NAMIBIA – THE FORGOTTEN COLONY / IMAGE RESTITUTION

In English and German

Guests: Laura Horelli (Berlin) & Hildegard Titus (Windhoek)

Place: House for Media Art Oldenburg/ Haus für Medienkunst Oldenburg, Katharinenstraße 23, 26121 Oldenburg

Organizers: Alliance Against Colonial Continuities Oldenburg, Institute of History & European Master in Migration Intercultural Relations (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg), House for Media Art Oldenburg

An East German TV documentary, never shown publicly in Namibia, prompts discussions in a local audience. Namibia - the Forgotten Colony, 1975 was shot illegally by the Katins Group at the height of the apartheid inside the country. It was produced in solidarity with and together with the liberation movement SWAPO and is one of the earliest anti-apartheid films set in Namibia. Screenings and discussions of the little known film took place in Windhoek at the Department of Performing Arts, University of Namibia and Swakopmund in 2024-2025.

Hildegard Titus moderated these discussions. She looked at the film’s significance in the Namibian present by asking the audience questions like “what has changed in the 50 years since the film’s making?” The screenings were attended by students, artists and academics of all generations and ethnicities and were followed by lively conversations about how the film could contribute to addressing trauma, healing, reconciliation and intergenerational dialogue. The documentary was however painful for many to watch, as it brought back bitter memories about colonialism and apartheid.  In workshops groups chose scenes of the documentary to respond to and interact with. These workshops had an artistic, a transforming function and raised questions about the shortcomings of the historical documentary. A local camera team consisting of Antonius Tsuob and Kauna Hoabeb documented the working process. Documentary participants have had the possibility to view two different stages of the edit in Windhoek.

Laura Horelli and Hildegard Titus will present the project and show excerpts from both the documentary Namibia – the Forgotten Colony and their collaborative work-in-progress Image Restitution.

Hildegard Titus, born 1991 in Windhoek, is a photographer, filmmaker, artist, curator and decolonial activist. She has a keen issue on working on topics of gender, identity, culture and race. She campaigned actively for the removal of the Curt von François statue in Windhoek (2022). Hildegard Titus is currently doing her MA in Gender, Media & Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Laura Horelli, born in 1976 in Helsinki, grew up partly in Nairobi and London, and lives in Berlin since 2001. As a visual artist and filmmaker she is interested in representations and mediations of the past, taking on a microhistorical approach. She has examined private and public archives in her artistic research, which often results in found footage or photo films. www.laurahorelli.com

Image Restitution is being produced with the support of the Arts Promotion Center Finland Media Art Artist Grant and the Berlin Senate Visual Arts Research Grant.