Penehupifo Pohamba

Penehupifo Pohamba was born on 16 June 1948 in Okatale, in the present-day Ohangwena Region of northern Namibia, then South West Africa. Okatale lies in the Oshikango constituency close to the border with Angola. She grew up in the Ovambo heartland during the years of South African rule. In 1969 she married Malakias Shiluwa at St Mary's Odibo, and their son Waldheim Shiluwa was born in 1971.

She attended primary and secondary school at St Mary's Odibo, the Anglican mission school, from 1958 to 1969. Classmates there included Jeremiah Nambinga and Joel Kaapanda, and the school also educated Hifikepunye Pohamba and Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Wikipedia records that she worked as a teacher at St George's Diocesan School in Windhoek.

In exile she trained in nursing in Tanzania and received military training, then spent three years in Jamaica studying midwifery. In August 1981 she was sent to East Germany to study politics at a college set up for Namibians, returning to Angola in 1983.

In 1976 she left Namibia through Angola for Zambia to join SWAPO in exile. After a few months in Zambia she was sent to Tanzania for medical training and worked in the camps that housed Namibian refugees. After qualifying as a midwife in Jamaica she returned to Angola to practise among Namibian exiles. After independence she worked as a registered nurse and midwife until her husband took office in 2005, and she kept nursing free of charge at a local clinic from 2006 to 2008 until she reached retirement age.

She became Namibia's second First Lady on 21 March 2005, succeeding Kovambo Nujoma, and served until 21 March 2015, when she was succeeded by Monica Geingos. She advocated the empowerment of women so they could contribute to the development of society, and campaigned against violence and other injustices against women. Her main causes were maternal and child health and the fight against HIV/AIDS. In November 2005 she co-founded the Organisation for the Empowerment of Widows/Widowers and Orphans of HIV/AIDS in Namibia (OEWONA). In July 2006 she was elected vice-president of the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), and she served as its president from July 2011 to July 2013, signing a cooperation agreement with UNAIDS in 2013. She accompanied her husband on state visits, including India in August 2009, and to the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit at the White House in August 2014.

Her first husband, Malakias Shiluwa, was killed in a landmine explosion during the liberation struggle. They had a son, Waldheim (born 1971), and a daughter, Ndelitungapo (born 1973). In 1983 in Angola she married Hifikepunye Pohamba, later Namibia's second president. Their children are Tulongeni (born 1986), whose name means "let's work"; Kaupumhote (born 1988); and Ndapanda (born 1991), whose name means "I'm grateful". She was a mother of five, two sons and three daughters, and around 2014 had nineteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. The couple owned a farm near Otavi.

She believed healthy, empowered women were essential to Africa's development, and she urged African first ladies to work more closely with governments to bring women into decision-making. As OAFLA president she argued that men had to be involved in sexual and reproductive health programmes, and she said zero HIV infections among newborn babies was an achievable goal. She also promoted rural self-reliance, arguing that local processing of natural products could grow regional economies.

She is remembered as a nurse who never stopped nursing, a liberation-era health worker in the exile camps, and a First Lady who put mothers, children and people living with HIV at the centre of her work. The Lady Pohamba Private Hospital in Windhoek and the Penehupifo Pohamba Maternal Shelter at St Mary's Odibo Mission carry her name, and OEWONA and the Penehupifo Pohamba Community Trust continue the causes she founded them for.

Most Brilliant Order of the Sun, First Class, conferred on Heroes' Day, August 2014. Award from the International Alliance of Women, Washington, DC, 2014, for her work on maternal and child health. Ambassador for Peace, Universal Peace Federation, Washington, DC. Penehupifo Pohamba Maternal Shelter at St Mary's Odibo Mission named in her honour. Lady Pohamba Private Hospital, Windhoek, named in her honour (opened 2016).

After 2015 she remained patron of the Lady Pohamba Private Hospital in Kleine Kuppe, which she toured as it neared completion in January 2016. In 2016 she founded the Penehupifo Pohamba Community Trust to promote sustainable use of natural resources, create rural employment, plan a natural cosmetics and detergent factory at Eenhana, and offer financial help to female students in nursing and pharmacy. She continued to receive donations for OEWONA, including almost N$60,000 from the Oshongo Fishing Company in 2016.

Penehupifo Pohamba died on Saturday, 17 October 2026, aged 78. Her son Waldheim Shiluwa confirmed the death to The Namibian, which said she died in a northern hospital and had not been in good health of late. New Era, citing her son Mandume Pohamba, reported that she died at Lady Pohamba Private Hospital in Windhoek. The cause of death was not made public. NBC broadcast an official death announcement on 18 October 2026, and tributes came from President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and many Namibians. Funeral arrangements were to be announced.