Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Hifikepunye Pohamba's rhetorical presidency: inauguration and independence anniversary speeches

This study examines the first inauguration speech and the four Independence anniversary speeches delivered by the former second president of Namibia, Hifikepunye Pohamba. The five volumes of these speeches, which marked Pohamba’s first term of office, plus audio-recordings of the highlights of the s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nanyeni, Frieda Nauyele
Other Authors: Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Private Law 2019
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613237256650752
access_status_str Open Access
author Nanyeni, Frieda Nauyele
author2 Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
author_browse Nanyeni, Frieda Nauyele
Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
author_facet Salazar, Philippe-Joseph
Nanyeni, Frieda Nauyele
author_sort Nanyeni, Frieda Nauyele
collection Thesis
description This study examines the first inauguration speech and the four Independence anniversary speeches delivered by the former second president of Namibia, Hifikepunye Pohamba. The five volumes of these speeches, which marked Pohamba’s first term of office, plus audio-recordings of the highlights of the speeches on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, were the primary data of the study. Pohamba’s modern presidency, executed the laws through speeches, communicated directly to the Namibian people about what his Government have done, what it is attempting to do, and what they plan to do. In order to investigate how Hifikepunye Pohamba’s rhetoric continued in shaping democracy in the post-apartheid Namibia, the argument of the analysis was based on the Aristotelian (2007) ‘three regimes’ of rhetoric as well as the three rhetorical proofs. On the historical background information, a context of the rhetorical situation was drawn from Bitzer (1968), and the rhetorical argument and application of Perelman (1984). Moreover, close contextual analysis was also employed as it seeks to analyse the relationship between the inner working of public discourse and its historical context in order to discover what makes a particular text function persuasively. Pohamba’s speeches were analysed closely and rhetorically interpreted within their Namibian historical and political context. Thus, the study reveals the monumental occasions in the history of Namibian politics, among others, the symbolic rhetoric of the peaceful transfer of power from the founding President Sam Nujoma to the second president, who was also democratically elected, Hifikepunye Pohamba. Pohamba’s rhetoric reflects his rhetorical performative. He demonstrated his democratic ethics to his audience in his rhetoric, and constantly referred to certain individuals who were respected by his audience. Thus, he continued shaping democracy in Namibia. Pohamba’s rhetoric contains values of praising and blaming; he established fact and judgement about the past, and also advised about the future. He emphasised on the policy of national reconciliation and confirmed that reconciliation had ushered in a new dispensation of political stability, peace, unity, ethnic cohesion and security in Namibia. Namibian people must therefore continue to shun the vices of tribalism, sexism and corruption, among other things. Pohamba effectively used his rhetoric to communicate to the audience which is an important aspect of a democratic regime. This was observed internationally, which enabled Pohamba to put Namibia on the world map as he won MO Ibrahim award for African leadership at the end of his second term. However, the current study has focused only on the rhetoric of his first term.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30110
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:57.328Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2019
publishDateRange 2019
publishDateSort 2019
publisher Department of Private Law
publisherStr Department of Private Law
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30110 Hifikepunye Pohamba's rhetorical presidency: inauguration and independence anniversary speeches Nanyeni, Frieda Nauyele Salazar, Philippe-Joseph Rhetoric, presidency, independence, argument, democracy, Pohamba, reconciliation, persuasion This study examines the first inauguration speech and the four Independence anniversary speeches delivered by the former second president of Namibia, Hifikepunye Pohamba. The five volumes of these speeches, which marked Pohamba’s first term of office, plus audio-recordings of the highlights of the speeches on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation, were the primary data of the study. Pohamba’s modern presidency, executed the laws through speeches, communicated directly to the Namibian people about what his Government have done, what it is attempting to do, and what they plan to do. In order to investigate how Hifikepunye Pohamba’s rhetoric continued in shaping democracy in the post-apartheid Namibia, the argument of the analysis was based on the Aristotelian (2007) ‘three regimes’ of rhetoric as well as the three rhetorical proofs. On the historical background information, a context of the rhetorical situation was drawn from Bitzer (1968), and the rhetorical argument and application of Perelman (1984). Moreover, close contextual analysis was also employed as it seeks to analyse the relationship between the inner working of public discourse and its historical context in order to discover what makes a particular text function persuasively. Pohamba’s speeches were analysed closely and rhetorically interpreted within their Namibian historical and political context. Thus, the study reveals the monumental occasions in the history of Namibian politics, among others, the symbolic rhetoric of the peaceful transfer of power from the founding President Sam Nujoma to the second president, who was also democratically elected, Hifikepunye Pohamba. Pohamba’s rhetoric reflects his rhetorical performative. He demonstrated his democratic ethics to his audience in his rhetoric, and constantly referred to certain individuals who were respected by his audience. Thus, he continued shaping democracy in Namibia. Pohamba’s rhetoric contains values of praising and blaming; he established fact and judgement about the past, and also advised about the future. He emphasised on the policy of national reconciliation and confirmed that reconciliation had ushered in a new dispensation of political stability, peace, unity, ethnic cohesion and security in Namibia. Namibian people must therefore continue to shun the vices of tribalism, sexism and corruption, among other things. Pohamba effectively used his rhetoric to communicate to the audience which is an important aspect of a democratic regime. This was observed internationally, which enabled Pohamba to put Namibia on the world map as he won MO Ibrahim award for African leadership at the end of his second term. However, the current study has focused only on the rhetoric of his first term. 2019-05-15T10:02:37Z 2019-05-15T10:02:37Z 2018 2019-05-13T13:37:46Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30110 eng application/pdf Department of Private Law Faculty of Law
spellingShingle Rhetoric, presidency, independence, argument, democracy, Pohamba, reconciliation, persuasion
Nanyeni, Frieda Nauyele
Hifikepunye Pohamba's rhetorical presidency: inauguration and independence anniversary speeches
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Hifikepunye Pohamba's rhetorical presidency: inauguration and independence anniversary speeches
title_full Hifikepunye Pohamba's rhetorical presidency: inauguration and independence anniversary speeches
title_fullStr Hifikepunye Pohamba's rhetorical presidency: inauguration and independence anniversary speeches
title_full_unstemmed Hifikepunye Pohamba's rhetorical presidency: inauguration and independence anniversary speeches
title_short Hifikepunye Pohamba's rhetorical presidency: inauguration and independence anniversary speeches
title_sort hifikepunye pohamba s rhetorical presidency inauguration and independence anniversary speeches
topic Rhetoric, presidency, independence, argument, democracy, Pohamba, reconciliation, persuasion
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30110
work_keys_str_mv AT nanyenifriedanauyele hifikepunyepohambasrhetoricalpresidencyinaugurationandindependenceanniversaryspeeches