As a child, he completed his primary education in the Anglican Holy Cross Mission school in Onamunhama. At the age of 24, Pohamba was a founding member of SWAPO in 1960. He was arrested for his political activity but moved to Southern Rhodesia, when he was deported soon afterwards. He then spent four months in prison in South West Africa before spending two years in Ovamboland under house arrest. In 1964, he went to Lusaka to set up SWAPO's Zambian office, and on his return, met the man who was later to become president, Sam Nujoma. Until the achievement of Namibian independence, Pohamba represented SWAPO across Africa, He studied politics in the Soviet Union for a time in the early 1980s. He headed SWAPO's 1989 election campaign and was a SWAPO member of the Constituent Assembly, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990, before becoming a member of the National Assembly at independence in March 1990. He was Minister of Home Affairs from March 1990 to 1995, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources from 1995 to 1997, and Minister without Portfolio from 1997 to March 2000. He was elected as secretary-general of SWAPO in 1997 and as its vice-president in 2002. On 26 January 2000, he was appointed as Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation in addition to his above ministerial position, in which position he remained until becoming president in 2005.