Examining colonialism memory, culture and activism in postcolonial Namibia - Fellows' seminar by Heike Becker

“I’m interested in the social and political dynamics of memory, narrative and politics – both what has been remembered and what actively forgotten. My aim is to bring memory practices to the fore,” said Heike Becker of the Department of Anthropology at the University of the Western Cape. “My original focus, based on fieldwork in Northern Namibia and Southern Angola, was on the memories of people during the civil war and liberation struggles. In the 2010s and 2020s my focus has shifted to memory activists in society − specifically the means and modes of remembering including through the visual arts and performance practices.” Becker explained that her book project presents a series of interconnected investigations that explore how anti-colonial struggles and their legacies have been remembered in postcolonial Namibia. “The analytical ethnography moves from commemorative public history in the national arena, to local memories in Northern Namibia, and finally engages with contemporary interventions of art and activism in Windhoek.” “I’m interested in efforts to decolonise the public space in Africa and elsewhere,” she continued. “I’m examining intergenerational transfer and how different generations remember and via what modes. As well as how memory of the past is in the present and future.” She described the interdisciplinary field of memory studies as having gone through three distinct phases.  She explained that French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs was the first to propose the idea of collective memory describing it as always selective and based on different representations of the past. His class-based case studies in France in the 1920s emphasised that memories are shaped by social groups and dynamics. The work of historian Pierre Nora in the 1980s emphasised national identity and memory, and the crystallisation of memory in symbolism and rituals. American literature and memory-studies scholar Michael Rothberg in the 2000s began to conceptualise memory as beyond national to transnational and transcultural. “He emphasised multidirectional memory,” explained Becker. “And that memory works are produced through negotiation, cross-referencing and borrowing. Different memory is not in competition and memory is created in conversation. We need more rather than less memory. And it’s not identity politics – different marginalised social groups provide resources for other groups to articulate their memory claims.” “From about the turn of the 21^st century, scholars have set out to revise understandings of collective memory,” she continued. “In contrast to the earlier emphasis on nation-based studies, memory-studies scholars have come to see memory regimes as transnational, transcultural and pluralistic.” She pointed out that anthropologist Richard Werbner heralded the beginning of doing memory studies in post-colonial Africa. But these “mostly centred on conflicts between the postcolonial state and subaltern populations; and, transnational entanglements have rarely been discussed. They provide an important analysis but are still national based and centred on conflict. There is little on activities outside of state structures and little transnationalism.” She highlighted the work of Nigerian literature scholar Sakiru Adebayo as more clearly bringing in contributions from African scholars and focusing on how to add to the existing knowledge structure and apply it to African continent. She explained that Adebayo has focused on African transnational memory, culture-orientated memory as well as ancestral memory. He focuses on the common history and shared futures of the region and how the past continues into the future. “The ancestral-memory concept goes beyond the transfer of memories to second and third generations. It allows deeper historical approaches and poses an interesting challenge to the epistemological boundaries. The work is very recent and intriguing,” said Becker.

Focus on Namibia

Turning to her work in Namibia, Becker focused on prevailing shifts in memory practices. She started by taking seminar participants on a tour of her fieldwork looking at postcolonial memory sites including Heroes Acre, the Independent Memorial Museum and the Genocide Memorial. Heroes Acre was built in 2002 by a North Korean Company. “It’s a memorial designed to promote a particular historical narrative and foundation myth that SWAPO (the South West African People’s Organisation) alone brought freedom through the barrel of a gun.  It’s a key site for the official production of memory.” “It’s a particular version of nationalist monumentalism – Stalinist Realism. The site is used for commemoration and ceremony but is highly contested because of its party associations – it doesn’t look into other history, ignores the civil-society role in the liberation narrative, and depicts a male version of heroism downplaying the contribution of women to the struggle. It also has specific ethnic and regional associations – writing out memories of violence from South and Central Namibia,” said Becker. She also highlighted the Independent Memorial Museum which opened in 2014 which, although it doesn’t completely ignore colonial history with inclusion of a memorial and murals of the 1904 – 1908 genocide, still glorifies SWAPO as the singular liberators. Turning to activism, she highlighted the work of the Decolonising Space Group and public protests including the #ACurtFarewell protest on 16 June 2020 – which demanded the removal of the statue of German colonial officer Curt von François who had led the Massacre of Hoornkrans in 1893. This also included an exhibition — consisting of photographs, a performance reading, and a video which aimed to highlight questions related to history and memory and is a counterpoint to state-sanctioned memorialisation. Confronting the monument on the day of its removal on 23 November 2022, ‘Man of War: Leave my house’ — created by artists Gift Uzera, Nicola Brandt and Muningandu Hoveka (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Am_2xEFVU) — forms part of a broader effort to work through traumatic legacies connected to German colonialism and apartheid, but also to intersectional violence tied to contemporary patriarchy and identity politics. Becker also highlighted the October 2020 - #ShutItAllDown protest which connected gender-based violence and feminicide protests with decolonial spatial principles. “Referred to as an intersectoral struggle, the protest highlighted the need to address enduring structural violence and the continued fight for social justice including GBV, reproductive rights and homophobia.” She also pointed to protests against homophobia in 2021 and 2022 which claimed queer rights as a matter of decolonisation. “Homosexuality and abortion are still a crime in Namibia based on old South Africa laws,” she explained. “Despite progressive gender rights in the Constitution, society and politics is still steeped in conservatism. The activists emphasised the non-implemented rights in the Constitution pointing to the statue of President Sam Nujoma’s (Namibia’s first president) brandishing what they described as an unfinished Constitution.” “These activists embraced the quest for queer identity but connected it with embodied traditions and deep history of the past destroyed by violent political conquest.” Lastly, she showed ‘Saara Omulaule: Black Saara’ –– a video and on-site performance and the work of mixed-media artist Tuli Mekondjo (who attended the seminar) which extends the notion of ancestral memory by exploring the conversion of Mekondjo’s ancestors to Christianity. Mekondjo’s work brings to the fore past and colonial histories and their legacies considering presents and futures. She emphasises ancestral memory and the spiritual echoes of the past through mending the lost connections with her ancestors. “Through these examples, I show how a younger generation of artists and activists make sense of the past, and how, through their political and art practices, colonialism remembrance is being reframed in present-day Namibia. The emphatically decolonial activists, who have taken to the public space from the early 2020s, bring together memory activism, performance, and visual-art practices. In conversation with other agents of global and regional shifts of politics and aesthetics, they set out to transform the memory of the past in the present and for the future through cultural and political forms, which they describe as ‘intersectional’,” said Becker. “This postcolonial generation of Namibian artists and activists confront memory frictions and the dogmatism of (previously) powerfully univocal postcolonial hegemony of remembrance. They have connected pursuits for the decolonisation of the public space with campaigns against enduring inequalities and injustices, which, they argue, postcolonial Namibia inherited from its colonial-apartheid past: class inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia and GBV.” In closing, she emphasised that whether by physical structure or by fleeting performance, memorialising the past must be culturally mediated – “the society has to accept it as a desired way to embody the past. Context is important.” Michelle Galloway: Part-time media officer at STIAS Photograph: SCPS Photography