Selma Shejavali pioneering the future and capturing the past.

A self described pioneer, Selma Gwanandjokwe Shejavali is a community leader with commitment and passion. While officially retired, Selma still works fulltime overseeing six community projects in Katutura, supporting a house full of young children needing a loving home, and traveling the northern parts of the country collecting people's stories for her Owambo Oral History Project.

Raised in a royal family

Selma's own story begins in the north of Namibia near Ondangwa. Her father, Rev. Eino Johannes Gweendama, was a hunter, and after theological training became a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN). She is particularly grateful to him for motivating her to get a good education. Her mother was Kuku Hileni Shivute Mwandingi, a member of the Ondonga royal family, and their house was always filled with people.

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Despite her status in the community, Selma's mother always worked hard in the fields and the household, imprinting another life lesson on Selma. "I always contemplated why a prominent woman such as my mother would work so hard, despite being surrounded by people who could work for her. I eventually learned that my mother knew the importance of leading by example. Work hard and the people will work hard; be a lazy leader and the people will follow."

Selma's early education took place beneath the shade of an omwandi tree in a primary school in Oshilulu. She fondly remembers the headmaster's beautiful singing to signify the start of class, and how proud she felt reciting psalms from the bible at the end of the school year when parents came to collect their children's reports. "We had to practise how to stand in front and speak loud and clear, and I learned not to be afraid of the people's eyes," she recalls. During this period the schools were run by the churches and only subsidised by the government.

Becoming a teacher

As Selma grew up, she continued her education at the girls' schools in Ontananga and Oshigambo and eventually at the Teachers Training College for women in Okahao. "We were never told why most of the the secondary schools and colleges were segregated, but when I think about it, we were really free," says Selma reflecting on her years in Okahao. "We were becoming young women and we were able to share our feelings as young women. Because we didn't have male teachers, we were really able to express ourselves." Selma finished her teacher training in 1966, the first person in her Ondonga royal family to complete her education.

It was then she began to recognise the powerful role she could play. Bishop Auala, the first black bishop of ELCIN and an active member of the liberation struggle, sent out a request for a secretary. Selma applied for the position, but was rejected, not because she was not qualified, but because the bishop needed her elsewhere. He explained to her that he wanted her to teach in her own community, so that she could serve as an example, demonstrating that a member of the royal family could finish school and could become a professional. "Maybe I was blind at that time," reflects Selma. "I didn't realise that my education could have such an impact on my community and on my family." She taught for a year at her old primary school, then transferred further west to Omindamba, where she became the first qualified teacher to work with the Ovadhimba amd Ovandongona people living there, teaching primary school for children as well as Chrisitan eduction and life skills for adults in the afternoon and on weekends. She married Dr Abisai Shejavali at the end of that year and moved to Otjimbingwe, where her husband lectured at the Paulinum Theological Seminary and she gave adult education classes in literacy and domestic science.

Building support for Namibia's liberation in the United States 

In 1970 Selma gave birth to their first daughter, Taimi. Shortly thereafter her husband left Namibia to study in the United States. Selma returned to the North with Taimi, and taught at Elim Primary School until they were able to join her husband in the U.S. a year and a half later. There, another daughter, Kanduwapa, was born. Throughout the six years they lived in the U.S. together, liberation was at the forefront of their thoughts, not only the liberation of Namibia, but the liberation of women. Selma and her husband were called to speak to various congregations on what was happening in Namibia, disseminating information and letting Americans know what they could do to help. Selma's husband wrote letters to the South African and US governments, and the newsletter National Namibia Concern was established and distributed throughout the US. Abisai's doctoral thesis was on Liberation Theology. While they were in the U.S., Selma's very old parents-in-law (a retired pastor and his wife) were harassed and beaten by the cruel South African military. Her mother-in-law lost her eyesight after being raped and beaten.

Homecoming and detention

The Shejavalis returned to Namibia in 1978 and witnessed the atrocities that they had been hearing about first hand. The day after arriving back at her in-laws house, Abisai was arrested by the South African forces and taken to a military camp. The next morning they came back for Selma and another pastor at Ongenga ELCIN parish. Fortunately she and her husband were released the next day, just before their already arrested children were also taken into the camp. "Although we were not really tortured or beaten up, or even killed as done to so many fellow Namibians, being blindfolded the whole time and being questioned left us with a deep sense of insecurity. You just didn't know what would happen next," Selma remembers.

Promoting women's leadership in her church

The family returned to Otjimbingwe, where Selma was appointed by ELCIN to be the Women's Leader for her church. She used this position to explore the issues that were impacting women. From health to politics, Selma began asking questions vital to the women's movement. How are women taking part in the liberation struggle? How can we support those women? Are women empowered in their own homes? Do they value their own work, and are they being treated with dignity? What about domestic violence? She travelled a lot, and started to recognise the cultural platforms that provided women with space for expression--for example the annual marula harvest where women gathered, shared news and discussed issues.

It was during this time that Selma also encouraged women's leadership in the church. "Older pastors would often confront me and say, 'Where are you women leading the church? Is the church going to make women into pastors now?' As I was not a theologian I could not attend the conferences where decisions were taken, but it was us women who gave the liberated male pastors the mandate to go there and fight for it."

Building People's Primary School

In 1983 Dr Abisai Shejavali became General Secretary of the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) and the family moved to Windhoek. Three years later the communities of Katutura and Khomasdal, under coordination of Ottilie Abrahams, called on Selma to join the community initiative that was establishing the People's Primary School, and to serve as the school's first principal. With her pioneering spirit she took up the challenge. The ethos of the school was based on critical thinking and participatory democracy for children and parents. "We struggled and worked as volunteers because the school had no money to pay the teachers," she recalls. "The children were so many and the classrooms were not enough. Some of the classes were taught under a tree or wherever shade could be found. The community gave what it could. Some parents donated paint, some donated their time. Visitors brought packets of pencils. Some offered to pay for the installation of electricity. Somebody dropped off an old typewriter--it was truly a community school. We were not paid much, but we were very happy with what we put together with the community. During the repatriation of Namibians from exile in 1989, People's Primary School was recognised by the new and democratic government. The number of children doubled from 600 to 1200 learners plus new teachers. A part of the national emergency fund was used to build new classrooms and hostels for the children and teachers returning from exile. Being the principal of that school was one of the highlights of my life," she smiles.

Establishing the first VCT Centre

Seven years later Selma was called upon to start another project. The CCN had established a children's desk and needed someone to train the pre-primary school teachers. She notes that there were many pre-primary establishments in Katutura at the time, but they were used mostly to generate income and had little expertise in promoting school readiness in young children. She accepted this new challenge, and later on moved to the CCN desk working with women, children and HIV/AIDS. With support from Nangula Kathindi, the first woman to head the CCN as General Secretary, and laboratory technician Anne-Gret Eimbeck, Selma established the first centre for voluntary HIV/AIDS counselling and testing in Katutura, which was later handed over to New Start.

Community development in Katutura

Today, Selma continues to do community development work in Katutura, heading the training of the ELCIN diaconal programme that focuses on HIV/AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children, as well as poverty and unemployment. "As a person, you can do something. It doesn't matter how little it may be. Use the resources around you instead of sitting and feeling pity for yourself," Selma and her team members advise community members in the informal settlements of Hakahana/Kabila and Babylon/Kilimandjaro. The six current projects focus on training community volunteers in income generating activities such as bread baking and bead work, catering for orphans and vulnerable children, and dealing with HIV and Aids. The volunteers then bring in other members of their community and establish a project. Selma explains the philosophy behind her current work. "When I say a project I mean a group of people coming together to help themselves. We want people to come from the community, or nearby, in order to establish a sense of ownership, trust and sustainability of the project--this means to work with people and not for people. We want to overcome the dependency on government or other help from outside."

Remembering the past

Another project currently occupying Selma's time is the Owambo Oral History Project. She has raised funds and collected donated equipment in order to record life histories among the elders in her home region, with the intention of eventually publishing a book. So far she has collected stories on fifty cassettes.

Selma became concerned about understanding the contradictions of the past while working with the CCN. While she recognised the benefits that the missionaries from Finland brought to her community, such as Christianity, health care and education, she also witnessed that they posed a threat to values, often regarding the people's customs negatively and discouraging traditional practices. "Due to this culture was disturbed," Selma explains. "I want to know what the people did in the past, how the children played, how people were educated without schools. What education was passed on as people sat around the fire? How did these things disappear and how can we bring them back?"

She also regards the changing environment as a threat to the survival of traditional knowledge. "Many young people are working, children are busy with school and parents are working. As children grow up, they want to be on their own. They are influenced by society and their peers. The stories that were told around the fire let us know where our parents came from and what they experienced." Selma regrets that modern life leaves little time to share the stories of the past. She therefore aims to preserve the people's history by recording the stories of ordinary women and men before they are lost, and hopes that the books will be used in schools and other educational institutions. After completing her collection of Owambo stories, Selma plans to share her equipment, so that stories from other ethnic groups can also be collected and published.

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Promoting women's writing

Having attended a writing workshop of the Women's Leadership Centre in 2004, Selma also firmly believes in the importance of women telling their stories. "Women need to be encouraged to write. You will often find that women regard themselves as 'just women', thinking they have nothing to share or to write about. I think they have so much to tell, stories that can encourage not only women, but everyone. People should be proud of who they are whether they are educated or not. Education doesn't change your quality or your dignity. Dignity comes from being a human being. Everyone should start today to tell their stories, how they feel and how the used to feel. Even stories of abuse in families and communities must be shared, so that we can see ourselves as survivors and feel relieved from the burden of silence," she says with conviction.

Believing in community

Reflecting on Selma Shejavali's life and achievements, it is clear that she believes in community, in the truest sense of the world. "To achieve something, you cannot work in isolation. I am a woman, a member of society and also a Christian. All of the issues that we are talking about must be tackled by everybody: the church, civil society and government. We need to come together and collaborate." She regrets that the churches have not yet provided platforms for socially excluded groups such as sex workers and lesbian and gay Christians to express themselves and share their spiritual needs. "We can build bridges of understanding between people. Sometimes it is just a matter of knowing through listening," she concludes.