Staff Reporter
DANIEL Kafita Nghikelwa, a member of the San Community and resident of Okongo in the Ohangwena Region, whose whereabouts were unknown for more than 40 years, has returned home and reunited with his family this past weekend. The event is being celebrated not only by his relatives but by the community at large.
Nghikelwa, whose exact age is unknown, started sending messages on social media groups earlier this month, revealing his whereabouts in the Zambezi Region and expressing his wish to reconnect with his relatives, especially his three children who were still minors when he left.
The exact year he left Okongo is disputed. He says it was 1975, but other Okongo residents say it was probably during the early 1980s. It is alleged that he was recruited into the “Bushman Battalion” and was stationed in the then Caprivi until his demobilization in 1989, where he had started a new family.
However, as he grew older and poverty-stricken, Nghikelwa was filled with a nostalgic longing for Okongo and his home San Community. Nico Nathaniel, the control officer in the Okongo Constituency office, said that someone either from Omusati or western areas of Ohangwena who was in the Zambezi for a funeral contacted Nghikelwa and offered him a ride back home.
Captions
Daniel Kafita Nghikelwa (middle) is welcomed back at Okongo by retired teacher Paulus Shinana and his wife. They were the guardians of Nghikelwa’s sister, who has now reunited with her brother.
Daniel Kafita Nghikelwa is reunited with family members.