Mandume Ya Ndemufayo, the king of the Cuanhama (Oukwanyama) principal subgroup of the Ovambo in Southern Angola, was one of the last and most important resistance leader against Portuguese conquest in Angola [Mandume and the Ovambo Resistance to Portuguese Colonialism in Angola]. By the size of his army, he could be compared to Samori Touré, but he did not have the same historic aura or military genius, and died early. No European colonizer seriously challenged the well-organized and well-armed Ovambo kingdoms until 1915 and the beginning of World War I which coincided with a massive local drought. Thus, there are several versions to his death. Below are a few.

=====

… the death of such a person could not fail to give rise to several versions. The South African version is military:  four machine gun bullets, and death in the bushes. A Cuanhama version claims that he committed suicide surrounded by his last followers, another that he ordered a young squire to finish him off. A third, still believed today, claims that the South Africans cut off his head and buried it in Windhoek. This last variant would explain itself by the fact that the small monument commemorating the campaign which cost the lives of nine south Africans would include in effigy the head of an African, clearly visible in Windhoek. The Cuanhama workers residing in the capital would therefore have associated this face with that of their formidable hero. Currently, the tomb of Mandume is a simple tumulus surrounded by stakes. Relatively well maintained (by the family ? nationalists ?), it is located a few kilometers from the border, to the east of Namacunde, in Angolan territory.

Les Africains, Tome 8, p. 226, ed. Jaguar. Translated to English by Dr. Y., Afrolegends.com