Iipumbu Ya Tshilongo

Iipumbu ya Tshilongo (1875–1959) was the king of Uukwambi, an Ovambo clan in Namibia, from 1907 to 1932. He is one of the national heroes of Namibia.

Biography Iipumbu ya Tshilongo was born in 1873 in Onatshiku, a settlement near Elim, today in the Omusati Region of northern Namibia. An accident as an adolescent earned him the nickname Ndilimani (Oshiwambo: dynamite) when an explosion blew three fingers off his left hand.

He became the eighteenth king of the Uukwambi in 1907, succeeding King Negumbo lya Kandenge. During his reign he became known to jealously protect the tribal area of the Uukwambi from encroaching white settlers, going as far as having the roads guarded that led into Uukwambi territory.

Oral history and archival records characterize ya Tshilongo as a despotic tyrant who ruled with an iron fist. The site was deproclaimed a few months later.