Jackson Kaujeua, Namibian musician, composer and gospel singer,has died of kidney disease he was , 56

Jackson Kaujeua Namibian musician, composer and gospel singer,has died of kidney disease he was , 56. Kaujeua was a Namibian musician, composer and gospel singer, and a veteran of the Namibian struggle for independence. He sang in various Namibian languages and English.

(3 July 1953 – 27 May 2010)

He was born Jackson Muningandu Kaujeua, a member of the Herero ethnic group^[1] in !Huns, a village near Keetmanshoop.^[2] Later, he broke off an education as a priest at the mission school of Otjimbingwe after he came in touch with the songs of gospels singers like Mahalia Jackson, whose human rights-related lyrics inspired him.^[3]

In 1973 he started studying music at the Dorkay Art & Music College for talented Non-Whites in South Africa. However, he was soon expelled from the country for anti-apartheid activism, and went into exile in 1974.^[2] After a short time in Botswana, the SWAPO-resistance movement (with which he was associated with until his death)^[4][5] helped him to move to the UK, where he soon became the lead singer of the group Black Diamond. International success followed with songs such as "Winds of Change".^[3]

Having lived as a teacher in an Angolan refugee camp for a short time in 1979, he returned to Namibia only after independence in 1990, where he celebrated great successes with his music, especially with !Gnubu !Nubus (Damara: 'short and round').^[3] As of the late 1990s, he was still one of the best-known Namibian musicians.^[6]

Kaujeua died on 27 May 2010, after suffering from a kidney disorder for the last six months.^[2] He had lived poor and died poor. He was formally unemployed for most of his life, living off his performances and royalties. Calls for some sort of employment or empowerment for his role as "musical ambassador for the liberation struggle" were not heard by the authorities.^[3]

Kauejua had four children.

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