Symposium V

The issue of (post)colonial injustice is more present than ever before in German and European legal and cultural policy debates. Still, this development towards addressing the past has not had much impact in the successor states of former colonies. 

The symposium's goal is to trace the complex repercussions and interdependencies of German colonization in present-day Namibia and to increase their visibility in Germany. To this end, speakers from the law, politics and the arts will present perspectives on the effects of colonization, a potential constructive approach and exchange with German civil society.

This is the third symposium about the Namibian case organized by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the Akademie der Künste, in a cooperation with the German Federal Agency for Civic Education/bpb. The first discussion in January 2018 was followed up by a conference in Windhoek in March 2019 as part of a “Week of Justice”. The issues addressed there will be mirrored back in Berlin. Speakers include Ida Hoffmann (the Nama Genocide Technical Committee), the international legal scholar John Nakuta, and the artist Isabel Tueumuna Katjavivi.

Publication

Colonial Repercussions: Namibia
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) e.V. (Ed.), 2019

In English

A collection of academic and personal accounts by the conveners, speakers and participants of the “Week of Justice” (25 to 30 March 2019) in Namibia.

With contributions by Ida Hoffmann, Sima Luipert, Vasuki Nesiah, Makau Mutua, André du Pisani, Jürgen Zimmerer; among others.