Today, August 15, President Nangolo Mbumba turned 83 years old. 

Born in the village of Olukonda in the Oshikoto Region on August 15, 1941, President Mbumba started his professional career as a teacher and eventually achieved his ambition to become a headmaster. 

However, destiny had other plans for him.

The now-83-year-old Nangolo Mbumba was the first grandchild of his grandparents, whom he has lived with since the age of one. 

A humble and grounded person, growing up in the 1950s, Dr. Mbumba did not have it easy. 

He recalls having to borrow his grandfather's shirt to go to school.

"Just imagine if you had to put on the shirt of your grandfather; it means things were very scarce, but we managed to survive all of that," Mbumba recalls. 

A pair of shoes was also a luxury, and when Mbumba had to go from Olukonda to Oniipa to further his schooling at the boys' school there, he went barefoot. 

But returning from boarding school, he had to spin a story to eventually get shoes.

"I said, 'Og, in the classroom they have these clay floors and it gets cold', so they said that 'if it gets cold, we will do something and give you sandals'."

The young Mbumba finished school and became a teacher and eventually a headmaster. True to his first calling, he says teachers have an inspirational role in society.

"They have a positive influence that says you must read, you must study, and you must improve your own life to improve other people's lives."

Dr. Mbumba left Namibia to join the liberation struggle, and when he returned to Olukonda in 1989, he recalls taking his mother for a drive to Onandjokwe Hospital in the first car he owned in Namibia.

In the conversation, the then almost 50-year-old Mbumba asked his mother if she ever thought of him driving her.

"So she said that was not her concern; her concern was only, will she ever see me again? Having received me back home, that was the biggest gift in terms of thinking about me."

Fast-forward to 4 February 2024, and Nangolo Mbumba, deeply disturbed about the loss of his long-time friend and comrade, took up the mantle of President. 

But away from the presidency, he leads a normal life, taking delight in life's simple pleasures.

"My favourite meal, that is not a fair question; I eat everything. I am a former refugee; I am a former freedom fighter; I eat everything, but everyone in my family knows I like bread because there was a time in Angola when bread was not available."