Namibia Embassy Berlin -
"Born in exile during Namibia’s war of independence (1966–89) and within the historical context of the trauma of the country’s past under Germany’s violent colonial rule (1884–1915), Tuli Mekondjo’s artistic practice has been a labour of belonging, re-creation, and restitution. Her work is based on the stories she carries with her from her family and community in Namibia— where she returned after the country gained independence in 1990—as well as in her persistent research with and against colonial archives. In Ounona vedu, Mekondjo recreates a series of fertility dolls, which were formerly passed down from generation to generation to practise motherhood and connect to fertility in her community, the Aawambo people, while her canvases recompose a context through which archival photographic portraits of Aawambo women return the colonial gaze. By burning, washing, embroidering, cutting, and mending, the canvases become a space of transformation, to heal and honour the interrupted ancestral lineages. Her works draw the viewer into the renewing force of life that bonds and births generations. Mekondjo proposes a reimagining of restitution as the restoration of ancestral fertility channels and their strength to remember and recreate beyond institutional museum repatriation centred on ownership." Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Tuli Mekondjo and HKW, 2023.
Text by Paz Guevara, Handbook, Archive Books, Berlin, 2023: Quilombismo Handbook, HKW
left to right: artist, Ms Tuli Mekondjo; Col. Cecilie Kazaronda, Defence Attaché; Michelle Farmer, 1st Secretary; Ms Avril Coetzee, Counsellor
The Embassy Staff was received by the new Director of Haus der Kulturen der Welt, HKW, Mr Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung; right to left: Ms Michelle Farmer, First Secretary, Col. Cecilie Kazaronda, Defence Attaché; Ms Avril Coetzee, Counsellor; Mr Ndikung, Director HKW; Ms Rita Herkenrath, Assistant; Ms Tuli Mekondjo, Artist.
(Photo: courtesy, Ms Paz Guevara, HKW)
The Address of His Holiness Pope Francis can be read here....
PRESENTATION OF LETTERS OF CREDENCE BY THE AMBASSADORS OF MOLDOVA, KYRGYZSTAN, NAMIBIA, LESOTHO, LUXEMBOURG, CHAD AND GUINEA-BISSAU
Clementine Hall, Friday, 17 December 2021
Your Excellencies,
I am pleased to receive you for the presentation of the Letters accrediting you as Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of your countries to the Holy See: Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Chad and Guinea-Bissau. I kindly ask you to convey my sentiments of esteem to your respective Heads of State, together with the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will abundantly bless them and your fellow citizens with peace and prosperity.
When I gathered with your colleagues a little more than a year ago for the same ceremony, the world was still in the firm grip of the pandemic, yet signs of hope were emerging on the horizon as the initial vaccines were about to be administered. At the time, many believed that their arrival heralded a quick end to the pandemic. While great progress has been made since then, we see a year later how COVID-19 is still causing pain and suffering, not to mention the loss of life.
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The Ambassador was accompanied by his wife, Mrs Caroline Andjaba, his son, Martin Jr., and Mr Brendan Siluka Kabuku, First Secretary. (Photo left to right).
On 11 September 2021, Ambassador Martin Andjaba, opened the travelling exhibition of the Deutsch-Namibische Gesellschaft (DNG), entitled Namibia-Germany - Aspects of a Special Relationship.
From left to right: Mr Klaus Hess, President of the German-Namibian Society (DNG); Ambassador Martin Andjaba; Mr Heiner Naumann, former country representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) in Namibia; Ambassador Robert Dölger, Regional Commissioner for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel in the Foreign Office.
Namibia-Seminar der Deutsch-Namibischen Gesellschaft (DNG e.V.) in Göttingen, 30. Oktober 2021
Namibia-Seminar of the German-Namibian Society (DNG) in Göttingen, 30 October 2021
Am Samstag, den 30. Oktober 2021, nahm Botschafter Martin Andjaba am Namibia-Seminar der Deutsch-Namibischen Gesellschaft in Göttingen teil.
On Saturday, 30 October 2021, Ambassador Martin Andjaba attended the Namibia-Seminar of the German-Namibian Society in Göttingen.
Hier finden Sie die englische Rede (English) des Botschafters zum Thema der Beziehungen zwischen Namibia und Deutschland. Die deutsche Version (German) erhalten Sie hier....
Click on the above links to access the English and German version of the Ambassador's speech.
From left to right: Ambassador Martin Andjaba; Ms Bettina Haase, Namibia's Honorary Consul for Thuringia, and Mr Klaus Hess, President of the DNG.Stolen Moments – Namibian Music History Untold
Ausstellung in Stuttgart noch bis 21. November 2021
Am 11. Oktober 2021, eröffnete Botschafter Martin Andjaba die Ausstellung Stolen Moments - Namibian History Untold im Projektraum Kunstverein Wagenhalle in Stuttgart.
Hierunter sehen Sie von links nach rechts Botschafter Martin Andjaba mit der Kuratorin der Ausstellung, Frau Aino Moongo und während seiner Rede. Auf dem großen Foto darunter wird der Herr Botschafter von John Liebenbergs Kindern willkommen geheißen.
Die Ausstellung Stolen Moments – Namibian Music History Untold – erzählt die Geschichte der namibischen Populär-Musik der 50er bis 80er Jahre, die vom südafrikanischen Apartheidregime zensiert und unmöglich gemacht wurde.
Sie nannten sich The Dead Wood, Rocking Kwela Boys, Children Of Pluto, #Kharixurob, Otto Kampari, Strike Vilakazi, Warmgat oder The Dakotas. Sie waren die ungekrönten Popstars ihrer Zeit. Ihre musikalische Bandbreite umspannte alle Musikstile und Instrumente. Doch ihre Songs wurden unterdrückt und verboten. Heute sind sie Lehrer, Busfahrer, Näherinnen oder mittellos, manche sind in der Gosse gelandet, viele bereits verstorben, kaum einer von ihnen macht heute noch Musik.
Die Ausstellung ist täglich von 11-20 Uhr geöffnet. Das Begleitprogramm zum Nachlesen finden Sie. Führungen für Schulklassen oder Gruppen nach Voranmeldung.
Kuration: Aino Moongo, Sabine Linn, Ulf Vierke
Künstlerische Leitung: Thorsten Schütte
Kontakt: Simone Knapp (Mobil: 01637302888), Kirchliche Arbeitsstelle Südliches Afrika KASA
REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR MARTIN ANDJABA ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION STOLEN MOMENTS – NAMIBIAN MUSIC HISTORY UNTOLD
11 OCTOBER 2021
Ms Petra Olschowski, State Secretary,
Ms Simone Knapp of Ecumenical Service on Southern Africa (KASA)
Mr Thorsten Schütte, Artistic Director of the exhibition,
Honorary Consul of the Republic of Namibia, Proff. Dr. Andreas Staudacher,
Ms Aino Moongo, Curator
Members of the Curator Team,
Mr. Jackson Wahengo and Band, The Stolen Moments
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a privilege for me to be saying a few words this evening at the invitation of Ms Simone Knapp, for the opening of the Exhibition “Stolen Moments. Namibian Music History Untold”, for two reasons:
Firstly, I admire the Stolen Moments research team for their hard work and dedication. The several years of commitment and research they have put into this project is highly commendable.
Secondly, the exhibition encapsulates both bitter and sweet, as it chronicles intimate stories, songs and experiences of those who shaped Namibian pop culture during some of Namibia’s darkest, most repressive years of Apartheid, a period that marks some of the harshest years of racial discrimination under the South African Apartheid regime that followed German colonialism.
When I first heard about the exhibition, I was attracted by the title, Stolen Moments, printed in large letters on the poster advertising this exhibition, which has been travelling wide and far from London, to Basel, via Berlin and now Stuttgart. I have been told that the exhibition will also be viewed in Namibia next year. The title is fitting in that it reflects how “moments were stolen” through the censoring, suppressing and prohibiting of music and cultural expression by the Apartheid regime.
(...) klicken Sie bitte hier, um die Rede als pdf Version weiter zu lesen.