The founding of OPO, 1959

OPO, the Ovamboland People's Organisation, was launched in 1959 with Sam Nujoma as president, growing out of organising begun by Namibian workers and students in Cape Town, among them Andimba Toivo ya Toivo. Its base was the contract workers of the compounds, and its first demands were concrete: end the contract labour system, end South African rule.

Within a year, after the Old Location shootings, OPO reconstituted itself on 19 April 1960 as SWAPO, the South West Africa People's Organisation: a national movement with a national goal.