Imelda Hoebes, Christianity, Spirituality, and the Afterlives of Dutch Colonial Slavery in the South of Namibia

Imelda Hoebes' research project investigates the religious lives of enslaved and colonised people in the Dutch Cape Colony and traces their afterlives northward into what is now Namibia. Her work sits at the intersection of the anthropology of religion, sociology, and colonial history specifically, how Christianity, as it moved through these communities into Namibia, continues to shape identity and meaning-making in Namibian communities today. As an indigenous sociologist from a Damara (ǂNūkhoen) community and a native speaker of Khoekhoegowab, she brings both scholarly and lived insight to her research.