Joseph Diescho (born 10 April 1955) is a Namibian writer and political analyst. In 1988, he wrote ''Born of the Sun'', the first novel by a native-born Namibian author.

Biography

Born in

Andara Andara is a village in Mukwe Constituency in the Kavango East region of north-eastern Namibia. Located east of Rundu, it is inhabited primarily by the Hambukushu people. Founding of the Catholic mission Catholic fathers of the organization Mi ...

Kavango Region Kavango (before 1998: Okavango) was one of the thirteen regions of Namibia until it was split into the Kavango East and Kavango West Regions in 2013. Its capital was Rundu. In the north, Kavango bordered the Cuando Cubango Province of Angola, and ...

,Joseph Diescho
Namibia Institute for Democracy Diescho attended

Fort Hare University The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub ...

in South Africa where he studied law and political science. During his student days he worked against the apartheid system and was imprisoned in Peddie and East London. Whilst working for a diamond mine company he helped found a worker's union. In 1984, he became a Fulbright scholar at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York City, where he completed his PhD in Political Science in 1992. His dissertation, entitled, "The Role of Education in the Politics of Control in Namibia: 1948–1988," explored the relationship between politics and education in Namibia. He was an award-winning television announcer for the programme South Africa Now! on American public television. In 1997–8, he was the founder and presenter of The Big Picture, a weekly economic and political analysis programme on SABC 2. His novel '' Born of the Sun'' was published in the US in 1988 and his second novel Troubled Waters was published in 1993. He is one of Namibia's very few native born novelists. Diescho was the executive director of the Namibian Institute of Public Administration and Management (NIPAM) from 1 July 2013 until December 2015 when he was dismissed without a clear reason.

References

* "Joseph Diescho". ''Contemporary Authors'', Gale, 2002. * Diescho, Joseph, with Celeste Wallin. ''Born of the Sun: a Namibian Novel''. New York City: Friendship Press, 1988. * Diescho, Joseph. Troubled Waters: A Novel. 1993. Windhoek, Namibia: Gamsberg Macmillan Publishers. 1955 births Living people Namibian writers Humanists Namibian Christians Namibian trade unionists South West African anti-apartheid activists University of Fort Hare alumni Columbia University alumni People from Kavango Region Namibian expatriates in South Africa Namibian expatriates in the United States 20th-century Namibian writers 21st-century Namibian writers {{Namibia-writer-stub