Auntie Patty laid to rest in Windhoek

Priscilla Charlene Geingos, the first wife of Prime Minister Hage Geingob, has been laid to rest in a Windhoek cemetery. Geingos, who was also known as Auntie Patty or Meme Niilonga, was laid to rest at the Gammams Cemetery. Over 200 of mourners, including Geingob, the first president of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda, Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Theo-Ben Gurirab, and other high-ranking government ministers and officials braved the heat to pay their last respects to Geingos. The 69-year-old Geingos died at the Windhoek Medi-Clinic last Wednesday, after a long battle with cancer. She was born in New York to a Caribbean father and an American mother. She married Geingob on January 23, 1967 and they have one daughter together, Nangula Geingos. Geingos is survived by her daughters Nangula and Femi Francis-Leito, two sisters Naomi Angus and Anna Cash, grandchildren Naomi, Bahiyah and Jackson and several adopted children and grandchildren. Geingos demonstrated great hospitality by housing the first Swapo office in New York. She welcomed many Namibian freedom fighters, including Founding Father Sam Nuujoma, into her house. She was given the name ‘Niilonga’, which means ‘a hard working person’, by the founding father. When she moved to Namibia after independence in 1990, she served in various managerial positions at Cadilu Fishing, Nampost, Telecom Namibia, Future Kids and Air Namibia, among others. Many described her as a loving and caring person at her funeral. “She was like a grandmother to me, I will miss her,” said Rauna Hamakali, one of those who rent at Geingos’s house. University of Namibia (Unam) Professor Enos Kiremire described Geingos as one the few people with good governance skills in Africa. He said he met Auntie Patty in Zambia during the liberation struggle. WINDHOEK NAMPA