Fanuel Kozonguizi

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Fanuel Jariretundu Kozonguizi (b. 26 January 1932 - 1 February 1995) was a Namibian politician, activist, lawyer and ombudsman.

[edit] Biography

Kozonguizi was born in January 1932 in Windhoek. He eventually earned his matric in South Africa in 1953. A year later, he began his career as an activist in Namibia, working to support contract labourers returning to Ovamboland. Also in 1954, he formed the South West Africa Students Organization at Fort Hare University. In 1956, Kozonguizi spoke before the United Nations on the issue of South West Africa along with Reverend Michael Scott, Mburumba Kerina, Hans Beukes, Markus Kooper, Sam Nujoma, Ismael Fortune, Jacob Kuhangua and Hosea Kutako^[1] In 1959, he was elected the first President of the South West Africa National Union (SWANU), which was the first modern political party in Namibian history. This lasted until 1966, when Kozonguizi as SWANU leader stressed, among other things, an ideologically pure commitment to socialism and anti-imperialism which made SWANU unpopular in comparison to the other major political party of Namibia, the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO). This also led to the 1968 derecognition of SWANU by the Organization of African Unity. After serving as a lawyer in London for a short time, Kozonguizi returned to Namibia in 1976 as legal advisor to Clemens Kapuuo and the OvaHerero delegation at the Turnhalle Constitutional Conference. From 1980 until independence, Kozonguizi served in the internal government of Namibia in various positions, including as the Minister of Justice, Information, Post and Telecommunication from June 1985 onward. Upon independence in 1990, he was appointed national ombudsman, which he served until his death in February 1995 at the age of 63.