Mandume Ya Ndemufayo

Mandume Ya Ndemufayo (1894 – 6 February 1917) was the last king of the Kwanyama, a subset of the Ovambo people of southern Angola and northern Namibia. Ndemufayo took over the Kwanyama kingdom in 1911 and his reign lasted until 1917 when he died of either suicide or machine gun fire while his kingdom was under attack from South African forces. Ndemufayo is honoured as a national hero in both Angola and Namibia.

The Kwanyama kingdom was split by the 1884 Berlin Conference into the areas of Portuguese West Africa and German South West Africa.

Ndemufayo grew up during a time of significant upheaval in the Kwanyama kingdom due to the presence of European merchants and missionaries. Third in line for succession to the Kwanyama throne, the prince lived in fear of assassination from an early age.

Ndemufayo took the throne peacefully by Kwanyama standards and immediately moved the royal residence to Ondjiva (now in Angola). Ndemufayo expelled Portuguese traders from Kwanyama territory to denounce price inflation. Internally, he issued decrees prohibiting the picking of unripened fruit to protect against droughts and the unneeded use of firearms, an important commodity obtained from European traders. Significantly, he also issued harsh penalties for the crime of rape and allowed women to own cattle, which was previously illegal. Overall, King Ndemufayo sought to restore previous Kwanyama wealth and prosperity against a decaying system of local leadership.

Ndemufayo had a reputation as a persecutor of Christians within the Kwanyama kingdom. Numerous Christian families fled to the Ondonga kingdom of the Ovambos to flee his persecution. Ndemufayo also had problems with Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries as well as German Rhenish Missionary Society Protestants.

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