To Hell and Back: My Experience under Difficult Colonial Rule, by Ngarikutuke Tjiriange

To Hell and Back: My Experience under Difficult Colonial Rule, by Ngarikutuke Tjiriange. Pan-African Institute for the Study of African Society Trust (PAISAS). Windhoek, Namibia. ISBN 9789994560028 / ISBN 978-99945-60-02-8

To Hell and Back introduces to the life of Dr. Ngarikutuke Tjiriange in the context of and through the background of Namibia’s jounger history as well as his comments on the in parts flawed culture of gloryfying (wrong) persons as heroes of the Namibian liberation struggle.

I was born to a family of Ovaherero parents. My father comes from the Royal family of Zemburuka/Zeraeua, while my mother comes from a clan better known as "Va Ngoze ya Hauanga" within the Ovaherero setup. Both these families are well known within the circles of the Ovaherero community. I was born at a place called Okaputa on July 12, 1943. Okaputa today is a resettlement farm. I simply don't remember that place because my parents moved away while I was a very small baby, so I am told. Those days children in rural areas would look after cattle and other domestic animals as well as do some domestic work for their families. In areas such as Ovamboland, Kavango and to some extent Kaokoland, it was worse for some children. Boys were recruited by SWANLA to work for white settlers in towns and farms in the central and southern parts of the country. Consequently many of them never went to school as they worked for the whites who paid them starvation wages, with conditions that were tantamount to near slavery. They were also abused and treated worse than animals by those white settlers. They were physically humiliated and beaten. I did not grow up in those areas, as can be seen in the story of the early years of my life in this book. Some black children who grew up in towns such as Windhoek also worked in various places after school. I also did work after school hours. We earned just little money for such work and supplemented the meagre salaries of our parents since most of the black people struggled to make ends meet. The inhuman treatment of young children by the settler colonialists, and the general oppression of black people that young children witnessed as they grew up also drove the youth into becoming freedom fighters in order to liberate their country from such inhuman treatment of black people. Most of my childhood was spent in Windhoek where I started school at what was known as Rhenish Herero School, which belonged to the Lutheran Church. I went to that school with people like Peter Katjavivi, Luther Zaire, Sakey Shikwambi, Mvula Ya Nangolo, Tyves Mbako, Ferdenard Akwenye, Erica Muundjua (Kauaaka), Efraim Mujetenga, Tjipangandjara, Nguendu Mbaha, Tjizembua Ndisiro, Kanime Hoveka, and many others. Our seniors included Joseph Mukwuayu (Ithana), Onesmus Akwenye, Kaengeri Murangi, Franz Kambangula, Jason Mutumbulwa, Tommy Akwenye and others. The principal of our school was Jack Vries and other teachers included Karuhumba, Karita, Aaron Hipondoka, Theofilius Katjimune, etc. We were lucky that by that time there was still no Bantu education and the syllabus was almost, if not altogether, the same as the one in the so-called white schools. This school was situated in what came to be known later as the Old Location where the black people of Windhoek lived. There was no Katutura at that time. The education of black children was not a priority for the white colonialists. Both German and Boer administrations were not concerned about the education of black children. In fact it was the churches who tried to organize the education of black children. Hence most of the schools belonged to various churches. [...]

This is an excerpt from To Hell and Back: My Experience under Difficult Colonial Rule, by Ngarikutuke Tjiriange.

Title: To Hell and Back
Subtitle: My Experience under Difficult Colonial Rule
Author: Ngarikutuke Tjiriange
Genre: Memoirs
Publisher: Pan-African Institute for the Study of African Society Trust (PAISAS)
Windhoek, Namibia
ISBN 9789994560028
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 171 pages, several photos
About: To Hell and Back. My Experience under Difficult Colonial Rule