Leonard Nangolo Auala (25 September 1908, Iiyale,

Oniipa Oniipa is a town in the Oshikoto Region of northern Namibia and the district capital of the Oniipa electoral constituency. It lies just outside Ondangwa. It is the hometown of former Lutheran bishop and liberation leader Leonard Auala. There i ...

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 ...

German South West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...

– 4 December, 1983, Onandjokwe, South West Africa) 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 ...

Lutheran Church Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

leader.

Early life

Auala was born in

. He was the son of Nakanyala Vilho yaAwala (Shihwa) waAmukwiyu and Nekwaya Loide yaShikongo shaNangolo dhaAmutenya. Auala was raised partly by Lutheran missionaries from

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. He went to primary school in Oniipa between 1919 and 1929, and between 1929 and 1931 he attended the local teacher training seminary there. During 1934–35, he studied at Augustineum, Okahandja, during 1934–35, and he received theological training in Elim in 1942, when he was ordained a pastor. He received further theological training at the Moravian Theological Seminary in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

, South Africa, during 1956–57.

Career

Auala was consecrated a bishop in 1963 by visiting Bishop

Eelis Gulin Eelis Gideon Gulin also known as Pinomaa or Gulin-Pinomaa (29 December 1893 - 4 August 1975) was Professor of New Testament at the University of Helsinki from 1933 to 1945 and Bishop of Tampere from 1945 to 1966. Biography Gulin was born on 29 D ...

from

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

, Finland, in connection of the Church General Synod. Auala was the first Namibian bishop of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) is a Lutheran denomination based in Namibia. It has a total membership of over 772,398, mainly in Northern Namibia. Formerly known as the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambo-Kavango Church (ELOC), it pla ...

(ELCIN), a member of the

Lutheran World Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish ...

. He lived most of his life under South African rule. As a prominent religious leader for both the

Ovambo people The Ovambo people (), also called Aawambo, Ambo, Aawambo (Ndonga, Nghandjera, Kwambi, Kwaluudhi, Kolonghadhi, Mbalantu), or Ovawambo (Kwanyama) the biggest of the Aawambo sub-tribes are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily mo ...

and other groups across Namibia, Auala met regularly with the South Africans to discuss issues like

contract labour Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a co ...

and other facets of

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 ...

.Leonard Auala
at the Dictionary of African Christian Biography. A member of the

South West Africa People's Organization The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...

, he received threats and harassment from the South African occupiers.

Personal life

Auala was married to Aina Aluhe yaSakeus from 1935 on. They had 10 children, six sons and four daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auala, Leonard 1908 births 1983 deaths People from Oshikoto Region Namibian Lutheran clergy 20th-century Lutheran bishops Ovambo people Members of SWAPO Lutheran bishops in Africa Augustineum Secondary School alumni