Nora Schimming was born in
Windhoek Old Location on 1 December 1940. She was the daughter of Charlotte Schimming, née Freiser, and
Otto Schimming, the first Black teacher in Namibia and an early independence activist. Because both her parents had a
German father and were thus
mixed-race, she was classified as "
Coloured" by the authorities, and could not attend high school in
South West Africa. She was sent to
Cape Town instead and attended
Trafalgar School. Schimming then attended
University of Cape Town and graduated with a teacher diploma in 1961. The educator, activist, and politician
Ottilie Abrahams was her prior sister. Schimming went into exile in
Tanzania in 1962 and worked at the
SWAPO office in
Dar es Salaam for a few months. She then moved to
Germany, having been awarded a bursary to study at the
Free University of Berlin. She graduated in 1966 with a
B.A. in political science, English linguistics and African literature, and in 1968 with a
Magister degree in politics and African studies. She also started with a
PhD but never finished it. In 1974 she returned to Tanzania and headed the office of the
South West Africa National Union (SWANU). At that time she worked as a teacher at the
International School of Tanganyika in Dar-es-Salaam. In 1978 she returned to Namibia. ==Career==