His father, Daniel Uninujoma and his mother, Minpana Helvi Kondonboro, worked in the land. As a boy, Njoma said in his memoirs that he cared for the cows and goats of his family, carrying a baby to his back to free his mother and letting him work in the fields.
With only modest formal education, Njoma moved to the coastal enclave of Walvis Bay at age 17, where he worked at a general store and a whaling station before moving to Windhook as a rail system cleaner. Hours later, he learned English at night at school. In 1956 he married Theopoldine Kovambo Katjimne. They had three sons and a daughter who died at 18 months old. Mr Njoma had been in exile by then and was unable to attend her funeral, he wrote.
In the late 1950s, Ghana's independence from the UK in 1957 became a symbol of liberation for many Africans, and Njoma was particularly associated with the organization that was the pioneer of the Swapo in the Ovanboland People's Organization. He left in exile in 1960 over his role in protesting the forced removal of black people from one segregated town to another. In 1966, his organization began the first interim military operation of an armed struggle. Over the years, thousands of young Namibians have joined the ranks of the rebels.
South Africa tried to downplay the war with Swapo as a low-intensity conflict, which confirmed the increasing commitment of the military. “Despite the massive efforts of South Africa over 20 years,” said Bernard E. Trainer, a military correspondent for the New York Times, in July 1988, “the current estimated at 8,000 rebels in Namibia. The strength appears to be unlit.”
SWAPO's military tradition endured when regular Namibian forces were deployed in 1998 in support of Congo's President Laurent Kavila and in 1999 suppressed the separatist rebellion in the northeastern Caprivistlip.
