James Hamupanda Kauluma (1 July 1933 – 4 April 2007) 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 human rights activist and sixth bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Namibia. He was the first Namibian bishop of the Anglican diocese in the country.

Biography

Kauluma was born in

Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Ovambo people. The term originally referred to the parts of ...

. In 1949, he began studying at St. Mary's School in

Odibo Odibo is a village in the north of Namibia close to the Angolan border known for its Anglican mission ''St Mary''. It belongs to the Oshikango electoral constituency in the Ohangwena Region. Odibo is also an Archdeaconry in the Diocese of Nam ...

. He was baptised in 1951 at the age of 18. In 1953, he was recruited by the

South West African Native Labour Association The South West African Native Labour Association (SWANLA) was a labour contracting organisation which contracted primarily Ovambo people from Ovamboland in northern Namibia to work in the diamond mines in Namibia's southern ǁKaras Region. It was ...

(SWANLA) and was sent to work in the

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

mines in

Oranjemund Oranjemund (German for ''"Mouth of Orange"'') is a diamond mining town of 4,000 inhabitants situated in the ǁKaras Region of the extreme southwest of Namibia, on the northern bank of the Orange River mouth at the border to South Africa. Histo ...

in the far south of the country. He studied at the Dorothea Mission in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

between 1958 and 1959, and in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, before returning to Namibia in 1964. In 1965 he travelled to Canada and the United States for further study, graduating with a BA degree from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and an MA from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. He was ordained: made a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

on 22 June 1975 at the Church of the Ascension,

Harrowby, Lincolnshire Harrowby is a hamlet in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies east of the market town of Grantham. Harrowby was a hamlet in two parts: Harrowby Within (now part of Grantham), and Harrowby Without (part of the parish of L ...

and, in 1977, was ordained as

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

— both times by

Colin Winter Colin O'Brien Winter (10 October 1928 – 17 November 1981), was an English Anglicanism, Anglican bishop, who served as Bishop of Damaraland, a diocese of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa) ...

Bishop of Damaraland The Diocese of Namibia is part of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, which is itself part of the Anglican Communion. The diocese, which covers the whole country of Namibia, was originally known as the Diocese of Damaraland. Most of the Anglic ...

-in-exile. He was elected

Suffragan Bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

Damaraland Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damara (people), Damaras. It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, a ...

in 1977 and was consecrated a bishop at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, on 15 January 1978 by

Edward Knapp-Fisher Edward George Knapp-Fisher (8 January 19157 February 2003) was an Anglican bishop and scholar. Life Knapp-Fisher was born in Chatham, Kent, United Kingdom. His father was also an Anglican priest. He was educated at The King's School, Worcest ...

( Canon and Archdeacon of Westminster,

Assistant Bishop of London Assistant may refer to: * Assistant (by Speaktoit), a virtual assistant app for smartphones * Assistant (software), a software tool to assist in computer configuration * Google Assistant, a virtual assistant by Google * ''The Assistant'' (TV seri ...

), acting under commission from the Archbishop of Cape Town, assisted by the Bishop of Damaraland-in-exile, the Assistant Bishop of Damaraland, and others. Since the diocesan (Winter) and assistant (Wood) were both foreigners, they could be prevented from re-entering Namibia; whereas as a citizen, Kauluma could not. He returned to live in Namibia in 1978, after having lived abroad for 12 years. After the death of Colin Winter in 1981, Kauluma was elected diocesan bishop, the first Namibian to hold that office. In 1983, Kauluma received an honorary doctorate of divinity from the

General Theological Seminary The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (GTS) is an Episcopal seminary in New York City. Founded in 1817, GTS is the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church and the longest continuously operating Seminary in the Anglican Communi ...

in New York. In 1986 Kauluma, along with the Lutheran bishop Kleopas Dumeni and the Roman Catholic bishop Bonifatius Haushiku, challenged a dusk-to-dawn curfew that South African authorities had imposed in Namibia. The bishops argued that the curfew violated the freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom of movement. Kauluma retired from public life in 1998 and died from

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

on 4 April 2007 at the Windhoek Medi-Clinic. Denis Herbstein, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', suggests that "he was not a good speaker but he was outspoken, writing to the Times in London about South Africa's occupation of the country".

Bibliography

*Pütz, Joachim, Heidi von Egidy & Perri Caplani. 1990. ''Namibia handbook and political who's who'', 2nd edn. Windhoek: Magus. *''Church of the Province of Southern Africa Clerical Directory, 1991/1992'', p. 222. *Bishopscourt Archives, ''Consecration of Bishops, 1847–1986''.

External links

* The African Activist Archive Project website includes a description and material of th
Southern African Christian Alliance
in Texas with newsletters with articles on Namibia including some by James Kauluma. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kauluma, James 1933 births 2007 deaths Ovambo people Anglican bishops of Damaraland Anglican bishops of Namibia 20th-century Anglican Church of Southern Africa bishops University of Toronto alumni New York University alumni Namibian expatriates in Canada Namibian expatriates in the United Kingdom Namibian expatriates in the United States Deaths from cancer in Namibia Namibian Anglican bishops