‘My mother tried to kill me’

TUYEIMO HAIDULAONANDJOKWE Wilka Shikongo says she cannot believe that the woman she has called mother for 45 years beat her up so severely that her right arm had to be amputated.Shikongo has been recovering at Onandjokwe State Hospital since the incident at Omulondo village in the Oshikoto Region on 6 August 2021.A case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm has been opened.Her mother, aged 72 years according to the police report, was arrested on Friday. Deputy Commissioner Petrus Shigwedha of the Oshikoto police said the pensioner was expected to appear in the Ondangwa Magistrate’s Court today.She allegedly used a knopkierie to beat her daughter, who sustained serious arm and head injuries and was taken to Onandjokwe hospital.Shikongo’s arm was put in a cast but it did not respond to treatment and after a few weeks, her doctors decided to amputate.Used up the spicesShikongo told Namibian Sun from her hospital bed that her mother was shouting during the assault that she had given birth to her and would kill her too.She said her only crime was using up the spices her mother used to add flavour to meat. She said she could not defend herself as she didn’t see the attack coming.“Everything happened so fast. I just felt the knock on my arm as the kierie hit me and I fell to the ground. When I heard the crack, I knew she had broken something in my body. I wasn’t sure what it was. The pain was everywhere,” Shikongo recollects.Shikongo said her mother had assaulted her before, but not so seriously that she ended up in hospital.Glad to be alive“I have lost so much. My arm. And now I will have to learn how to function and do things with my left arm. The thought kills me more than the reality. What more can I say? When she is the one who gave birth to me,” she said.Shikongo does laundry and house cleaning for local people to earn an income.Shikongo said she “loves and respects” her mother although they do not have the best relationship.“I respect my mother. I have never lifted my hand to attack her. I am not even entirely useless because I ploughed our field this past season, alone and with assistance from my siblings when they visited,” she said.Shikongo said she was grateful to have survived the attack and that she still has a chance to see her two children - aged 10 and 12 – grow up. Her father died in 2004.tuyeimo@namibiansun.com

‘My mother tried to kill me’

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Namibian Sun 2026-02-16

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‘My mother tried to kill me’

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Namibian Sun 2026-02-16

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