Swiss-South Africa/Namibia Exchange Programme

Memory Biwa

Namibian researchers take a look at the Dammann
slide collection at BAB

I have been based in Europe for several weeks for the first part of a research exchange programme between South Africa and Switzerland. In June, I visited 'The Making of...Ghosts: Voices and Apparitions in Archives of the First World War', a four-channel sound and video installation by Britta Lange and Philip Scheffner at the Anatomical Theatre of the Humboldt University.

The installation was sited a stone's throw away from the auditorium where ceremonies were held to mark the repatriation of human bodies from Germany to Namibia in 2011 and 2014.

I also attended a talk on the repatriation of human remains by Ciraj Rassool at the August Bebel house in Berlin, and travelled by train and ferry to Copenhagen to present a paper at the European Sound Studies Conference.

In early July, I participated in a sound studies workshop at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB), and stayed on in Basel to revisit the Ernst and Ruth Dammann Collection, supported in various capacities by at least four institutions, University of Basel, University of Zürich, BAB and Archive & Public Culture. I focused on various sub-collections of the archive, the sound collection and the photographs taken by Ruth Dammann, which have been recently digitised for the BAB website. I identified scenes in the slide collection, an under-utilised resource, which related to the use of sound equipment or to spaces where performances were recorded by the Dammanns.

I was honoured to meet up with various researchers with a focus on Namibia at BAB. Sigrid Schmidt, who also conducted research on the Dammann archive for her latest publication, presented her work at a Tuesday lunch talk. Her publication includes her Khoekhoegowab orature project in Namibia from the 1960s.

It was also a rare opportunity to meet with Saima Ashipala and Romie Nghitevelekwa, postgraduate students from Namibia based in Geneva and Freiburg, who have been involved in various projects at the BAB, including presentations on their research at a documentary film screening. With them and other colleagues, I shared very lively debates, research interests and dinners of traditional spinach from Namibia, pap and peanut-butter cabbage.

Southern Africa Workshop group visits
the Zoological Museum in Zürich

At the end of July, we were hosted by Gesine Krüger at the Department of History of the University of Zürich and Dag Henrichsen at BAB at a two-day workshop between Zürich and Basel. Titled 'Researching Southern Africa: Archives and Sources', the workshop was co-organised by Luregn Lenggenhager of the Department of History at University of Zürich and myself. It provided a platform for PhD candidates from various institutions in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and South Africa, who are in the process of researching in Southern African archives, to present their research.

Instead of sending abstracts or pre-circulated papers, each participant was asked to present their thinking in relation to one source from their specific archive and how this source has affected their experience of working in the archive. The conversation on how to frame the workshop was initiated at a meeting at the 'Hello Sailor' restaurant on the pavement of Lower Main Road, in Observatory, Cape Town, where Luregn Lenggenhager described his work at the Ysterplaats Military Air Force Base in Cape Town.

The majority of the projects were focused on Namibia, however there were also several scholars who are researching archives in South Africa and Zambia. The result was overwhelming as participants spoke about unlikely archival locations, mastering the reading of specific scripts, inserting their bodies and artwork in a public archive, access to archives, descriptions of work in the field, interdisciplinary reading and use of sources, and forming relationships with archivists and institutions where collections are kept. In all, it was a very enriching experience, a deep reflection on various sources and an opening up of previously unheard of research themes.