Tributes flow for Abrahams

Ottilie Abrahams was a remarkable influence on her country and her contribution as a steadfast heroine is unparalleled. Local politician Hewat Beukes said Abrahams was a leader who absolutely committed herself to her political struggles and causes. He related that she pushed her political struggle agenda while attending to her household at the same time.“She was involved in all the facets of Namibia's freedom struggle, political, education, women and children's rights… she was everywhere,” he said. He shared how her establishment of the Jakob Marengo Secondary School was a beacon for education in a country ravaged by apartheid. Abrahams founded the Jacob Marengo school in Katutura in 1985 and was the principal until her death. She died on Sunday at the age of 80.“She created a school that taught children the value of liberal and critical thought and she opposed corporal punishment. In 1978, she led an anti-conscription campaign against the forced recruitment of Namibians into the South African army,” he shared. Beukes also shared how Abrahams, as an avid social activist, established the Citizens Association in Windhoek and Keetmanshoop which agitated for affordable resources and services for citizens. Beukes' wife, Erica, also praised Abrahams for being a relentless freedom fighter who treated children with dignity. “She worked very hard and then also brought an alternative form of education to Bantu education and believed that children must understand what their worth is and that they should not be beaten,” said Erica. Leader of the official opposition the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), McHenry Venaani, described Abrahams as a “rare breed of diminishing devoted scholars” who dedicated her life towards the emancipation of the Namibian child.“Ottilie Abrahams played a cardinal role in the political structure of our country. She was a pioneer of early political formation and a distinguished freedom fighter. She traversed the world looking for a better Namibia. She had many distinguished accomplishments and was an exceptional and brilliant academic who would have had much to brag about, but chose to live a humble life among her people,” said Venaani. One of her students Jeremiah Ndjoze said he remembers his former principal as an innovative educator and fervent campaigner for gender equality and the rights of the girl child in particular. Another student, Angolan national Albertina Bongue, said she met Abrahams through a cousin and came to know her as someone who looked out for the interests of Angolan students in the country. “I still remember her looking at us through her glasses that were hanging on her nose. She was a strong woman, and she was known for being a great supporter of children. She ensured that they had access to many opportunities. She wouldn't let an Angolan national in her school be lost.” In a tribute Yvette Abrahams hailed her mother as a most energetic and brilliant force in today's largely forgotten initiatives of organising women for a powerful women's movement for social and political change at the time of Namibian independence. According to her, Abrahams was among the first generation of Namibian students who pursued tertiary education in Cape Town.“Ottilie Schimming Abrahams was among the leading members of this tiny Namibian intelligentsia that formed various political-cum-educational organisations in the 1950s, such as the South West Africa Student Body (SWASB) and South West Africa People's Association (SWAPA). This incipient intelligentsia, and 'Tillie' among them, joined the contract workers who formed the Ovamboland People's Congress (OPC) in Cape Town in 1957. Their best-known member was Andimba Herman Toivo Ya Toivo who was by then working at the railways in Cape Town. This group was formed by Namibians, mostly men, who were able to get out after World War II, from what had previously been a tightly sealed, fairly isolated colony.”Abrahams, who was born in Windhoek's Old Location into a family in which the children spoke Otjiherero to one grandmother, and Damara to the other, and who among themselves often conversed in Afrikaans and later in English, while their parents sometimes spoke German to each other.JEMIMA BEUKES

Tributes flow for Abrahams

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-10

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Tributes flow for Abrahams

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-10

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