It's taken several years to complete his thesis and Dr Geingob was helped by visits from his tutors in Namibia. Supervisor Professor Lionel Cliffe and his team combined the meetings with their research visits. Dr Geingob also made several visits to Leeds, although they never coincided with a home game of Leeds United, his favourite team. Still a football fan, he is head of the Namibian Football Association.

Professor Cliffe said: "His thesis is extremely rich because it's informed by an insider's knowledge. The pressures of the job meant he had to take time out for one period but he resumed to complete his thesis, which is an insightful and invaluable part of the historical record of his country’s emergence. We've become very good friends now but he still calls me Prof!"

Dr Geingob trained as a teacher but wanted to escape the Bantu education system. He walked to Botswana in 1963 and stayed for a year as a SWAPO representative before leaving for the US. Having graduated with an MA in international relations, he considered studying a PhD there but wanted to return to support his country's struggle for independence.

He held a number of SWAPO roles before becoming director of the UN institute for Namibia in 1975, a post he held until 1989. The institute had a number of roles including training potential civil servants for an independent country. In November 1989 he was elected Chairman of the constituent assembly, which prepared the country's constitution, and Prime Minister in 1990. He was re-elected in 1995 and in 2002 became executive director of the global coalition for Africa in Washington. This year he returned to Namibia and became a member of parliament in this year's elections.

Photocall: 11.00am, Thursday 16 December in Clothworkers' Court (beside the Great Hall), University of Leeds.

For more information, contact:
Hannah Love, press office, University of Leeds, h.e.b.love@leeds.ac.uk, 0113 343 4100