Shafiihuna Nujoma (born 1929) led the Southwest African People's Organization (SWAPO) from exile for almost 30 years. In 1989 he became the first president of independent Namibia.

Shafiihuna (Sam) Nujoma was born May 12, 1929, in the Ongandera area of northwestern Namibia. His name, Shafiihuna, means "a time of trouble," and in fact Nujoma was born during Namibia's period of British rule under a treaty mandate which removed the colony from German control at the end of World War I. Colonial governance was later assumed by an independent South Africa.

The northern part of Namibia in which Nujoma was born and grew up is known as Ovambo(land). He is Ovambo, a member of the largest ethnic group in Namibia, today comprising approximately 60 percent of the population. This relatively fertile and more densely populated land was far from the focus of European interests, which concentrated on Namibia's mineral wealth and ranching lands to...