The Communist Party of Namibia was a communist party in Namibia. It was initially called the Party of Jacob Morenga because it was founded on the 74th anniversary of the death of Jacob Morenga on 3 October 1981 in Angola. The party general secretary was Rirua Karihangana. [1]
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the social and economic goals of communism through both revolutionary means and state policy. The name was popularized in the title of the 1848 tract of Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A communist party is the Vanguard party of the working class (proletariat), whether ruling or non-ruling. As a ruling party, the communist party exercises power in the name of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The idea of communist party dictatorship was heavily influenced by Vladimir Lenin's writings during the first two decades of the twentieth century when Russian social democracy divided into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, argued that a revolutionary party should be a small vanguard party with a centralized political command and a strict cadre policy emphasizing subservience to the party's decisions. In contrast, the Menshevik faction, including members like Trotsky, argued that the party should not neglect the important role to be played by the masses in a communist revolution. The Bolshevik party, which eventually became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), took power in Russia after the October Revolution in 1917. With the creation of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1919, the concept of communist party leadership was adopted by many revolutionary parties worldwide. In an effort to standardize this movement and maintain centralized control over its affiliated parties, the Comintern required its members to call themselves communist. They were subsequently known as Leninist or, later, Marxist-Leninist parties. The doctrine of Leninism was standardized and popularized by Joseph Stalin in 1924 in the party handbook, Foundations of Leninism.
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean; it shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek, and it is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Jacob Morenga, also Jakob, Jacobus, Marengo, and Marenga, known as the "black Napoleon," was an important figure in Namibia, then the German colony of German South West Africa. He was chief leader in the insurrection against the German Empire which took place between 1904 and 1908, and was best known for forging an alliance between the rival Herero and Namaqua tribes.
In 1989, the CPN entered the Socialist Alliance of Namibia (SAN), [1] which later joined the United Democratic Front of Namibia.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) is a political party in Namibia. Justus ǁGaroëb is the party's leader since its foundation in 1989. He stepped down in 2013.
