Andimba toivo ya toivo autobiography vs biography

In he was appointed Minister of Labour. South Africa, through the League of Nations mandates system, had virtually reduced Namibia to its colony. Toivo and his comrades had been arrested in Namibia and then charged, sentenced and made to serve sentences in a foreign country for 'offences' perpetrated in their own country, Namibia. They had to determine a consistent approach to their imprisonment and therefore to the conditions under which they were incarcerated in South African prisons.

First, they held on to the principle that South Africa and its courts had no right to try them. It followed from this principle that South Africa had no right to hold them in South African prisons. The prison authorities tried their utmost to break down and erode this position of principle. When a Namibian prisoner complained about conditions in prison, the authorities treated this as a de facto acknowledgement of South Africa's right to hold them in South African prisons.

Led by Toivo, the Namibian prisoners therefore refused to raise any complaints. They stuck to their principles and demanded one thing: their immediate removal to Namibia.

Andimba toivo ya toivo autobiography vs biography: Andimba Toivo ya Toivo

At one stage Toivo was put into a cell across the quadrangle from us. He was kept almost entirely alone in that block of cells, consisting of about 30 single cells. Like all cells, it was about seven feet wide by seven-and-a-half feet long. The windows overlooking the corridor - a strip of four panes stacked vertically - were sealed and the two upper panes removed.

There was also a two-pane window about seven feet above ground level, overlooking the communal section of the prison. For Toivo's incarceration in this cell, these two panes were painted black to prevent him having any view of the outside and the sky. Toivo Ya Toivo made a speech at the trial which was widely publicised thereafter.

He stated in brief that, 'We are Namibians, and not South Africans. We do not now, and will not in the future, recognise your right to govern us; to make laws for us, in which we had no say; to treat our country as if it was your property and us as if you are our masters. We have always regarded South Africa as an intruder in our country.

Andimba toivo ya toivo autobiography vs biography: The article combines a portrait

This is how we have always felt and this is how we feel now and it is on this basis that we have faced this trial'. On 9 February Toivo Ya Toivo was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and sent to serve his sentence in the notorious prison of Robben Island near Cape Town. Archived from the original on 26 August Retrieved 25 August Archived from the original on 23 December Retrieved 23 December Archived from the original on 9 March South African Government Information.

Archived from the original on 25 January Retrieved 8 September IUM Voice. International University of Management. October—December Archived from the original PDF on 8 September Retrieved 19 June Archived from the original on 1 March Retrieved 4 October Archived from the original on 11 January External links [ edit ].

Andimba toivo ya toivo autobiography vs biography: Born , Tuhadeleni died in

Authority control databases. Germany United States. Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Use dmy dates from May Toggle the table of contents. Andimba Toivo ya Toivo. In office 27 August — Theo-Ben Gurirab.

Andimba toivo ya toivo autobiography vs biography: Herman Andimba Toivo ya

Peter Tsheehama. In office 26 March — 27 August In office 21 March — 26 March Vicky Erenstein ya Toivo m. Toivo did not only speak out against post-liberation scourges raising their ugly heads in Namibia. In he also addressed a warning to South African politicians. In his later years Toivo also raised his voice against what he perceived as the rise of tribalism in post-colonial Namibia.

It will never take you anywhere, but it causes destruction. At a time when ethnicity had become a frequent concern in the post-colonial politics and society, Toivo called on the solidarities of anti-colonial nationalism. His widow Vicki Erenstein ya Toivo used the occasion of the state funeral to chastise those who exploited their positions to get rich.

Toivo was not just a Namibian freedom fighter. To these men and women the freedom struggle was a continental, even a global rather than just a nationalist endeavour.