After the a failed attempt at arresting the Abrahams in Rehoboth, Kenneth hid in the mountains for a few days. Then he, Andreas Shipanga, Hermanus Beukes and Paul Smit had to march across the border into Botswana in August 1963. However, they were abducted – with a gun held to Abrahams’ head – inside Botswana by apartheid police in plain clothes, and taken to prison. This was at the same time that the escapees from the Rivonia Trial were also in hiding in Francistown- an environment Aunt Tilly describes as ‘electric.’ Kenneth was then flown to Cape Town and charged with sabotage. Following an international outcry, he was released and went into exile to Tanzania in 1963. The Abrahams met as members of the SWAPO Central Committee in Dar es Salaam to discuss a strategy for guerrilla warfare and to form the Peoples’ Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). At this point Ottilie was the SWAPO secretary for Education. During a brief mission to Kenya in 1964, the Abrahams’ returned to Tanzania to find that they were suspended from SWAPO for ‘disrespecting leadership’ through enquiring about how funding was being used in the organisation.

A video of Kenny and Ottilie Abrahams landing in Tanzania in 1963 to join Cabral, Frelimo, MPLA, etc. can be viewed in British Pathé’s archive here.