Constance Letang Kgosiemang (5 April 1946 – 16 August 2012) was the paramount chief of the

Tswana people The Tswana ( tn, Batswana, singular ''Motswana'') are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Tswana language is a principal member of the Sotho-Tswana language group. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the pop ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, a parliamentarian, and the leader of the Seoposengwe Party until its merger into the

Democratic Turnhalle Alliance The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...

(DTA). Kgosiemang was born on 5 August 1946 in Aminuis. He was related to chief Morwe, the Tswana leader from

Kuruman Kuruman is a small town with just over 53,000 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water ...

(South Africa) who founded the Tswana minority in South-West Africa. Kgosiemang became ''Kgosi-kgolo'' ( chief) of this group on 28 April 1979 at a ceremony in

Gobabis , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = Ex Oriente Lux , image_skyline = Gobabis Namibia aerial.jpg , imagesize = 300px , imag ...

. In this position he also led the ''Tswana Alliance'', a group participating at the

Turnhalle Constitutional Conference The Turnhalle Constitutional Conference was a conference held in Windhoek between 1975 and 1977, tasked with the development of a constitution for a self-governed Namibia under South African control. Sponsored by the South African government, th ...

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

between 1975 and 1977. He oversaw the name change from ''Tswana Alliance'' to ''Seoposengwe Party'' and its fusion into the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance in 1980. Plan Odendaal

When the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

government of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

devised the

Odendaal Plan Frans Hendrik Odendaal (1898–1966) (known as Fox Odendaal) was a South African politician, governor of the Transvaal province, best remembered for heading the commission that became known by his last name. Odendaal Commission In 1962 Odendaal ...

in the 1960s, Tswanaland was one of the planned

bantustan A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now ...

s, intended to be a self-governing homeland for the

. Unlike all other homelands, it was never implemented that way. The Ovaherero were allowed to stay in the area, and the Tswana remained a minority. Kgosimang was the political leader of this entity between 1980 and 1989. In the twilight days of South-West Africa, Kgosiemang was a member of the

Constituent Assembly of Namibia Below is a list of members of the Constituent Assembly of Namibia, which became the National Assembly of Namibia upon independence in March 1990. Individual members were selected by political parties voted for in the 1989 election, the first de ...

, and after Namibian independence he became a member of Namibia's first parliament. He served until 1993, when pressure from his Tswana community forced him to resign and concentrate on his duties as

traditional leader A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as ...

. He later joined ruling SWAPO but never returned to the National Assembly. Constance Kgosiemang died of a heart attack on 16 August 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kgosiemang, Constance 1946 births 2012 deaths Namibian chiefs Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Women members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Popular Democratic Movement politicians Tswana people People from Omaheke Region