Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Entangled history and politics: negotiating the past between Namibia and Germany
Author:Kössler, ReinhartISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Volume:26
Issue:3
Pages:313-339
Language:English
Geographic terms:Namibia
Germany
Subjects:international relations
colonial history
genocide
memory
Herero revolt
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589000802332531
Abstract:The relationship between Namibia and Germany is marked by intense exchanges about the meaning and the consequences of the colonial wars of the early twentieth century in the erstwhile German colony. This engages various State and civil society actors including groups from across the political spectrum in Germany, whereas in Namibia the debate concerns the descendants of the victims on the one hand and German-speaking Namibians on the other. The article explores this discursive situation and brings out a range of relationships and interactions to be understood as expressions of an entangled history that eschews attempts of appropriation on one side. The problems emerge most poignantly in terms of the still ongoing exchanges around the denial of genocide in 1904-1908 which, given that the framework of the debate is predicated to considerable measure on German history, inevitably points to the Holocaust. A further strand of acting out and negotiating historical responsibility concerns the mode of apology and redress which remains a contended question. Not least, this involves an incoherent set of State and non-State actors on both sides. Here, the call for dialogue made particularly by Namibians raises the sensitive issues of intercultural communication. An earlier version of this article was presented at the AEGIS European Conference on African Studies held in Leiden, The Netherlands, on 11-14 July 2007. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
Views
Cover