Sebastian Kamwanga (29 April 1929 – 22 January 1999) was a ''Hompa'' (king) of the Gciriku, one of five kingdoms of the

Kavango people The Kavango people, also known as the vaKavango or haKavango, are a Bantu ethnic group that resides on the Namibian side of the Namibian–Angolan border along the Kavango River. They are mainly riverine living people, but about 20% reside in the d ...

in northern

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 ...

, from 1985 to 1999. His royal seat was situated at Mamono. He sat in the Legislative Council and the Executive Council of

Kavangoland Kavangoland was a bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Kavango people. It was set up in 1970 and self-government was granted in 1973. The Kavango L ...

from 1973 until Namibian independence in 1990 when

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 were abolished along with the

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 ...

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 ...

occupation of South-West Africa. Kamwanga was born on April 29, 1929, in the village of Shankara in the

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 ...

. He completed teacher education at Döbra in 1951 and began training as Roman Catholic Catechist at Bunya Catholic Mission in 1959. Soon after being crowned ''Hompa'' of the Gciriku in 1985, Kamwanga drew criticism from his peer traditional leaders in the Kavango kingdom for referring to himself as ''Nkuruhompa'' (paramount chief), implying that he was the prime leader of the Kavango and paramount over the other four ''vaHompa''. This turned out to be a misunderstanding because he was chairman of the Executive Council of Kavangoland at that time and as such indeed in a position of power, albeit in modern rather than traditional politics. Sebastian Kamwanga was a member of 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) but nevertheless friendly towards SWAPO people and aims. In the mid-1980s his farm ''Shamangomba'' was used as

People's Liberation Army of Namibia The People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) was the military wing of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO). It fought against the South African Defence Force (SADF) and South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) during the Sou ...

(PLAN) operational base for their guerrilla actions in the Namibian struggle for independence against the South African army. He was a passionate

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, performing at church services, and assisted with the Bible translation from

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

into

Rumanyo Gciriku or Dciriku (Also Diriku, Dirico, Manyo or Rumanyo), is a Bantu language spoken by 305,000 people along the Okavango River in Namibia, Botswana and Angola. 24,000 people speak Gciriku in Angola, according to Ethnologue. It was first known ...

, his native tongue. Seven children resulted from his marriage to Regina Nankali Mberema. Kamwanga died on January 22, 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamwanga, Sebastian Kavango people People from Kavango Region Namibian Roman Catholics Popular Democratic Movement politicians 1929 births 1999 deaths