Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma[1] (/nuːˈjoʊmə/ noo-YOH-mə; 12 May 1929 – 8 February 2025) was a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first president of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005.

Nujoma played an important role as leader of the national liberation movement in campaigning for Namibia's political independence from South African rule.

Nujoma's political outlook was shaped by his work experiences, his awareness of the contract labour system, and his increasing knowledge of the independence campaigns across Africa.

[10] Nujoma had become friends with Toivo and in 1959, he joined with OPC cofounder Jacob Kuhangua to start the Windhoek branch of the organisation, which had by then been renamed the Ovamboland People's Organization (OPO).

[9] By the directive of OPO leadership and in collaboration with Chief Hosea Kutako, it was decided that Nujoma join the other Namibians in exile who were lobbying the United Nations on behalf of the anti-colonial cause for Namibia.

With the assistance of members of the Northern Rhodesian United National Independence Party (UNIP) he crossed into the Belgian Congo's Katanga Province.

[4]: 88–91  From Mbeya, Nujoma travelled with the assistance of officials of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) via Njombe, Iringa and Dodoma to Dar-Es-Salaam.

In April 1960, Nujoma travelled from Tanganyika to Khartoum, Sudan, and from there to Accra, Ghana, where he attended the All-African Peoples' Conference organized by Kwame Nkrumah against the French atom bomb test in the Sahara Desert.

Nujoma met with other African nationalist leaders such as Patrice Lumumba, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Joseph Kasa-Vubu, and Frantz Fanon at the conference.

Kwame Nkrumah assisted Nujoma to travel to the United States and later to Liberia, where a case on South West Africa was being presented to the International Court of Justice.

[4]: 96–112 After breaking away from SWANU, OPO reconstituted itself as the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) in New York on 19 April 1960, and Nujoma was elected president in absentia.

Nujoma established SWAPO's provisional headquarters in Dar es Salaam and arranged scholarships and military training for Namibians who had started to join him there.

Nujoma recognized that this paved the way for major changes in the way the war was being fought and over the next two years SWAPO's military campaign shifted its base from Zambia to Angola.

[15] He also warned of the danger of the installation of neocolonialist marionettes who would superficially change the visible colonial regime while the position of the majority of people would stay the same.

[15] Nujoma led the SWAPO negotiations team between the Western Contact Group (WCG), which consisted of West Germany, Britain, France, the US and Canada, and South Africa on the one hand, and the Frontline States and Nigeria on the other, about proposals that would eventually become United Nations Security Council Resolution 435, passed in September 1978.

While the agreement on Resolution 435, which embodied the plan for free and fair elections in Namibia, was undoubtedly a diplomatic coup, its implementation became bogged down for another ten years.

South African delaying tactics and the decision by U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration to link a Cuban withdrawal from Angola to Namibian independence frustrated hopes of an immediate settlement.

[4]: 259–271 After 29 years in exile, Nujoma returned to Namibia in September 1989 to lead SWAPO to victory in the UN-supervised elections that paved the way for independence.

Nujoma returned a day before the UN deadline for the Namibia people to register to vote for an election that would draft a constitution when it received its independence from South Africa.

At the time South Africa administered the land under a policy of apartheid, in which the best resources were reserved for those classified white, while other Namibians were treated as inferior.

[27] At independence, Namibia was gravely divided as a result of a century of colonialism, dispossession, and racial discrimination, compounded by armed struggle and propaganda.

For instance, SWAPO had been so demonized by the colonial media and by official pronouncements that most white people, as well as many members of other groups, regarded the movement with the deepest fear, loathing and suspicion.

One of Nujoma's earliest achievements was to proclaim the policy of "national reconciliation", which aimed to improve and harmonise relations amongst Namibia's various racial and ethnic groups.

Namibian, Angolan and Zimbabwean troops helped Kabila fend off the attacks – a move that Nujoma saw as defending the DRC's sovereignty against outside interference.

[43] Nujoma played a crucial role in addressing the country’s HIV/AIDS crisis, despite negative homophobic and stigmatizing comments, by advocating for awareness and policy development.

[46] His administration collaborated with global organizations such as WHO and UNAIDS to secure funding and expand support for HIV programs and also promoted the gradual expansion of antiretroviral therapy to improve treatment access.

[47] Despite stepping down from a formal role, Nujoma remained active in the political sphere and regularly campaigned for SWAPO at various rallies and functions across the country.

[53] In September 2009, during a speech in northern Namibia defending Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, Nujoma repeatedly verbally attacked Americans, Britons, and Germans and urged his supporters: "As soon as you see an Englishman, hit him with a hammer in the head".

[66][37] The Namibian government announced a period of national mourning over his death beginning on 9 February[67] and ordered Nujoma's remains to be transported to the Omusati, Oshana, Erongo, Kavango East, Zambezi, Otjozondjupa, Khomas and ǁKaras Regions.

[76] The Namibian – a publication that at times had a strained relationship with Nujoma[43] – described him as "the last of his generation of African liberation struggle leaders", placing him alongside such figures as Nelson Mandela, Samora Machel, Agostinho Neto, Robert Mugabe, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere, Hastings Banda and Seretse Khama.