Ottilie Abrahams

Ottilie Grete Abrahams (2 September 1937 – 2 July 2018) was a Namibian educator, activist, and politician.[1]

Personal

Abrahams was born on 2 September 1937 in the Old Location township outside of Windhoek. Before obtaining a degree in Cape Town, she attended Trafalgar High School in District Six in Cape Town.[2]

Activism

Abrahams became politically active while studying in high school and university in Cape Town, South Africa; she joined the South West Africa Student Body in 1952 and later became active in the Cape Peninsula Students Union and the Non-European Unity Movement. She and other activists formed the Yu Chi Chan Club, a secret Maoist organization. In 1985, Abrahams founded the Jacob Marengo Tutorial College in Katutura, of which she was still the principal until her death.

Politics

Abrahams was active in the independence movement with several political parties. Abrahams was part of SWAPO from 1960-1963. She, her husband and fellow activist, Kenneth Abrahams, fellow SWAPO dissidents Emil Appolus and Andreas Shipanga formed SWAPO Democrats while in exile in Sweden.[3] However, she left SWAPO Democrats in 1980 and later joined the Namibia Independence Party, where she served as the Secretary General and Publicity and Information Secretary. The Namibia Independence Party was part of the Namibia National Front coalition which won one seat in the 1989 election to the Constitution-writing Constituent Assembly of Namibia.

Personal

Abrahams was the daughter of Otto Schimming and Charlotte Schimming. Her father was the first Black teacher in Namibia. At the time her death, she lived in the affluent suburb of Klein Windhoek. The Namibian newspaper memorialized her as the "Mother of Education."[4]

Notes
  1. Ottilie Abrahams Namibia Institute for Democracy
  2. Namibian Bios, retrieved 13 August 2014
  3. Tonchi et. al. 2012, p. 13.
  4. "Tribute to 'Mother of Education'". The Namibian. 4 July 2018.

References
  • Tonchi, Victor; Lindeke, William; Grotpeter, John (2012). Historical Dictionary of Namibia (2nd ed.). Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0810879905.
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