David Sheehama

Colonial Ovamboland saw trade become the locals' lifeline to the modern economy, offering an escape from the dependency of short-term labor contracts.^[1] Sheehama's business orientation grew while serving the Van Zyl family. By the mid-1950s, David Sheehama had accumulated enough savings to establish his first home in Onakayale, near Outapi in northern Namibia. He dedicated himself fully to his tailoring and clothing sales business around 1956, setting up a mobile stall selling various affordable goods after church services and weddings.^[1] Soon after marrying Jakobina, they opened a shop offering essential items like sugar, food, paraffin, blankets, and clothing. Jakobina, trained in sewing by David, made and sold dresses and baby slings, while also managing the shop. Notably, they sold Cuca Beer, popular in northern Namibia.

Before settling down, Sheehama purchased his own car, one of the first in the area. This vehicle aided in transporting and delivering goods to his shop.^[1] Recognizing the growth of migrant labor, he established the first public transport service in the area, ferrying workers from various towns to labor compounds. This venture proved highly profitable, leading him to expand his fleet of trucks. Migrant workers often camped at his shop while waiting for transport. Initially driving himself, Sheehama later recruited local youth as drivers, including Oswin Mukulu, who currently is the Chief of Ombalantu Traditional Authority.^[3]

However, the late 1960s saw a decline in his transportation business due to the railway extension to Ombalantu and Ruacana. Sheehama shifted his focus entirely to trading, using his accumulated capital to expand and open new shops. He established branches in Okalongo and, during the 1970s, acquired and gifted two BBK Wholesalers near Outapi to his family members. Additionally, he opened shops in Oshakati and Ongwediva, recognizing their potential as new market towns in the north. This decade witnessed significant growth for David Sheehama's trading enterprises, extending across northern Namibia.^[1]

Finally, he operated a bottle store near the Onakayale mission station, strategically located near a school, hospital, and Italian construction project for the Ruacana Hydroelectric Power Station, all contributing to its success.^[1]

Sheehama was an avowed freedom fighter closely associated with his political home-ground party, the South West Africa's People Organization (SWAPO) party which prior to 1960 was then the Owambo People's Organization (OPO). Sheehama was in close association with the organization's military wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) founded in 1962 that for more than two decades fought against the South African Defence Force (SADF) to liberate Namibia from the brutalities of the apartheid regime.

With the profits of his busy supermarkets, Sheehama would fund SWAPO activities^[4] and holistically supported the PLAN combatants with clothing, food and hospitality in his own home. He on occasions voluntarily transported PLAN's armed caches from Angola to Namibia and became one of the few business persons known personally by combatants in Ombalantu.^{[citation needed]}

As a man of great influence in the community, Sheehama was endlessly prodded to abdicate his patriotic obligations. He had been asked to join the colonial Bantustan and puppet government which consisted of informants and accomplices of the apartheid government, reporting on the works of the PLAN liberational unionization efforts to weaken and destabilize the Namibian War for Independence. After several failed attempts to lure him, in the early morning hours of 14 March 1980, while sleeping next to his pregnant wife and two-year-old daughter, he was assassinated (supposedly) by the Koevoet.^[5] He was shot several times with an AK - 47 automatic rifle, his wife and unborn child were left wounded^[6] but he was pronounced dead on the spot.^[7] His house and car was set on fire on that fateful night.^[8] Sheehama was ranked one of the richest black men in Namibia during the 1970s together with Frans Indongo, Eliakim Namundjembo and Thomas Nakambonde.^[1]