Esi Schimming Chase with her mother, the late Ambassador Nora Schimming-Chase
Esi Schimming Chase with her father the late Dr McDonald Chase
ROYAL HUSTLERS Esi Schimming-Chase Talks Life and Legal Hustle
E
si Schimming-Chase is a woman who has extensively contributed to the legal fraternity in Namibia, becoming the first black female practicing senior counsel in the country in July 2017. Half Namibian and Saint Lucian (Caribbean), born in exile in Germany during the fight for Namibia’s independence, Esi is an actual struggle kid. A fun fact about her is that her first name, Esi, hails from Ghana and means “girl born on a Sunday”. She shared some of her experiences as a mixed-race child growing up in apartheid Namibia when she arived here from Saint Lucia in 1982, at the age of twelve; she said: “I walked straight into St. Paul’s College. It was quite traumatising because I came from the islands where everybody is black, whether light or dark skinned. You would see two, three white people who were probably tourists, there on the beach or walking around.” It was a very confusing time for little Esi whose experiences in the Caribbean islands shielded her from any notions of race and especially apartheid. “I came to Namibia and it was.. a complete role-reversal. For example, I didn’t know anything about the term ‘Coloured’ because there you were either black or white,” she recalled. You could
be light, medium or dark skinned.. ‘’But, there was no separate concept of a different tribe or group as it were ..for Coloured people,’’ Esi said. She progressed into her legal career over the years, from studying Law in Coventry, United Kingdom, to dabbling in modelling and eventually, rising up the ranks of Namibia’s legal fraternity. Her career began when she was admitted as a Barrister to the Middle Temple Inns of Court in England in October 1994. She returned to Namibia in January, 1995, on her mother’s insistence who underscored that Esi was to return home to plough what she had learned into the Namibian community. “My mother made sure I came back home. She said, I didn’t send you overseas to study for you not to come back and contribute to our country. Contributing to the country was my mother’s mantra, always.” Esi has since become a force to be reckoned with and while she is literally at the top of her game, she remains determined to be diligent and give her all in each and every case she takes on. She shared her working philosophy: “I like doing a good job and I want a happy client; it’s the most important person, in my opinion. I work hard and I play hard’’
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