Mandume Ya Ndemufayo

Mandume ya Ndemufayo (1894 – 6 February 1917) was the last king of the Oukwanyama, a subset of the Ovambo people of southern Angola and northern Namibia. Ya Ndemufayo took over the kingdom in 1911 and his reign lasted until 1917 when he died of either suicide or machine gun fire while he was under attack from South African colonizers. Ya Ndemufayo is honoured as a national hero in both Angola and Namibia.

Background The Oukwanyama kingdom was split by the 1884 Berlin Conference into the areas of Portuguese West Africa and German South West Africa.

Childhood Ya Ndemufayo grew up during a time of significant upheaval in the Oukwanyama kingdom due to the presence of European merchants and missionaries. Third in line for succession to the Kwanyama throne, the prince lived in fear of assassination from an early age.

1911-1915 Ya Ndemufayo took the throne peacefully by Kwanyama standards and immediately moved the royal residence to Ondjiva (now in Angola). Ya Ndemufayo expelled Portuguese traders from Kwanyama territory to denounce price inflation. Internally, he issued decrees prohibiting the picking of unripened fruit to protect against droughts and the unneeded use of firearms, an important commodity obtained from European traders. Significantly, he also issued harsh penalties for the crime of rape and allowed women to own cattle, which was previously illegal. Overall, King Mandume sought to restore previous Kwanyama wealth and prosperity against a decaying system of local leadership.

Ya Ndemufayo is honoured in form of a granite tombstone with his name engraved and his portrait plastered onto the slab. In February 2017, a 100th anniversary of the death of Oukwanyama King Mandume ya Ndemufayo was attended by thousands of Namibians at Omhedi in the Ohangwena region including former Namibian presidents, also the current President Hage Geingob who unveiled a bust of King Mandume. Ya Ndemufayo has a street named after him stretching from the Windhoek city centre to Namibia's national university, the University of Namibia.