MARION WALLACE  (Lead Curator, African Collections, British Library): Writing the History of a Nation: Reflections on “A History of Namibia”

In 2011, I published my History of Namibia, a general history relying on academic research of a country which achieved independence from South Africa in 1990, and had previously  been a German colony. The book (thanks to an opening chapter by archaeologist John Kinahan) opens at the beginning of human life in Namibia, and covers the period to independence, concluding with a brief summary of developments since that date. Three years on, it has appeared now in German. In this talk, I will discuss what for me were the main questions to be resolved in the writing of this book, and the complex process of weaving a compact narrative from a fragmented historiography which is in some places dense and layered, in others extremely threadbare. I will explore how, conceptually and organisationally, the book deliberately departs from the strategies used by previous authors of general histories. Namibian history is, of course – like history everywhere – shot through with controversies, not least that of the genocide of 1904–8, and these needed to be carefully addressed. In addition, the book appeared at a time when a nationalist version of Namibian history was arguably becoming increasingly influential in the public sphere in Namibia itself. What questions are generated by the writing and publishing of a history of a nation, in a context in which that nation is actively generating itself?

Venue: 2015/03/23, Internationales Kolleg Morphomata, Universität zu Köln, Weyertal 59 (Rückegebäude, 3. Stock). Click here>>>