Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma (born May 12, 1929) was the first President of Namibia. He was inaugurated in 1990 and was subsequently re-elected in 1994 and 1999, serving until 2005.
He was the President of SWAPO (South West African People's Organization) while leading an armed struggle against the then occupying foreign and colonial power, South Africa.
South Africa administered the land under a policy of apartheid, or division, in which the best resources were reserved for those classified white, while indigenous Namibians were treated as inferior and forbidden from active participation in their country. Nujoma led SWAPO in an armed struggle to end the South African occupation.
As head of SWAPO, Nujoma was unanimously declared president upon the victory of SWAPO in a United Nations-supervised election, and was sworn in as president by UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar on March 21, 1990.
Nujoma had the constitution of Namibia changed to allow him to run for a third five-year term in 1999. He won that election with 76.8% of the vote. The constitution did not allow him to run again in November 2004 for a fourth term, and Hifikepunye Pohamba, described by some as Nujoma's "hand-picked successor", was the SWAPO candidate for president. Pohamba was elected with a large majority and was sworn in as president on March 21, 2005. Nujoma will remain head of the SWAPO party until 2007. [1]
Nujoma initiated a plan for land reform, in which land would be redistributed from whites (who, despite constituting only a small percentage of the population, own a disproportionately large amount of the nation's farmland) to blacks, although he maintains that this will be done on a "willing buyer, willing seller" basis.
Nujoma was born in the north of the country, in Ongandjera, and his mother Gwakondobolo was still alive as of May 2004.
See also: History of Namibia