James Kauluma

Reverend James Hamupanda Kauluma (1 July 1933 in Ovamboland – 4 April 2007 in Windhoek) was a Namibian human rights activist and sixth Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Namibia. He was the first Namibian Bishop of the Anglican Diocese in the country.^[1]

In 1949, Kauluma began studying at St. Mary's School in Odibo. He was baptised into the Anglican Church in 1951 at the age of 18. In 1953, he was recruited by the South West African Native Labour Association (SWANLA) and was sent to work in the diamond mines in Oranjemund in the far south of the country.^[1]

He studied at the Dorothea Mission in Johannesburg between 1958 and 1959, and in Kenya, before returning to Namibia in 1964. In 1965 he travelled to Canada and the USA for further study, graduating with a BA degree from the University of Toronto and an MA from New York University. He was made a deacon in 1975 and, in 1977, was ordained as an Anglican priest by exiled Bishop Colin O'Brien Winter.^[1]

He was elected Suffragan Bishop of Damaraland in 1977, and was consecrated as such in Westminster Abbey, London, on 15 January 1978 by Bishop Edward George Knapp-Fisher, acting under commission from the Archbishop of Cape Town, assisted by the Bishop of Damaraland, the Assistant Bishop of Damaraland, and others.^[1]

He returned to live in Namibia in 1978, after having lived abroad for 12 years. After the death of Bishop Winter in 1981 he was elected diocesan bishop, the first Namibian to hold that office.^[1]

Kauluma retired from public life in 1998 and died from prostate cancer on 4 April 2007 at the Windhoek Medi-Clinic.^[1]

Bibliography

Pütz, Joachim, von Egidy, Heidi & Caplan, Perri. 1990. Namibia handbook and political who's who, 2nd ed. Windhoek: Magus. ISBN 0-620-14172-7 Church of the Province of Southern Africa Clerical Directory, 1991/1992, p. 222. Bishopscourt Archives, Consecration of Bishops, 1847-1986.