7 things to know about the Namibian President Hage Geingob who died after cancer diagnosis

The Office of the President of Namibia announced the death of President Haji Geingob in hospital, at the age of 82, weeks after he was diagnosed with cancer. This report contains highlights from the life of the late Haji Geingob.

Geingob was a Namibian politician who served as the third President of Namibia from March 21,  2015 until his death on February 4, 2024. Geingob was the first Prime Minister of Namibia and Minister of Namibia from 1990 to 2002, and served as Prime Minister again from 2012 to 2015. Between 2008 and 2012 Geingob served Position of Minister of Trade and Industry.

He also served as Chairman of the ruling SWAPO Party from November 2017 until his death in February 2024.

Geingob was born in Otjiwarongo, South-West Africa (present-day Namibia), in 1941 and received his early education in Otavi in ​​South-West Africa under the Bantu education system and joined the Augustinum, as most of today's prominent political leaders were educated in Namibia.

In 1960, he was expelled from Augustineum for participating in a march protesting the poor quality of education. However, he was readmitted and completed a teacher training course in 1961. After that, he took up a teaching position at Tsumeb Primary School in central Namibia, but decided that he could not continue his education. Additional in Namibia. As a teacher, he also resented being forced to participate in the Bantu education system.

At the end of the school year, he left his job to seek knowledge and education that could help him change the system. He and three colleagues walked and drove to Botswana to escape the regime. From Botswana, he was scheduled to fly to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on a plane chartered by the African National Congress, but the plane was blown up by South African citizens. However, the bomb that was planted on the plane exploded prematurely, before the plane could take off. Later, the apartheid regime also tightened the "underground railway". As a result, Geingob remained in Botswana, where he served as Assistant Representative of the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) (1963-1964).

In 1964, Geingob left for the United States to study at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he received a scholarship. He then received a bachelor's degree from Fordham University in New York City in 1970 and a master's degree in international relations from the Graduate School of the New School in New York in 1964. 1974

In November 2014, Geingob was elected President of Namibia by an overwhelming majority, and in November 2017, Geingob became the third president of SWAPO after winning by a wide margin at the party's sixth conference.

In August 2018, Geingob began a one-year term as Chairman of the Southern African Development Community.