He was born Jackson Muningandu Kaujeua, a member of the Herero ethnic group[1] in ǃHuns, a village near Keetmanshoop.
[2] Later, he gave up education as a priest at the mission school of Otjimbingwe after he came in touch with the songs of gospel singers like Mahalia Jackson, whose human rights-related lyrics inspired him.
[2] After a short time in Botswana, the SWAPO-resistance movement (with which he was associated until his death)[4][5] helped him to move to the UK, where he soon became the lead singer of the group Black Diamond.
[3] Having lived as a teacher in an Angolan refugee camp from 1979 to the early 80s and later in Sweden, he returned to Namibia before independence in 1990, where he celebrated great successes with his music, especially with ǃGnubu ǃNubus (Khoekhoe: short and round).
Calls for some sort of employment or empowerment for his role as "musical ambassador for the liberation struggle" were not answered by the authorities.