Immanuel Hafeni Augustus Shifidi (16 July 1929 – 30 November 1986), born in

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 ...

, was a

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 ...

n activist. He was one of the fighters at

Omugulugwombashe Omugulugwombashe (also: ''Ongulumbashe'', official: ''Omugulu gwOombashe''; Otjiherero: ''giraffe leg'') is a settlement in the Tsandi electoral constituency in the Omusati Region of northern Namibia. The settlement features a clinic and a primar ...

Namibia: Immanuel Shifidi - a Martyr of the Namibian Revolution
, '' New Era'', July 15, 2011, Shimpapi Shiremo on 26 August 1966 when eight helicopters of the

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...

attacked SWAPO guerrilla fighters at the camp. It was the first armed battle in the

Namibian War of Independence The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and An ...

Arrest and Assassination

Immanuel Shifidi was arrested and tortured after the defeat at Omugulugwombashe. He was convicted under the Terrorism Act and received a death sentence. Following international pressure the sentence was converted to life in prison at

Robben Island Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrik ...

. He served 18 years of this sentence and was released in December 1985. On 30 November 1986, he was assassinated at a SWAPO rally marking the United Nations International Year of Peace. While attending a rally with other Swapo members in

Katutura Katutura (Otjiherero for ''The place where people do not want to live'') is a township of Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia. Katutura was created in 1961 following the forced removal of Windhoek's black population from the Old Location, which a ...

, the enemies released bees which disrupted the meeting. Amid the confusion, they gunned down Shifidi in cold blood. Shifidi was buried in a coffin draped in the SWAPO flag on December 6, 1986. The funeral of the Swapo veteran was the first mass political gathering of its sort in Namibia for many years.

Trial

In a controversial decision President Botha on March 22, 1988, stopped the trial of four members of the

SADF The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence ...

and of two members of the SWATF who were to have stood trial in Windhoek charged with the murder of the SWAPO veteran.https://web.stanford.edu/group/tomzgroup/pmwiki/uploads/1441-1988-09-KS-b-RRW.pdf The inquest into the death of Shifidi had revealed an Army conspiracy to disrupt an authorized SWAPO rally held at Katutura township outside Windhoek. The inquest had heard that 54 members of the SADF 101 battalion (composed of black Namibian volunteers) based at Ondangwa had been transported to Windhoek on the day before the rally wearing civilian clothes and carrying assorted weapons they infiltrated the rally and attacked SWAPO supporters. A police inquiry following the inquest concluded that the six men subsequently charged had conspired to disrupt the rally using violent means. The soldiers were named as Col. Johannes H. Vorster and Cmdt. Antonie Botes of the SWATF headquarters in Windhoek; Col. Willem H. Welgemoed, commanding officer of 101 battalion; and Lt. Nicolaas Prinsloo, Cpl. Eusebius Kashimbi and Pte. Steven Festus, all of 101 battalion. The trial was halted under the terms of Section 103 of the Defence Act, under which members of the security forces were exempt from criminal or civilian court action if they had acted in good faith in the suppression of ‘terrorism’. A school where Immanuel Shifidi was killed was known as Katutura Secondary School up to 1986 when the name was changed to Immanuel Shifidi Secondary School in honour of the struggle icon that died on its sports field in November 1986. Immanuel Shifidi was a brother of Ferdinand Shifidi, the councilor of Endola Constituency in Ohangwena Region.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shifidi, Immanuel 1929 births 1986 deaths Assassinated activists Assassinated Namibian people Inmates of Robben Island Members of SWAPO Namibian independence activists Namibian people imprisoned abroad People from Windhoek People murdered in Namibia People's Liberation Army of Namibia personnel Prisoners sentenced to death by South Africa Unsolved murders in Namibia

Arrest and Assassination

Trial

See also

References