Peter Mweshihange

Peter Mweshihange (5 May 1930 – 20 March 1998) was a Namibian revolutionary and guerrilla leader, and after Namibian independence, a politician and diplomat. He was Namibia's first Minister of Defence from 1990 to 1995, and first ambassador to the People's Republic of China from 1996 until his death.

Early life Mweshihange was born as fifth of twenty-five children on 5 May 1930 in Epinga near the border with Angola in former Ovamboland, today Ohangwena Region. In his childhood years, he developed knowledge of the local flora and considered himself to be a traditional healer, using his childhood friends as guinea pigs. He attended St. Mary's Mission School at Odibo from the age of 11, and from the age of 14 he received training to become a teacher. He moved to Tsumeb in 1946 and worked first as truck driver, then as head of transport services at the South West Africa Native Labour Association (SWANLA), the colonial labour hire company of South-West Africa.

He died on 20 March 1998 while on a home visit to Windhoek. Peter Mweshihange was given a state funeral at Windhoek's Old Location Cemetery, and later re-buried at the Namibian National Heroes' Acre. Theo-Ben Gurirab remembered him as a culinary master and "connoisseur of good things in life".