Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1936) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 presidential election overwhelmingly as the candidate of SWAPO, and was reelected in 2009. Pohamba was the president of SWAPO from 2007 until his retirement in 2015. He is a recipient of the Ibrahim Prize. Prior to his presidency, Pohamba served in various ministerial positions, beginning at Namibia's independence in 1990. He was Minister of Home Affairs from 1990 to 1995, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources from 1995 to 1997, Minister without portfolio from 1997 to 2000, and Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation from 2000 to 2005. He was also secretary-general of SWAPO from 1997 to 2002 and vice-president of SWAPO from 2002 to 2007. Early life Hifikepunye Pohamba was born on 18 August 1936 in Okanghudi, South West Africa, in an area then known as Ovamboland (today in the Ohangwena Region of Namibia). He completed his primary school education in the Anglican Holy Cross Mission school in Onamunhama, and in 1956 took up work at the Tsumeb mine. Political career Under South African occupation Pohamba was active in the Ovamboland People's Organization. When this national liberation movement transformed into SWAPO in 1960, Pohamba was a founding member of the organisation's new incarnation and left his job in the mine to work as a full-time organiser for the group. In 1961 Pohamba went into exile. He travelled to Dar es Salaam to the newly-independent Tanganyika (today part of Tanzania) where he met Sam Nujoma, later Namibia's first president, for the first time. It was resolved that he should join a group of SWAPO members returning home and mobilising people there. On his way he was arrested in Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) and was jailed in Bulawayo, then deported to Johannesburg. He spent six months in jail there and was then put under house arrest in Ovamboland. In 1964 Pohamba again left Namibia. He went to Lusaka to set up SWAPO's Zambian office. He returned to Namibia in 1966 with Sam Nujoma, claiming that SWAPO leaders were not banned from travelling. They were nevertheless deported to Zambia a day after their arrival. Pohamba moved to Dar es Salaam again. In 1971 SWAPO transferred Pohamba to Algeria; He became the movement's chief representative for northern Africa. In 1979 he became the