Kuaima Riruako

Kuaima Isaac Riruako (24 April 1935 – 2 June 2014) was a Namibian politician and the paramount chief of the Herero people. He served as a National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) representative in Parliament, and he was the President of NUDO and its presidential candidate in the 2004 presidential election, placing fourth with 4.23% of the national vote.

Riruako was born into the Tjamuaha-Maharero royal family on 24 April 1935 in the settlement of Otjewe in the Aminuis Constituency. His birth name was Issaskar Kakuremdiro; the name Kuaima he assumed later in life after his grandfather. He attended school at St. Barnabas Primary in Windhoek and at the end of the 1960s went on to study at the Kwame Nkumah School of Ideology in Accra, Ghana. He also obtained an Associate BA from the New York University. Stemming from his traditional upbringing in rural South-West Africa, Riruako had vast knowledge of indigenous knowledge, folklore, history, and family lineages.

According to family folklore, Riruako had several revelations during his life. He is said to have foretold the assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966, and a further revelation allegedly saved his life when he was left for dead on the uninhabited Zambian Mombova Island. After 14 days without food and water, it is said that he was told to stand upright on the tiny island, an action that alerted local fishermen that came to investigate where the second "tree" on that island suddenly came from.

After the assassination of Clemens Kapuuo in 1978, Riruako became Paramount Chief of the Herero. He remained in that position until his death. As Okhandja Herero, Riruako has led an effort to receive compensation from the Government of Germany for the Herero massacre between 1904 and 1907 in the same manner that Jews have received compensation for their Holocaust. Germany ruled this out, but he won a formal apology from the German government.

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