Report, video and pics of the ASC Country Meeting on Namibia

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Namibia's independence, the ASC organized a Country Meeting on 6 March 2015. Among the speakers were Prof. Jan-Bart Gewald, Leonor Jonker and Dr Stasja Koot, while the honourable Ms Ndamononghenda Haileka, first Secretary at the Namibian Embassy in Brussels, and Ms Cornélie M. van Waegeningh, Honourary Concil of Namibia in the Netherlands, were among the guests.

For all pictures and presentations, scroll down!

After introductions by ASC director Ton Dietz and the ASC Library's Edith de Roos, Prof. Jan-Bart Gewald (see film fragment, 11mins.) spoke about the amazing achievement of Namibia now having a generation that did not grow up in war. Stressing the achievement of peace for the last 25 years, Prof. Gewald also dwelled on the growth of the economy, and the growth of the population, still in pace with the economy's growth. On a downside he noted the country's need to diversify its economy and to redistribute the wealth. Tourism income goes into the hands of few, and education remains an important sector to invest in. He concluded by stating that the rule of law should apply to all and not just a few, and that corruption needs to be put an end to.

Leonor Jonker, Research Masters student in Modern History at Utrecht University, gave an impressive talk 'Skulls and skullduggery: The continuing controversy surrounding the return and retention of Namibian skulls from Germany' (see presentation below). Herero and Nama people were the victims of the genocide that took place from 1904-1908 under German colonial rule. During and after German administration, anthropologists investigated the skulls from the Herero and Nama people to prove the inferiority of Africans. Although a number of skulls have been repatriated to Namibia in 2011 and 2014, Germany's colonial history still seems to remain a 'footnote' within Germany's collective memory and its museums, as Jonker noted during recent visits to several museums in Berlin.

Dr Stasja Koot of ISS, Erasmus University, delivered a fascinating speech: 'Trapped in Tourism: Bushmen in Contemporary Namibia' (see below). He elaborated on the well-organized tourism sector in the country, but noted that tourists don't see what's happening behind the scenes, and that communities are in fact often marginalized. He stressed that Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), in which local communities play a major role, is problematic as there is a conflict of interests between nature and humans. It seems that in CBNRM in Namibia today, nature comes first.