Namibia is in mourning following the death of its President Hage Geingob on February 4, 2024. His unwavering commitment to preserving the environment, often hailed on the international stage, remains one of his legacies.
At 82, he was one of the oldest statesmen in power until his death on February 4, 2024. Hage Geingob, President of Namibia, succumbed to a cancer as atrocious as the violence of the apartheid system he had long fought against in the 1970s, when his country was still under a protectorate of South Africa. Beyond the political world in which he claimed his people’s freedom and held the position of “first” Prime Minister of Namibia from the very beginning of the country’s independence. Prime Minister of Namibia since independence in 1990, Hage Geingob has extended his activism to the environment.
The world knows the 2.8 million Namibians not only for their legendary hospitality, but also for their arid lands on which thrives one of the world’s richest biodiversities (Forbes‘ top destination for ecotourism in Africa), and particularly for the Ongava Lodge that the late president created three decades ago. This site, covering 30,000 hectares of restored land, is now visited by international tourists. Among them are Germans (ex-settlers) who travel four hours by road from the capital Windhoek to contemplate the wildlife, which includes rhinos, lions, leopards and elephants. Hage Geingob was naturally very proud of this.
A lifetime of advocacy for the green transition
The man whose second term (elected in 2014 and 2019 with 87% and 56% of the vote) was due to end in 2024 is leaving with a wild ambition for green hydrogen. Indeed, the former Namibian head of state himself signed a strategic partnership with the European Union (EU) for the development of this sector, on the sidelines of the 27th Conference of the Parties on Climate (COP27), held in November 2022 in Egypt. “This is the very first hydrogen-based electricity production project on the African continent. It should be operational by 2024 in the city of Swakopmund”, he boasted a year later at the United Nations in New York.
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Despite the suspicions of corruption that have often plagued his career, pan-Africanist Hage Geingob (described as such by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu) has not wavered in his fight for the preservation of nature. We also owe him numerous pleas to decarbonize polluting multinationals in favor of a greener African economy. All eyes are currently on Nangolo’M’bumba, Namibia’s interim Head of State, who is also familiar with environmental issues.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
