Collection of oral history of different ethnic groups in Namibia

(© Deutsche Botschaft) What the Elders used to say - Namibian Perspectives on the last Decade of German Colonial Rule"

A collection of oral history of different ethnic groups in Namibia

Namibia, the former South West Africa, was a German colony from 1884 to 1915. Numerous publications address German colonial rule; almost all of the authors are Germans or of German descent. With the project “Collection of Oral History” the question was explored on how different ethnic groups now see the German colonial time, and especially the time of the colonial wars from 1903 to 1908, and how the memories of this time were passed on by their ancestors. 

The project was conducted by the Namibian Institute for Democracy in co-operation with the Namibian-German Foundation and was financed by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the framework of the Cultural Preservation Fund. For a period of nine months a team headed by a historian conducted interviews in various regions of Namibia with descendants of Herero, Nama, Damara, San and Baster affected by colonial rule. In total 66 persons were interviewed by means of a questionnaire. The interviews were conducted in local vernacular, recorded on DVD, transcribed and translated into English.

The results of the interviews were summarised in the 75-page publication “What the Elders used to say – Namibian Perspectives on the last Decade of German Colonial Rule”, which was introduced to the public at the Goethe Centre in Windhoek on 2 April 2008. At this function the entire collection of material was handed over to the Namibian Minister of Education, Nangolo Mbumba, by the German Ambassador, Arne Freiherr von Kittlitz, for safekeeping in the National Archives of Namibia. In this way the impressive testimony of history passed down by word of mouth is generally available for future research.

In 2007 two other projects in Namibia were supported by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the framework of the Cultural Preservation Fund: the translation into English of a book on hunting techniques of the Kavango as well as a publication on the traditions of the Herero.