Pauline Frannzisca Dempers (born 28 April 1962 in

Aranos Aranos is a town in the Hardap Region of central South east Namibia. The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of , although in the 2010/2011 rainy season were measured. Politics Until 2010 Aranos was governed by a 5-seat village cou ...

Hardap Region Hardap is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Mariental. Hardap contains the municipality of Mariental, the towns Rehoboth and Aranos, and the self-governed villages Gibeon, Gochas, Kalkrand, Stampriet and Maltahöhe. It is ...

) is a Namibian human rights activist and politician. In 1996, Dempers became national coordinator for

Breaking the Wall of Silence Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It is named after Siegfried Groth book ''Namibia. The Wall of Silence'', and was formed at the occasion of the book's release in 19 ...

(BWS), a group which advocates for the rights of those detained by SWAPO during 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 ...

. Dempers was active with the

Congress of Democrats The Congress of Democrats (CoD) is a Namibian opposition party without representation in the National Assembly and led by Ben Ulenga. It was established in 1999, prior to that year's general elections, and started off with a number of notabl ...

Career

Dempers was a prominent anti-apartheid activist in southern

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 ...

prior to fleeing into exile in 1983 to join SWAPO. She was arrested by SWAPO in 1986 while living in a refugee camp near Lubango in southern Angola. Along with hundreds of other Namibian exiles, Dempers was accused of having turned against the liberation movement, and of spying on behalf of the oppressors. They were tortured and held in the 'dungeons' of Lubango in the final years of the

. She was released in March 1989 and repatriated to Namibia following the moves towards independence which culminated in March 1990.Pauline Dempers
Namibia Institute for Democracy, 2008 Dempers became national coordinator for

(BWS) in 1999, three years after its formation. BWS is a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

named after Siegfried Groth book ''Namibia. The Wall of Silence'' that exposed the atrocities at Lubango. At that time she had quit SWAPO and joined the opposition party

(CoD). In 2007, Dempers was part of a controversy as a member of the CoD's central committee. She and other committee members were expelled by a faction of the party led by Ben Ulenga. She joined up with the faction led by

Ignatius Shixwameni Ignatius Nkotongo Shixwameni (4 September 1966 – 10 November 2021) was a Namibian politician. He was the leader of Namibia's All People's Party. Life Shixwameni was born in Shambyu, the traditional kingdom in the Kavango Region, and he ear ...

and formed an 'interim national committee'. In March 2008, close friend and fellow detainee

Kalla Gertze Reinhard "Kalla" Gertze (1960 – 13 March 2008) was a Namibian university lecturer and parliamentarian as a member of the Congress of Democrats (CoD) party. He was in the National Assembly of Namibia, National Assembly from 2005 until his death in ...

died from an asthma attack. In eulogising Gertze, Dempers called for members of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

to open the debate on the Lubango detainees.

References

Notes

Literature

External links

Interview with Pauline Dempers, BWS national coordinator
Advocacy Net, 28 July 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dempers, Pauline 1962 births Living people People from Hardap Region Members of SWAPO Congress of Democrats politicians South West African anti-apartheid activists Namibian activists Namibian women activists Women civil rights activists