Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
[2] Namibia's independence movement SWAPO, today[update] its ruling political party, detained, tortured and killed members of its own movement in the Lubango dungeons in southern Angola in the 1980s, the final years of the Namibian War of Independence.
Victims included prominent people such as Bience Gawanas, later ombudsperson of Namibia, and Aaron Muchimba, businessman and brother-in-law of Sam Nujoma.
[5] Siegfried Groth, a German pastor in SWAPO's Angolan refugee camps, exposed the atrocities at Lubango, causing the foundation of the BWS, a fierce debate on national reconciliation, and a "furious response from Swapo".
[6] BWS advocates for an acknowledgement of the goings-on at Lubango as well as for an official apology by SWAPO.