The Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago extends its solidarity and sends its condolences to the Government and the peoples of Namibia as you mourn the passing and celebrate the life of His Excellency President Hage Geingob your first Prime Minister – from 1990-2002 – who was later elected as President in 2014. We do so on our own behalf and on behalf of the many citizens of our country who held him in the highest regard and remember him with deep affection. To us in the Caribbean he was one of the iconic figures of the revolutionary transformation of Southern Africa and by extension the African continent as a whole, a continent which had suffered centuries of domination, exploitation and barbarism at the hands of European invaders and colonizers. As a leader of the revolutionary South West African Peoples Organization (SWAPO) he also had a vision for the strengthening of relationships between Africans in the Diaspora and those on the continent of Africa.
His vision in this respect was strengthened by his experiences while he pursued formal education in the United States between 1964 and 1974, a period of dramatic reawakening of positive African self- consciousness in that country which had a substantial impact on igniting positive African self-hood globally. The young Geingob himself embraced the concept of strengthening the political, economic, emotional and strategic ties between Africa and its Diaspora. This vision, along with his interactions with prominent activists in the US who were familiar with the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago, influenced him to accept an invitation from the ESCTT to be our specially honoured guest at our country’s annual commemoration of emancipation on August 1st 2004. At that time he was Executive Secretary of the Washington-based Global Coalition for Africa. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago supported us in our invitation and our honoured guest received all the protocols due to a then former Prime Minister. There was official recognition that even outside of the Prime Ministership he maintained a strong leadership position in his country as one of the leaders of the South West African Peoples Organization (SWAPO).
Positive contact between the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad & Tobago and the President continued long after his formal visit. In 2008 when as then Chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee, I visited Namibia he greeted me warmly and gifted me a copy of his Phd thesi entitled: State Formation in Namibia: Promoting Democracy and Good Governance which had been presented to the University of Leeds in March 2004. He underscored the bonds which had been established between himself and the ESCTT when he signed the gifted book with the hand written words:
To my dear brother Khafra Kambon – fellow Pan Africanist
From
Hage G Geingob
Broad international respect for President Geingob went way beyond the formal respect normallyaccorded to a person holding that high office. There were genuine bonds between the President and his people in Namibia as well as those of us in the African Diaspora who had the honour to interface with him directly. We in the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago and thousands of our fellow citizens, including those who were able to personally greet him on Emancipation Day -August 1, 2004 – recognized what a “man of the people” he was, one who was totally dedicated to the development of Namibia. He understood the courage and steadfastness it took for Namibians to
endure 25 years of warfare and the loss of well over 20,000, perhaps over 25,000 lives before they eventually triumphed over the South Africans. He dedicated his life to ensuring that the sacrifice was not in vain.
In the wake of his transition on February 4, 2024 we extend our condolences to his family and the nation of Namibia. But we do not only mourn, we celebrate the life of a true champion of the African struggle for independence and liberation and we look forward to the continued progress of the nation of Namibia.
Respectfully
Khafra Kambon
Director of Regional and Pan African Affairs
Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago
February 22,2024