James Kauluma

Who was James Kauluma?

Reverend James Hamupanda Kauluma was a Namibian human rights activist and sixth Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Namibia. He was the first Namibian Bishop of the Anglican Diocese in the country.

In 1949, Kauluma began studying at St. Mary's School in Odibo. He was baptised into the Anglican Church in 1951 at the age of 18. In 1953, he was recruited by the South West African Native Labour Association and was sent to work in the diamond mines in Oranjemund in the far south of the country.

He studied at the Dorothea Mission in Johannesburg between 1958 and 1959, and in Kenya, before returning to Namibia in 1964. In 1965 he travelled to Canada and the USA for further study, graduating with a BA degree from the University of Toronto and an MA from New York University. He was made a deacon in 1975 and, in 1977, was ordained as an Anglican priest by exiled Bishop Colin O'Brien Winter.