Nora Schimming-Chase

"There is a greater truth than mine, there is a truth of Namibian History… I was there also. This is my story."

"This book is dedicated to the women who made me what I am today. My maternal great grand mother, my Herero and Damara grandmothers Metha Ngatjikare and Christofine Gamamus both of whom lived during the German occupation and gave birth to children whose fathers were German, and who were forced by German and South African occupation to bring up these children on their own. And despite these challenges these children made history in their own right."

"My wonderful mother, Charlotte Schimming, my role model, who taught her daughters to always recognize their own work never to feel inferior to anybody be they white or male."

"And to my father Otto Ferdinand Schimming the greatest gender sensitive man I have ever known whose contribution to the struggle for the liberation of my people remains unwritten."

"I was born on the 2nd of December 1940 (or so we all agreed) until I was twenty years old when we realized that that was the birth date of my late brother Norman who died before I was born and in whose memory was named Nora."

"So I celebrated my 21st birthday on the 1st of December, for the first time. I was the 5th of eight children, four boys and four girls."

"As has been and still is the practice in our black communities, we were not the only ones. My cousins, the sons of my maternal aunts, Mamma Goka and Mamma Grete, as well as the son of my uncle Rudolf, my aunt Huldà Kamboi Ngatjikare and a distant cousin Ismael Tjombe formed part of the nuclear family. Apart from us, my parents brought two young boys, Filemon and Josef to help in the house."

"I grew up in this large family with the good and the bad and yet looking back seventy plus years, the good memories are clear in my mind whereas the bad ones seem to have disappeared into oblivion."

"My mother did not believe in ‘I am the person, I can do that’, she was a very strong willed, active woman, and she wouldn’t accept ‘no’ as an answer, and she wouldn’t just give up, she’ll go as far as she can.”"

"She made it always look as if my father was the boss, but even if it came to petty cash, my mother used to hold the purse"

"I see my task as presenting Namibia as a young democratic African country which, under Your Excellency’s able leadership, is bent on promoting the welfare of all Namibians. I am departing for my new post at a time of great drought in our country. Seeking solutions to and assistance for this dilemma will be my first - albeit not my sole - preoccupation."

"My focus will be on development - promoting investment and increasing trade between Namibia and Germany. Tourism, Comrade President, is another area which promises increased revenue for our country, and it is here that Your Excellency’s Embassy in Germany can play a vital role in bringing more tourists to Namibia"