Readers Reviews/Stories

happy new year and merry christmas to all my fellow namibian exile kids.... god bless us all viva NAMIBIA

Happy New Year, everyone! :)

Happy New Year, everyone! :)

Hope you are keeping well and having a great day. Further to my wall post on your facebook page, as promised I am writing to give you further feedback on your book which I finished recently . I read it with great interest and fascination. This book should provide a real sense of hope and inspiration for the youth of Namibia with dreams for the future yet struggling to achieve their goals in life. Your Book teaches us that,no matter how difficult and testing personal situations become, the indomitable human sprit will conquer and overcome short term difficulties. (continued below....)

This book reminds me of another one I read in my childhood when my parents were in exile.I was only three years old and living with a guardian, in whose sole care I was entrusted who abused me terribly for nine years until my parents returned to Namibia to end my suffering. That particular book relates the story of a child who was similiarly neglected and abused at the hands of a cruel woman. It was this book which taught me that no matter how bad and seemingly hopeless things are, I should always have faith and hope in a better future. Similiary, your book gives comfort and solace to those currently enduring hardship and suffering that no matter how difficult things become, they should never relinquish dreams of building a better future that the only way is up.

Your book also made me appreciate and savour the hard won freedom and independence of our beloved country even more, as we all had to make personal sacrifices in order to achieve victory.For example my brother was only five, I was three years, my sister was 1 year and my younger brother who happened to cross the Angolan border with my parents on foot, was only three months old, as the Boers had been relentlessly hunting my father with the intention of killing him. The hardship you all went through in exile and the living conditions you had to endure in the Exile camps, some areas of this book can really emotionally powerful. Your book makes me realise that the hard journey we all had to experience should not be taken lightly, and the freedom and indepedence should never be taken for granted. Any Country's future and prosperity lies with its youth. Therefore, I emplore you to take this wonderful work to the Schools,Colleges and Universities in Namibia for a promotion to read this book as it source of inspiration. A book written by their follow Namibian. With love and support Princess Emvula.

This is a book well worth reading & owning. I really appreciate & thoroughly endorse ur work in this book. It's an excellent read, Rachel.Congratulations. I just finished reading it. Keep writing & may God bless all the work of ur hands. cheers lv.

The Exile Child is amazing, Rachel. I can't put it down. I am recommending it to everyone I know. Absolutely the most encapsulating insight into Namibian history I've read. Very well done! Can't wait to attend your lectures/book signings. I learned more about Namibia's history from your account than from any other source I've enountered. Well done, my friend!

Rachel Valentina Nghiwete â?? The Exile Child An Imprint of V.E.E.M Publishing House ISBN 13: 978-0-578-05044-7 ISBN 10: 0-5780-5044-7 Books like this are all that plentiful in Namibia .. that is, books that deal with many of our people being forced out of the country and living in exile. This is one of the few. It is written from a very personal point of view and contains reminiscences that are very private and very family-oriented. This is not a book for the masses â?? simply because it contains so many matters that are uniquely Namibian. One must be interested in the subject of Namibia and its painful way from colony and apartheid state to freedom and independence. Outsiders will be able to enjoy the book, but on a different level.

Namibians, however, from whatever side and grouping, will be able to identify with the story of young Rachel much more intimately. Those who remained behind in the northern parts of the country (Rachel's family and clan members) will be able to empathise with her experience in the various camps in Angola â?? physically basically just across the border, but earth years away in mindset. To others, who have never experienced the pain of having half of one's family outside the country and the other part inside the country, this book may, for the first time, explain the dichotomy of the Namibian situation. Hunted by the minions of the Apartheid regime on the one side and trying to have a normal childhood on the other. â??My father, Veiccoh Nghiwete, joined the movement at the age of 17 and fled into exile at the age of 22 to become a PLAN freedom fighter. My mother, Martha Hatutale-Andjaba, took her steps into exile at the tender age of 15, leaving behind her family and the life she knew to take on the cause for Namibiaâ??s freedom.â?� Valentina/Rachel tells the story in the first person and this makes the tale more poignant and also adds another dimension to the tale.. a tale which could have been just another story of a child in harrowing circumstances somewhere in Africa.