The ovamboland expedition of 1917: the deposing of King Mandume

Mandume ya Ndemufayo, the last king of the Oukwanyama, resisted the subjugation of his people by colonial powers. To the Portuguese, Germans, and South Africans (and other missionaries), he was a recalcitrant, bloodthirsty, and murderous despot. But to the people of Namibia and Angola, he is a hero of the African people, with permanent remembrance at the Namibian National Heroes’ Acre, a university named after him in the City of Lubango, with street names, monuments, and memorials commemorating his acts of resistance against colonial rule. His demise at the hands of the Ovamboland Expeditionary Force on 6 February 1917 is the archetypal story of the colonial period in Africa – and elsewhere – that opposition to colonial rule was not tolerated and subdued, forcefully if necessary. European interests, along with superior firepower, facilitated the subjugation of many indigenous populations. It was no different in Ovamboland, yet in a period where kingdoms were tumbling, the Oukwanyama resisted.