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What do Namibians know of Germany?

Namibia spent more than twice as long under South African administration then it did when it was German South West Africa, but its formative years under the Germans continue to have an influence.

For one thing, you can stumble around streets marked Zeppelinstraße and Bismarckstraße, not to mention the quite quaffable beer the country produces. Germany’s most remembered act in Namibia, alas, is the massacre of the Herero tribe, whose women are today known for their colourful pseudo-Victorian traditional dress.

Still, a third of the country’s white population are of German descent and German was an official language until 1990, though Namibian Black German (which linguists debate whether it is a dialect or a pidgin) is now nearly extinct. Most German Namibians today would speak Afrikaans on an everyday basis and have a strong grasp of English too.

But what does the average Namibian on the street know of Germany? In the above video a man goes about asking precisely that. Particularly interesting is that moneyed Frankfurt seems to be much better known than the political capital of Berlin. If only there was a video asking Germans what they know of Namibia…

Published at 11:30 am on Wednesday 17 April 2019. Categories: Errant Thoughts Germany Tags: , .
Comments

What a lovely video!

— Flavio de Alencar 22 Apr 2019 4:03 am

Like the late-night vox pop bits along the same theme one sees here in the States every now and then, I suspect this was edited to maximize comedic value.

— K. Dontoh 10 May 2019 4:21 am
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