Hage Geingob

Hage Gottfried Geingob (3 August 1941 – 4 February 2024) was a Namibian politician who served as the third president of Namibia from 2015 until his death in February 2024.

Geingob was born in Otjiwarongo, South West Africa (present-day Namibia), on 3 August 1941.

He received his early education at Otavi.

He joined the Augustineum in 1958.

In 1960, he was expelled from the Augustineum for participating in a march that protested the poor quality of education and food.

However, he was readmitted and finished the teacher training course in 1961.

Subsequently, he took up a teaching position at the Tsumeb Primary School in Central Namibia, but decided that he could not further his own education in Namibia.

As a teacher, he also resented being forced to participate in the Bantu Education System.

Therefore, at the end of the school year, he left his job to seek knowledge and instruction that could help him change the system.

He and three of his colleagues walked and hitchhiked to Botswana to escape the system.

Geingob lived in exile in Botswana, the United States and the United Kingdom for 27 years.

In Botswana, he served as Assistant South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) Representative from 1963 to 1964.

From Francistown, Botswana, he was scheduled to travel on a plane chartered by the African National Congress (ANC), but the plane was blown up by South African agents the evening before the plane was supposed to take off.

Subsequently, the apartheid regime also tightened up the "underground railway".

In 1964, Geingob left for the United States to study at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Subsequently, he obtained a BA degree from Fordham University in New York City and an MA degree from The New School in New York City.

In 1964, he was appointed SWAPO Representative at the United Nations and to the Americas.

He served in this position until 1971.

He travelled extensively across the United States.

Eventually the United Nations General Assembly recognized SWAPO as the sole and authentic representative of the people of Namibia.

In 1971, Geingob was appointed to the United Nations Secretariat as political affairs officer.

In 1975, he was appointed director of the United Nations Institute for Namibia.

He and his team were responsible for starting the institute, whose primary function was to train cadres who could take over the civil service of Namibia upon independence.

Another important component of the institute was to carry out sectoral research to develop a policy framework for the government of independent Namibia.

Over the years, it grew in stature and institutional relations were established with various institutions of higher learning in Europe, including the University of Warwick, University of East Anglia, and University of Sussex.

These and other institutions recognized the institute's diploma and admitted its graduates for further studies.

Geingob was director of the United Nations Institute for Namibia until 1989.

At the same time, he continued to be a member of both the Central Committee and the Politburo of SWAPO.

In 1989, he spearheaded SWAPO's election campaign in Namibia.

To carry out this assignment, he returned to Namibia with many of his colleagues on 18 June 1989, after 27 years' absence from the country.

As SWAPO's Director of Elections, Geingob, along with other members of his directorate, established SWAPO election centres throughout the country and spearheaded an election campaign that brought SWAPO to power in Namibia.

On 21 November 1989, subsequent to the elections, he was elected chairman of the Constituent Assembly, which was responsible for formulating the Namibian Constitution.

But before a constitution could be formulated, he had to ensure that the Constituent Assembly went through a process of confidence building between the people, who were suspicious of each other.

Subsequently, the preamble to the Namibian Constitution stated that the government would strive to achieve national reconciliation.

Geingob was the first Prime Minister of Namibia from 1990 to 2002, and served as prime minister again from 2012 to 2015.

Between 2008 and 2012 Geingob served as Minister of Trade and Industry.

In November 2014, Geingob was elected president of Namibia by an overwhelming margin.

In November 2017, Geingob became the third president of the ruling SWAPO Party after winning by a large margin at the party's sixth Congress.

He served as the party's president until his death.

In August 2018, Geingob began a one-year term as chairperson of the Southern African Development Community.