Andimba Toivo ya Toivo

Who is Andimba Toivo ya Toivo?

Herman Andimba Toivo ya Toivo was a Namibian anti-apartheid activist, politician, and one of the principal founders of the independence movement that became SWAPO. Born on 22 August 1924 in Ovamboland, he trained and worked as a teacher before moving to Cape Town, South Africa, in the early 1950s, where he became politically active and joined the African National Congress. In 1957 he helped organize the Ovamboland People's Congress, the forerunner of the Ovamboland People's Organization and later the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), founded in 1960. Arrested for his political organizing, he was tried under South Africa's Terrorism Act in 1968 and delivered a defiant statement from the dock insisting that Namibians should not be judged as South Africans under foreign law, drawing international attention to Namibia's liberation struggle. He was imprisoned on Robben Island, where he formed a lasting friendship with fellow prisoner Nelson Mandela, and served sixteen of a twenty-year sentence before his release in March 1984. After Namibian independence he served as SWAPO secretary general and held cabinet posts including Minister of Mines and Energy and Minister of Labour. He died on 9 June 2017, remembered as a symbol of principled sacrifice for Namibian freedom.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Andimba Toivo ya Toivo" · The Conversation, "A man called Hope: the legacy of Namibia's Andimba Toivo ya Toivo" · Nelson Mandela Foundation (O'Malley Archive), "Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo"