No way those are Doëseb’s words – Diescho

Academic Professor Joseph Diescho has candidly delved into debate about who authored Namibia’s national anthem, saying the late Axali Doëseb did not comprehend the country’s struggle and the gains of independence enough to come up with its lyrics.

He said the national anthem, which former Swapo stalwart Hidipo Hamutenya claimed to have written, was not a “kwasa kwasa song” to have been left to a musician alone without the lead input of people who lived and understood the liberation struggle experience.

There are phrases in the national anthem that only Hamutenya – of all the people involved in the project – could have had come up with, Diescho said.

“Those who follow history would know, for example, that ‘their blood waters our freedom’ was a popular Swapo slogan. Axali was not a Swapo member and neither did he participate in the liberation struggle, so what did he know about blood watering freedom?” the academic, who is based in Germany, wanted to know.

“He worked for the South West African Broadcasting Corporation [SWABC], which worked vehemently against Swapo’s push for independence. He was a conductor of the Namibian National Symphony Orchestra, a white musical organisation that would not have trusted a Swapo activist to be part of it. Let’s not twist history.”

“How can someone who worked for [Democratic Turnhalle Alliance]-led institutions like SWABC claim to have written ‘freedom fight, we have won’? What freedom fight did he partake in?

“Hidipo was in the struggle and it’s natural for him to have authored phrases like that. He lived that experience and could speak about in the national anthem,” Diescho said.

“This is not a kwasa kwasa or Ndilimani song. It’s not something that you just leave to musicians. Authoring a national anthem requires public intellectuals, and Hidipo was exactly that.”

Revolutionary song

Diescho added that he agrees with minister in the presidency Christine //Hoebes, who last weekend remarked that the national anthem was the product of more than one person, and that Doëseb contributed the melody to the song.

Hamutenya’s family this week reiterated that he was responsible for the lyrics.

According to Diescho, Hamutenya initially went into the process “with a preconceived idea of making the national anthem a revolutionary song”.

“But he was advised to come up with a prayer-like anthem, borrowing from the likes of ‘Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika’ of South Africa and ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ of the United States of America. He went back, but still could not avoid the temptation of including liberation elements in the song, which he did in the end.”

Diescho also hit back at claims that Doëseb composed the national anthem lyrics before independence and that they were sung in Lutheran churches as far back as 1988.

“He would have gone to jail if he sang those words prior to independence,” he retorted.

“Songs like that were not allowed in pre-independence Namibia, so it’s incomprehensible to even suggest they were sung in public places like the church ...”

Obvious similarities

Hamutenya is credited with co-authoring the lyrics of the Swapo Party anthem ‘Alert Namibia’ with the late Homateni Kaluenja in 1974.

His son, Kela Hamutenya, this week told Namibian Sun that a close look at the two anthems show they were co-authored by the same person – his father.

“Those who know it [Swapo Party anthem] can hear the obvious similarities with the Namibian national anthem.”

Diescho added: “Hidipo was not a joke. His command of the English language was impeccable, and Axali was more of an Afrikaans man. Hidipo was moulded to become to Namibia what Thabo Mbeki became to South Africa – an intellectual. In the same way that Mbeki came up with that poetic speech ‘I am an African’ in 1996, Hidipo did the same for the national anthem”.

State House this week lauded Doëseb for his “exceptional deeds... in the writing and composition of the national anthem”.

“The presidency also wishes to inform the Namibian public that a decision was taken a while back by government to award N$2 million to Mr Axali Doëseb as a further token of appreciation for his work as the writer and composer of the national anthem,” a statement read.