1. Chief Hosea Katjikururume Komombumbi Kutako, was a Namibian nationalist leader and a founding member of Namibia's first nationalist party, the South West African National Union.
21 Facts About Hosea Kutako
1. 2.
Hosea Kutako was born as a Herero royal, but into a position which, but for the course of history, would never have enabled him to claim leadership of the Herero, let alone of the people of Namibia.
3.
Hosea Kutako mentored many future leaders, including Clemens Kapuuo, Fanuel Kozonguizi, and Sam Nujoma, among others.
4.
Hosea Kutako was born into a royal Herero family in 1870 at Okahurimehi, near present-day Kalkfeld.
5.
Hosea Kutako defeated a German patrol under the command of Lieutenant von Bodenhausen in a skirmish waged between the Waterberg and Osondjache on 6 August 1904.
6.
In 1920, Hosea Kutako was officially appointed as leader of the Herero people by Frederik Maharero.
7.
Hosea Kutako took over his role as a commitment to preserve the memory of the Herero before and during the German colonisation as well as of the Battle of Waterberg.
8.
Hosea Kutako prompted and organised the transfer of Samuel Maharero's body and its funeral on Okahandja next to the grave of Jonker Afrikaner.
9.
On 1 June 1925, Hosea Kutako was elected as the senior leader of all Ovaherero and Chief of the Council of Headmen.
10.
Hosea Kutako retained this position until his death in 1970.
11.
Hosea Kutako was asked by the South West Africa Administration to intervene but had no success.
12.
Hosea Kutako requested the South West Africa Administration to order Otjiserandu members in Aminuis to leave the reserve.
13.
In 1945, Hosea Kutako co-founded the Herero Chiefs' Council with the cooperation of Chief Frederick Maharero in exile in Botswana, and in 1946, he sent his first petition to the United Nations opposing South Africa's annexation of Namibia.
14.
Hosea Kutako became deputy chief of Namibia's Traditional Leaders Council, and became Chief of the Botswana Mbanderu people in 1951.
15.
On 27 September 1959, Hosea Kutako co-founded the South West African National Union, the first nationalist political party in Namibia.
16.
Hosea Kutako played a key role in guiding young nationalist leaders, including Nujoma, and helped organize early exile movements to train freedom fighters.
17.
Hosea Kutako opposed the Odendaal Plan of 1964, which sought to divide Namibia into ethnic "homelands" under South African rule.
18.
Hosea Kutako died on 18 July 1970 in the Aminuis Reserve, in the remote eastern part of the Omaheke Region of Namibia.
19.
Hosea Kutako is one of nine national heroes of Namibia that were identified at the inauguration of the country's Heroes' Acre near Windhoek.
20.
Hosea Kutako played an historic and significant role in petitioning the United Nations Organisation demanding the placement of the then South West Africa under the United Nations trusteeship system.
21.
Hosea Kutako is honoured in form of a granite tombstone with his name engraved and his portrait plastered onto the slab.