Helao Shityuwete

Helao Shityuwete (born 1934 in Evale, Angola) is a Namibian author and former politician and military commander. After Namibia gained independence in 1990, Shityuwete published his autobiography titled "Never Follow the Wolf" which chronicled his time on Robben Island as well as his trial for involvement in the Namibian War of Independence as commander of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia, the military wing of the South West Africa People's Organization.

In February 1985, Shityuwete received a scholarship to study at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He studied in Birmingham until 1987, when he graduated and moved to London, where he married and had a child. He returned to Namibia in 1989 upon the establishment of the Constituent Assembly, which wrote the Namibian Constitution. Though he moved back in 1989, Shityuwete's family did not join him until days before official independence in March 1990. He was hired to help found as Deputy Director of Human Resources in the Ministry of Labour upon independence, where he worked with future ambassador Ponhele ya France as well as Katrina Itula. He worked in the Interior Ministry until retirement in 1996. In 2009, Shityuwete was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009 and had successful surgery to remove the cancer in neighboring South Africa. In early 2010, he also suffered a stroke which left him unable to speak English, though he later recovered the ability to speak it through the help of a language therapist.