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 … - Nora Schimming-Chase

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.

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 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.