Katima Mulilo — Retired police commissioner Bolen Sankwasa opens up about the fear, uncertainty and sacrifices that marked his journey into exile during Namibia's liberation struggle, recalling how he left behind his education and family to join the fight for independence.
Sankwasa, now 74, said his political consciousness began at an early age, growing up in a family actively involved in the Caprivi African National Union (CANU), which later became part of the political movement that evolved into Swapo.
His mother was involved in selling CANU membership cards, while his uncle, the late Musialela Sam, was among those who helped establish the movement.
Sankwasa said that the political activities surrounding his family exposed him from childhood to the realities of colonial rule.
Follow us on WhatsApp | LinkedIn for the latest headlines
He recalled how his grandfather was repeatedly taken away by white security forces for interrogation.
"Every time the whites were coming, taking my grandfather away, and then they go and interrogate him outside, we don't know where," Sankwasa recalled.
He said his grandfather would return home tired and battered.
"Only when he came back, he was a little bit tired, beaten up or battered," he said.
Those experiences, Sankwasa said, gradually planted in him a determination to resist the colonial system.
"As I was growing up, I grew up with that spirit," he said, adding that he began to question why foreigners from South Africa were controlling Namibia.
A teenager's desire to join the struggle
Sankwasa said that when a strike broke out in Katima Mulilo in the mid-1960s, political activists wanted to take him along, but his mother refused because he was too young.
"I was willing to go with them, but my mother, young as I was, refused," he said.
At the time, Sankwasa said he did not fully understand the dangers involved and even imagined that he might simply be going abroad to study.
"I thought, maybe I'm going to school, maybe to attend school abroad," he recalled.
However, the repeated harassment of his family by colonial authorities strengthened his desire to become involved in the liberation struggle.
Listening secretly to Swapo broadcasts
By 1974, while attending Simataa Secondary School, Sankwasa said his brother-in-law, a teacher at Lususu Primary School, introduced him to underground political activities.
He would secretly leave home at night to listen to Swapo broadcasts from Tanzania.
"Around 9h00, I would sneak, and then we got to his house. He would switch on the radio. Then we would hear people in Dar es Salaam... calling us to go and join," he said.
The broadcasts, together with memories of his uncle in exile, eventually convinced him to leave the country.
"Politics came overwhelmingly in my brain," Sankwasa said.
"I thought, 'Ah, okay. School at the same time, but colonial on the other side. I thought, let me go and join."'
Mobilising young Namibians
Before leaving the country, Sankwasa became involved in mobilising young people in the Zambezi region.
He said groups were organised in areas including Sibbinda, Masokotwani and Kasese, and some eventually made their way towards the border.
But the mobilisation carried enormous risks.
Sankwasa recalled that one young man who had left with the group later sneaked back into Namibia and was captured by the authorities. "We knew that he will automatically give the names of those who were organising and those who remained," he said.
Fearing arrest, Sankwasa decided he had to leave the country. "After a time, not even a week, then I thought, 'Oh-oh, I'll be arrested.' Me, leave the country," he recalled.
That decision marked the beginning of his years in exile.
Liberators
Sankwasa said that in 1975 he joined fellow Namibians in exile, where he became part of a large group of young people committed to the liberation struggle.
"When I joined in 1975, I was sent straight to my colleagues. We were 300 when we joined our group. Three hundred and something," he said.
The group was sent to Shatota in Zambia for military training.
For Sankwasa, exile meant leaving the relative security of home and embracing an uncertain future in the bush and in training camps.
In 1976, he was among 15 young Namibians selected for specialised military training in India. He said they were trained as commanders, reconnaissance personnel and saboteurs, among other roles.
"We were trained as commanders, general command in the war. We were trained as saboteurs, those who can plant mines. We were trained as recognisers," he said.
From training to the frontline
After completing his training, Sankwasa was sent back to the frontline, where he was responsible for reconnaissance and later trained other fighters.
He said he was placed in command of reconnaissance within a unit operating from Zambia.
"I, Sankwasa, was a leader of reconnaissance. I was leading the reconnaissance. I was the commander of reconnaissance," he said. His responsibilities included identifying targets and planning movements ahead of military operations.
Sankwasa recalled taking part in operations in the Zambezi, including the 1977 attacks on Winela and Katima Mulilo.
He said the attacks required careful planning and were intended to confuse and divert the attention of South African security forces.
"Those were tactics, guerrilla tactics," he said.
A life built around sacrifice
Looking back, Sankwasa said his decision to leave Namibia was not driven by a desire for personal advancement but by the conviction that independence was worth risking his life for.
He acknowledged that many Namibians today may struggle to grasp the magnitude of the sacrifices made during the liberation struggle, as they were born into freedom.
For him, one of the greatest achievements of independence is the freedom of movement that was denied to black Namibians under colonial rule.
He recalled that people from the Zambezi were restricted from travelling freely to other parts of what was then South West Africa.
"We were not allowed to go to South West Africa, like Okavango, like Oshikango, or Windhoek," he said.
He says independence changed that reality.
Sankwasa said he later served as a regional police commander, including responsibilities covering the Zambezi and Kavango regions, before being transferred to Windhoek, Mariental and Hoachanas.
"Where could I get that freedom if there was no independence?" he asked. "The struggle now is economic independence."
While proud of Namibia's independence, Sankwasa said the liberation project is not complete.
"We still have our farms alongside there. People in Hoab, people in Karas... there are still a lot of people who are not able to put everything on the table," he said.
He believes the next phase of the struggle should focus on economic empowerment.
"When we were in the jungle, in the forests of Zambia and the Congo, we said we wanted independence. Blessed be God, now the struggle is for economic independence," he said.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Sankwasa urged Namibians to work together to ensure that the political freedom achieved in 1990 translates into improved economic opportunities for all.
"After independence, I'm happy. It's not only those who went and the comrades who went into the trenches... even those who were inside here. We said Namibia is free. All of us," he said.
Message to born-frees
Sankwasa appealed to young Namibians to protect the independence secured through decades of struggle.
"Please, please, I'm begging," he said.
He compared independence to an egg that must be handled carefully.
"You hold it carelessly, it falls to the ground. You will never pick it up. It will crack," he said.
"The independence that our forefathers fought for, let us guard it jealously."
Sankwasa said young people must understand that freedom did not come easily and must, therefore, be protected through responsible citizenship, hard work and respect for the country.
"Let us be reasonable enough to guard our country. Let us protect our minerals," he said.
Now retired and living in Lusu village in the Zambezi region, Sankwasa has turned to farming, keeping cattle and cultivating crops.
Yet his memories remain firmly rooted in the years when Namibia's independence was still only a dream.
For Sankwasa, the journey from a young boy secretly listening to liberation broadcasts to a trained commander and, ultimately, a senior police officer in independent Namibia, represents the profound transformation brought about by independence.
His message to today's generation is simple: the freedom they inherited must never be taken for granted.
