Born: 28 October 1926, Namibia
Died: 26 April 2010
Country most active: Namibia
Also known as: Hulda Ngatjikare
Namibian medical professional Hulda Shipanga was the first Black nurse in Namibia to be promoted to the highest rank of matron, and also served as an adviser to the Namibian Ministry of Health.
After training as a teacher and as a nurse in South Africa, Shipanga returned to Namibia (then known as South-West Africa) to work at the Native Hospital in Windhoek. After additional studies, she began working as a midwife at the Old Location, a racially segregated area for Black residents. At the time, all doctors were white due to the Bantu Education Act that restricted opportunities for Black students. During the Old Location Uprising on 10 December 1959, Shipanga was one of three nurses treating the wounded while those white doctors refused to do so at the hospitals.
After travelling to the United Kingdom for additional qualifications as a theatre nurse with specializations in paediatrics and orthopaedics, Shipanga was the most highly qualified nurse in the final days of South-West Africa as the country transitioned to the independent Namibia. With independence came the downfall of apartheid laws, enabling her to be promoted to matron. She served in that capacity at Katutura State Hospital until retiring, and was appointed a special advisor to the Ministry of Health, serving under two different ministers in the 1990s.