10 OCTOBER 2017 - EDITION 13/20
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NAMIBIA TOWN OF THE YEAR 2018 SMALL TOWNS MATTER IS PRESENTED BY
CEO JUNIAS JACOB
Youngest Oniipa dreams big
Ileni Nandjato
P
roclaimed as a town council in April
2015 with operations starting in 2016,
Oniipa has been busy establishing itself
into a fully functioning town council render-
ing all the services as per the Local Authori-
ty Act.
The town’s CEO, Junias Jacob, said this is
despite the fact that the town council is un-
der-staffed.
“Our council is young and has no capaci-
ty to compensate a large number of staff
members.”
Jacob said that to make sure the council de-
livers the expected services to its inhabit-
ants they make use of interns and casual
workers to complement efforts by existing
staff members.
“We are currently busy formalising the town
and at the same time consultants are also
busy developing our first strategic plan. We
have thus far created six extensions with
1 200 erven already occupied. We have also
offered 70 people allocation letters to pur-
chase the land they have been occupying with
their traditional homesteads,” Jacob said.
He said that the most significant achievement
so far is the signing of an agreement with the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia
(ELCIN) for the town council to acquire land.
He said Oniipa was founded by the Finnish
Missionary Society in the early 1910s. It
became a Finnish stronghold in Namibia
and later it became ELCIN’s head office. The
church owns most of the town’s prime land.
When Oniipa was proclaimed a town in 2015,
the church owned almost all the developed
infrastructure within the township land
which includes the Onandjokwe Lutheran
Hospital.
“The main aim of this partnership agreement
is to make sure that the town council gains
access to the land through a formalised rela-
tionship with the church. The church owns
NAMIBIA TOWN OF THE YEAR 2018 SMALL TOWNS MATTER IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY
CEO of Oniipa town, Junias Jacob. PHOTO: CONTRIBUTED
most of the prime land in town and for devel-
opment purposes we need to join hands with
them. This agreement also means that Oniipa
Town Council will be able to acquire resourc-
es easily to develop the town by using the
church’s status,” Jacob said.
Jacob also added that within its economic po-
tential, the town can offer business opportu-
nities in heavy and light industrial activities,
hospitality, education, housing and manufac-
turing. He said that their key strategic eco-
nomic priorities are vested in tourism since
the town is an open museum on its own.
The town is also strategically located on the
eastern edge of Ondangwa and it also a key
transport corridor link to Eenhana and south
of the country.
Oniipa
e
Oniipa came first
ELCIN Printing Press which was es-
tablished in 1901. This press was blown
up twice by the South African military
during the liberation struggle, first in 1973
Ileni Nandjato and then in 1980, because of the church’s
support for Swapo. The printing press is
D
espite being proclaimed as a town still operational and it prints school mate-
council only in 2015, Oniipa is the rial, religious materials, novels and Braille
oldest settlement area in the north materials.
of Namibia and it has existed for more Among many things found in Oniipa the
than 140 years. medical museum is a must-see, taking
When the Finnish missionaries arrived into account the history of the town.
in northern Namibia in 1870, they first Then there is the first building for the
settled at Omandongo in Ondonga, just missionaries built out of clay and mud
south-east of Ondangwa. In 1872 the bricks with a Finnish sauna with a pool
Finnish Mission Society acquired land and a shower heater. It now serves as a
from the then Ondonga king Shikongo guest house.
shaKalulu to establish a church, school Rainio’s grave is also found in Oniitewa
and a hospital. According to oral history, Cemetery in Oniipa.
Oniipa which means ‘thick skin’, was
named after the African ebony tree which
bore fruit with thick skins. These trees
were found in this area in high numbers.
In 1911, Dr Selma Rainio, who was the first
woman in Finland to qualify as medical
doctor, travelled to Namibia as a mission-
ary and established a hospital in Oniipa.
She used to wear her white nursing
uniform and according to the local lore at
Oniipa she was known as the ‘white cattle
egret’ known locally as Eendjokwe in Os-
hiwambo. Whenever they were not feeling
well and were going to the hospital they
would say they were going to see Gwa-
nandjokwe. Over the years, Gwanandjok-
we became her local name and this in turn
became the name of the Onandjokwe Lu-
theran Hospital.
In 1913, Rainio established the first teach-
ers’ seminary in Oniipa followed by the
establishment of the first nursing school
in Namibia in 1930.
After missionary works gained momen-
tum among the Aawambo and Kavango
people, Oniipa became the headquar-
ters for the Evangelical Lutheran Ovam-
bo-Kavango Church (ELOK) which HISTORY: Dr Selma Rainio the founder of
was renamed the Evangelical Luther- Onandjokwe Lutheran Hospital found dis-
an Church in Namibia (ELCIN) in 1984. played in Onandjokwe Medical Museum in
Oniipa is home to the popular ELOC/ Oniipa. PHOTO: ILENI NANDJATO
 2 Oniipa
e

Clergy behind Oniipa

school performance
Ileni Nandjato and still being rated among the best
performing schools in the region, is

D
espite being a non-boarding
school, the Hans Daniel Na-
muhuya Secondary School in
Oniipa town is among the well per-
forming schools in the Oshikoto
Region both for grade 10 and grade 12.
According to school principal Eliud
Shipena, the secret behind the control
and discipline of the 814 day learners
the religious history of Oniipa.
Education started in Oniipa in 1913
when the Finnish missionaries estab-
lished the Oniipa Teachers’ Training
Institute and two primary schools.
One of the schools was later named
after Hans Daniel Namuhuya, the first
Oshindonga-speaker to obtain a uni-
versity degree.

Shipena said that learners are ac-
commodated in different accommo-
dation facilities around the town and
they are exposed to different social
challenges. In spite of this, the school
always makes sure that learners are
disciplined and motivated.
“We are blessed to have clergy
around us. Our learners are exposed
to many social evils such as drugs and
alcohol abuse, and they are not stud-
ying after school. It is difficult for us
BLESSED: Hans Daniel Namuhuya Secondary School principal Eliud Shipena. to control them since after school
PHOTO: ILENI NANDJATO hours they are on their own and they
are not staying with
their parents. Every
time we take discipli-
nary action we call in
church leaders and our
former learners working
in Onandjokwe Lutheran
Hospital to talk to and motivate
them,” Shipena said.
Shipena says that this strategy has
worked in the best interests of the
learners. He said that he has been
with the school since 2003 when it
only went up to junior secondary
level. In 2006, it was
upgraded to a sec-
ondary school.
He said that since
the school has no
boarding school it does
not select its learners for
grade 11. They receive learners
with low points but they do their
level best to bring about a good per-
formance in them.
Currently the school is home to 814
learners of which 200 are in grade 12
while 248 are in grade 11.

Oniipa Town Council

Oniipa can claim to be the mother of all towns in the northern part of Namibia and was used
as a centre of development of people’s skills. The restoration of all these town niches is one
of the vital components of urban revitalization efforts that the council is working on as it is
embrace tourism potentials.

View of Onandjokwe hospital in the 1900s

Above is the printing facility which prints the hymns and

View of Onandjokwe hospital and the surroundings. View of Onandjokwe medical museum.
other booklets

Dr Selma ‘Gwanandjokwe’ Rainio was one of the first 13 women

to qualify as a doctor in finland. She was 35 when she arrived
in Ondonga on 14th December 1908, lived and worked at Above is the grave where the late Selma was buried in View of indoor swimming pool with a steam room. The pool was
Onandjokwe up to her death in 1939. 1939 built more than a 100 years ago and is still friendly usable