‘Ovizire · Somgu: From Where Do We Speak?’: Artistic Interventions in the Namibian Colonial Archive (2018–2020)

Abstract

In a political and cultural climate where renegotiations of the shared colonial history of Germany and Namibia have gained momentum but debates about the past remain heated and tense, the artistic practice of Namibian artist Vitjitua Ndjiharine reveals new and empathic ways to engage with colonial legacies. This article discusses a selection of Ndjiharine’s artworks, part of the transnational research and exhibition project ‘Ovizire · Somgu: From Where Do We Speak’, in Hamburg and Windhoek (2018–20). Examining her creative strategies to explore the colonial photographic archive of the Hamburg Museum am Rothenbaum elucidates how her practice relates to critical scholarly investigations of the ambivalences of photographs from the colonial era. Ndjiharine’s artistic practice not only critiques German institutions, colonial modes of representation and knowledge production, but also conjures up alternative ways to reimagine obscured and entangled colonial histories. Analysing the works exhibited in Hamburg and Windhoek allows us to attend to the distinct references and frameworks evoked to refashion and reinterpret the photographed subjects and ultimately to usher in new ways of viewing and relating to the colonial past and the present.