Ohangwena

Ohangwena is Oukwanyama country, one of the Ovambo kingdoms, cut in two by a colonial border that still runs through its villages. Its last king, Mandume ya Ndemufayo, died fighting South African troops at Oihole on the Namibian side in 1917, and half a century later the same countryside was the front line of the liberation war. Knowing that history explains the mission churches, the shrine at Eenhana and why the border town feels so busy.

1. From about 1600

   The list of Oukwanyama kings goes back to around 1600, and most of them ruled from Ondjiva, which now lies across the border in Angola. The kingdom covered land on both sides of today's line. source

2. 1884

   The Berlin agreements of 1884 split the Oukwanyama kingdom between Portuguese Angola and German South West Africa without asking its people. Neither colonial power tried to occupy or govern the well armed Ovambo kingdoms for at least two decades. source

3. 1911 to 1917

   Mandume ya Ndemufayo became king in 1911, expelled Portuguese traders and held off a Portuguese attack for three days at Omongwa (Mongua) in 1915 before heavy losses forced him to move his capital south into the territory South Africa had just taken from Germany. He refused to submit, and in February 1917 he died fighting South African troops (their records say machine-gun fire, oral history says he took his own life). The Kwanyama kingship was then abolished until 1998. source

4. 1920 and 1921

   Finnish Lutheran missionaries opened the Engela station in November 1920, and the nurse Linda Helenius started a hospital there in 1921. source

5. 1966 to 1990

   The liberation war between SWAPO's guerrilla army, PLAN (the People's Liberation Army of Namibia), and South Africa ran from 26 August 1966 to independence on 21 March 1990. The road north to Oshikango was one of the army's main supply routes to the border, and its bridges and culverts were blown up and rebuilt many times. source

6. 1968 to 1989

   Under apartheid South Africa made the north into Ovamboland, a bantustan (a so-called self-governing ethnic homeland) set up in 1968. In practice it was a labour reserve: Ovambo men could leave only on 16-month labour contracts and women not at all. It was replaced by an ethnic Representative Authority in 1980. source

7. 1 April 1989

   Just as the transition to independence was due to begin, fighting broke out in the region between PLAN combatants and the South African Defence Force. The clashes, remembered as the Nine Days War, left many dead. source

8. 2005 to 2007

   In November 2005 contractors digging near the old South African army base at Eenhana found a mass grave, and four more followed. Some residents said suspected SWAPO supporters had been taken to the base and never seen again; others said PLAN fighters killed in combat were buried there. On 27 August 2007 President Hifikepunye Pohamba unveiled a memorial shrine where the remains were reburied. source

Language

Oshikwanyama, one of the Oshiwambo dialects, is the main home language in 90.4 percent of households in the 2023 census. Oshindonga follows with 5.6 percent, and English, Otshikwambi and San languages each have under one percent. source

Peoples

The Aakwanyama make up 86.1 percent of the population in the 2023 census, followed by the Aandonga (6.8 percent) and Aakwambi (1.5 percent). About 2,000 people identify as San. source

Kingship

The kingship came back in 1998 under Cornelius Mwetupunga Shelungu, and Queen Martha Nelumbu has reigned since 2005, both from Omhedi. source

Food and farming

Life on the homesteads still turns on mahangu (pearl millet), beans, goats and cattle, and on wild fruit such as eembe. Some families make and sell traditional food. source

Churches

Lutheranism is the main faith in the old Ovamboland because Finnish missionaries worked here from the 1870s, and their church became today's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN). That is why so many people carry Finnish first names such as Toivo, Martta and Helmi. source