South Africa had a long and frequently traumatic colonial relationship with Namibia, but this seems little remembered in contemporary South Africa.  Namibia became a South African protectorate after World War I, and subsequently apartheid’s ‘fifth province’, winning its Independence only in 1990, after a cruel and highly censored war that lasted more than 20 years.

(Not) Remembering Namibia, curated by Julie Taylor, draws on the photographic archive and considers its role in remembering, not remembering, and reconfiguring historical moments, in individual and collective narratives and silences. (Not) Remembering Namibia is part of the Guns & Rain culture spot that offers contemporary fine art online by emerging artists from Africa.

Photographs are the ongoing sites of social encounters, in which archivists, historians and curators are implicated. This online exhibition explores the ways in which archival and documentary photographs have been appropriated by contemporary artists (John Muafangejo, Christo Doherty and Erik Schnack) to ask fresh questions and build new layers of meaning around these images.

This exhibition is also part of a collectively curated group exhibition by postgraduate students in the Wits History of Art programme.  The full set of curating projects can be found at http://hartcurating.wits.ac.za.