Peya Mushelenga

Peya Mushelenga is a Namibian politician and poet. A member of SWAPO, Mushelenga has been a member of the National Assembly of Namibia since 2005 and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs since 21 March 2010. (In 2015, the ministry was renamed as the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation.)^[1]

Born at Oshigambo in Oshikoto Region, he joined the movement for the liberation of Namibia in 1984, at the age of 9. He became active in the Namibia National Students Organisation in the 1980s and eventually became a high-level organizer for the SWAPO Party Youth League, being elected to the Central Committee and National Executive of the SPYL in 1997 and 2002. Also in 2002, he was elected to the SWAPO Central Committee as its youngest member (re-elected in 2007 and 2012). He earned BA, B Juris and LLB Hons degrees from the University of Namibia (1995, 2012 and 2015) Hons BA, MA and Doctor of Literature and Philosophy (D Litt et Phil) degrees, all in the academic field of International Politics, from the University of South Africa (1998, 2009 and 2015).

Personal

In 1980, South African security forces killed his sister and injured other relatives during a raid on their family home in the former bantustan of Ovamboland. A book of poetry entitled "Nando Na Li Toke", written in the Ovambo dialect of Ndonga, was published by Gamsberg MacMillan in 1996.^[2]

References