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia . A little later, SWANU and OPO agreed on a merger to form SWAPO.

Kerina, who belonged to the moderate branch of SWAPO, fell out with his party. He strictly opposed violence. In 1962 the party excluded him. Two years later Kerina was refused entry to South West Africa, so he went into exile in Botswana . In 1965 he founded NUDO together with Clemens Kapuuo and Hosea Kutako , as a political representative primarily of the Herero. Only a year later he left NUDO and founded a party again with the South West Africa National United Front (SWANUF), which was dissolved in the late 1970s.

Kerina did not take an active part in the Namibian liberation struggle and also refused a membership in the gym conference . He also criticized the UN General Assembly's recognition of SWAPO as the only legitimate representative of the Namibians .

In 1977, a year after his return from the United States, Kerina wrote:

"The Constitutional Conference [...] has created a tranquil atmosphere in which all the people of Namibia are re-examining [...] institutions of the Territory at a round-table conference of equals dedicated to mutual coexistence and survival. This historic development is in conformity with major resolutions of the United Nations, the Advisory Opinions of the International Court of Justice , and the Lusaka Manifesto "

After the gym conference, Kerina founded other parties, including the Namibia Patriotic Coalition (NPC) in 1978 and its successor, the Namibia National Democratic Coalition (NNDC) in 1982. In 1988 he was, together with Johannes Diergaardt , a founding member of the Federal Convention of Namibia (FCN).

In the parliamentary elections in Namibia in 1989 , the FCN won a seat in parliament, which was taken by Kerina after Diergaardt resigned. He resigned a year later and did not return to the political scene until 1998 as a member of the regional council for the constituency of Aminuis . He took office as a member of the Democratic Gym Alliance (DTA). In 2003 he left the DTA and became a NUDO member again, from which he was expelled only two years later. In 2009 Kerina joined SWAPO and, according to her own statement, returned to his political roots.

Even in old age, Kerina is critical of his party.

Further careers and personal matters

Kerina was a lecturer and later professor at numerous universities in the USA. He was married to Evelhardine Kapuuo-Kerina before marrying Naomi Kikii Zauana on May 5, 2017 . His second wife died just a month later, aged 54.

In 2019 a street in Windhoek was named after Kerina.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Morgan Norval: SWAPO: A Marxist-Leninist Organization . Selous Foundation Press (via namibweb.com). Pp. 57-66. 1989.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Klaus Dierks : Biographies of Namibian Personalities, K . klausdierks.com. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
3. ↑ ^{a b} The Man Who Named Namibia- Mburumba Kerina. The Namibian, September 9, 2014.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Toivo Ndjebela: 'I am politics' John the Baptist' . In: New Era , via allafrica.com, September 30, 2011. Archived from the original on February 14, 2015. 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Graham Hopwood: Who's Who, Mburumba Kerina . In: Guide to Namibian Politics . Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID). Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Prof. Kerina sluit weer by Swapo aan (Afrikaans) . In: Die Republikein , April 16, 2009. 
7. ^ ^{A b} The South West Africa Namibia Dispute: Documents and Scholarly Writings on the Controversy Between South Africa and the United Nations . University of California Press. Pp. 217-219. 1973.
8. ^ Peter N. Stearns and William Leonard Langer. The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged , 2001. Page 1070.
9. ^ Klaus Dierks: Chronology of Namibian History, 1959 . Retrieved April 5, 2013.
10. ↑ Namibia . Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved June 17, 2019.
11. ^ Klaus Dierks: Chronology of Namibian History, 1962 . Retrieved June 16, 2019.
12. ↑ Nils Napierala: Namibia in the times of colonialism and mandate rule . GRIN. 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
13. ↑ Changed again. Mburumba Kerina continues political odyssey . In: Allgemeine Zeitung , April 16, 2009. 
14. ↑ Swapo's 'dead wood' told to retire. The Namibian, June 13, 2019.
15. ↑ Nomhle Kangootui: Kerina's wife dies . In: Namibian , July 7, 2017, p. 5. 
16. ↑ City council honors two politicians. Allgemeine Zeitung, June 2, 2019.