Henning Melber

Nordic Africa Institute | NAI

While debates are now common in France and Britain over the impact of empire on former colonies and colonising societies, German imperialism has only more recently become a topic of wider public interest. In 2015, the German government belatedly and half-heartedly conceded that the extermination policies carried out over 1904–8 in the settler colon...

In 2015 the German government acknowledged that the Empire committed genocide in its colony South West Africa, known since its independence as Namibia. This acknowledgement marked a new reference point in how to engage with colonial crimes. Since then, Germany has fallen short of bearing full and unconditional responsibility for and recognition of...

En 2015, l’Allemagne reconnaît que les formes et les conséquences de la guerre coloniale dans le Sud-Ouest africain (aujourd’hui République de Namibie) sont assimilables à un génocide. Les négociations bilatérales avec le gouvernement namibien ont abouti en mai 2021 à une déclaration commune. Les principaux organismes représentant les descendants d...

This open access book presents contributions to decolonize development studies. It seeks to promote and sustain new forms of solidarity and conviviality that work towards achieving social justice.Recognising global poverty and inequalities as historic injustices, the book addresses how these can be challenged through teaching, research, and engagem...

The COVID-19 pandemic, which led to almost seven million deaths (WHO in Statistics on COVID-19 , 2022), revealed the world to be even more complex and unequal than previously thought. It brought to the fore the need to rethink the ‘fault lines’ since global inequalities had clearly worsened (Taylor and Tremblay in Decolonising Knowledge for Develop...

Until the early 1960s the Windhoek Main Location (now called the Old Location) was the biggest African urban settlement in South West Africa/Namibia. Being situated close to the centre of town, residents had easy access to their places of work. However, with the further entrenchment of spatial segregation under apartheid, plans for a relocation int...

Middle classes in the Global South have become topical. They were considered mainly by economists in development-oriented institutions and praised as a factor contributing to economic development and democratic forces. We recapitulate some of the trends and remind the reader of earlier debates. We take stock of the variety of contributions and poin...

Citizenship is a universal legal concept and norm. But its meaning and impact differ. Its codification and implementation are shaped by historical trajectories, political systems and state/government relations with members of society. State policy affects perceptions of citizenship and civic behaviour by those governed. This paper engages with curr...

This volume deals with the relationship between constitutionalism and economic growth in Africa and addresses five questions: (1) In the constitutional reforms of the 1990s and thereafter, did constitutions also reflect the shift towards a market economy through the protection of property and freedom of contract? (2) Given that agriculture and extr...

In 2015 Germany admitted that the warfare in its colony South West Africa was tantamount to genocide. Bilateral negotiations with the Namibian government resulted in May 2021 in a so-called reconciliation agreement. This is not yet ratified. This article critically examines its limitations. It explains why this – despite being a step in the right d...

Namibia’s National Assembly and Presidential Elections in November 2019 documented for the first time a decline in the hegemonic status of the former liberation movement, SWAPO. This culminated since then in an unforeseen loss of support in the Regional and Local Authorities Elections of November 2020. Most municipalities and towns are now under th...

Since the early 21st century, the middle classes of the Global South became a focus of attention. However, a precarious minimum income was all it took to be considered middle class. But who exactly is middle class? As the term is applied, it should certainly not be confused with Marxist theories of class. It refers to a socio-economic status somewh...

With Independence in 1990, Namibia inherited a socio-economic structure that, in terms of land distribution, had anchored the colonial divide and rule under Apartheid: a white-owned commercial agricultural sector contrasted with communal areas based on regional-ethnic criteria. Constitutional principles accepted as the final step towards Independen...

Namibia has been widely perceived as a successful case of negotiated independence, governed since 1990 by the former liberation movement. For a quarter of a century the movement turned party expanded its political dominance. Of lately, this hegemony showed cracks. The credibility and reputation, and hence the trust into those in government has been...

The Regional and Local Authority Elections on 25 November 2020 have changed Namibia's political landscape. Voters exercised their right to make political choices. The trend, first seen in the National Assembly and Presidential Elections of November 2019, signalled a seismic shift in voting behaviour and patterns. Namibians are entering a new era, a...

The overwhelming dominance of the former liberation movement the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in terms of electoral support since independence resulted in a de facto one-party rule in Namibia’s democracy for the last 30 years. This has, in democracy theories, been labelled as competitive authoritarianism, and made it easy for SWA...

This book is the outcome of the sixth Stellenbosch Annual Seminar on Constitutionalism in Africa (SASCA). The theme of the seminar was ‘Democracy, elections and Constitutionalism in Africa.’ The participants examined how the fledgling foundations of African constitutionalism could sail through the stormy seas of authoritarian revival and prevent th...

Under the presidency of Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe’s foreign policy is characterized by the desire to ‘re-engage’ with the West with a view to securing the removal of sanctions and encouraging investment. In this, it has received the backing of the African Union and Southern African Development Community states. Simultaneously, the violence of the Mnangag...

In den letzten Jahrzehnten hat die Frage, wie Gesellschaften mit der Vergangenheit umgehen, bei politischen Akteuren, in der Zivilgesellschaft und in der Wissenschaft zunehmende Beachtung gefunden. Diese Publikation trägt zu einem Dialog über Erfahrungen aus transnationaler und transregionaler Perspektive in Deutschland, Kolumbien und Südafrika bei...

The so-called Old Location was established during the early years of the 20 th century for most of the African population groups living in Windhoek, the capital of then South West Africa. It confined them to a space separate from but in close vicinity to the city and was the biggest urban settlement for Africans in the country. As from 1960 the res...

This volume is the result of the editor's fellowship at the Wallenberg Research Centre of the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies, which ended with an international workshop on the subject, held in September 2011. The contributions engage from different angles and perspectives with a wider range of case studies and thematic issues observing...

South Africans often proudly proclaim that our Constitution is one of the most progressive in the world. Yet if you ask most South Africans how they really feel about gay rights, abortion and the death penalty, their answers, more often than not, contradict the values enshrined in the Constitution. (Ahmed 2014) This is the sobering assessment of th...

This chapter presents an overview on domestic policy, foreign affairs and socioeconomic developments in Namibia during the year 2019.

In many African countries, citizenship offers civil rights to those included. At the same time many, especially youth, migrants and other marginalised groups, are often not equally recognised in the social contract between state and citizen. They do not have the same access to justice, social protection and welfare services. This policy note engage...

The National Assembly and Presidential election results of 27 November 2019 suggest a turning point in Namibia’s democracy. For the first time since the UN-supervised elections prior to Independence in 1990, the dominant party and its presidential candidate lost votes. Despite remaining firmly in political power, the emergence of new political acto...

Rachel Spronk, Ambiguous Pleasures: sexuality and middle class self-perceptions in Nairobi. New York NY and Oxford: Berghahn Books (hb US$135/£99 – 978 0 85745 478 2; pb US$34.95/£27.95 – 978 1 78238 530 1). 2012/2014, xi + 310 pp. - Volume 90 Issue 3 - Henning Melber

These Reflections present an overview and take stock of the German-Namibian bilateral negotiations how to come to terms with the genocide committed by the German empire in the colony South West Africa between 1904 and 1908. The main actors and their specific positions/approaches are identified since in 2015 a spokesperson of the German foreign mini...

This study was initiated and conducted by the newly established Swedish Development Research Network (SweDev) with support from the Expert Group for Aid Studies (EBA). The study has sought to map the Swedish development research community, and to develop a better understanding of the discipline’s current standing as a research field and its connect...

The South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO of Namibia) had a unique status among anti-colonial movements. Fighting South Africa’s illegal occupation of South West Africa/Namibia, dubbed by the United Nations as a “trust betrayed,” it resorted to armed struggle in the 1960s. SWAPO was subsequently recognized as “the sole and authentic repre...

For the first time, the former liberation movement SWAPO as government and its presidential candidate have recorded a loss in voter support. The National Assembly and Presidential election results of 27 November 2019 were the worst since Independence and suggest a turning point in Namibia’s democracy. This analysis presents some factors which might...

https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9783657702640/BP000015.xml

In line with the encyclopaedic scope of development sociology, this book offers perspectives on key issues relating to societal processes. These encompass the shaping of everyday life, intergenerational relations in diverse societies, fine-grained comparative analyses of trajectories of violence and the impact of urbanisation in conceptions of free...

In line with the encyclopaedic scope of development sociology, this book offers perspectives on key issues relating to societal processes. These encompass the shaping of everyday life, intergenerational relations in diverse societies, fine-grained comparative analyses of trajectories of violence and the impact of urbanisation in conceptions of free...

This is an edited volume in German, presenting the variety of aspects relating to the German-African relations. Chapters focus on the official German foreign and security policy on Africa, development policy, gender and energy aspects, as well as the migration policy. Other chapters focus on the history of African Studies in Germany, African litera...

The chapter revisits the human rights policy dimension declared as an integral part of South Africa’s foreign policy under the Mandela government, reviews developments and trends since then and critically examines the declared notions with the actual policy. With reference to certain issues and cases the discrepancy is documented. It then scrutiniz...

This articles summaries the mediation strategy by the United Nations second Secretary-General. It stresses his conviction that a true dialogue is essential to find a lasting solution to conflicts. It offers an overview on "the Hammarskjöld approach" to mediation, peace building and peacemaking.

This chapter outlines the rationale and context that motivates the discussions in the book, and also summarizes the current literature on Dag Hammarskjöld. It points to the differences in analyses, perceptions and judgments concerning his influence and role as UN Secretary-General by looking at the potential flaws in methodology and assessment of e...

This chapter presents a summary background to the influences Dag Hammarskjöld was exposed to by his family during his upbringing, and the influence his father had as a Prime Minister appointed by the King during World War I. It summarizes his influential role in bringing about the Swedish welfare state as an economist (without a party membership) i...

This chapter presents the circumstances of Hammarskjöld’s death on his way to Ndola in Northern Rhodesia for a meeting with Tshombe in a plane crash that also killed 15 others on board. Preliminary findings and evidence – which suggests that this occurrence was in fact not an accident, but rather the result of direct impact by another plane in the...

This chapter opens with an overview of how the Cold War entered Africa and its impact on the UN Member States as well as the colonized countries seeking self-determination. It introduces the UN developmental agencies and Hammarskjöld’s approach and understanding of development, not least with regard to the role of ECOSOC. It also shows his ability...

This chapter uses the case studies of the Suez crisis (1956) and the UN mandate for peacekeeping in the Congo (1960-61) to illustrate and analyze in detail the Hammarskjöld diplomacy within his value-based framework, and the context of the rivalry between the Western and Eastern bloc as well as the non-aligned countries of the Global South emerging...

This final chapter returns to the balancing act in assessing the difference an individual in charge of a global governance body can make and where his or her limitations are depending on the institutional context and constraints. It argues that values matter and that choices are not pre-determined by origin, despite the impact of social influences...

Firstly, this chapter illustrates the specific constellation of interests within the UN Security Council, due to which Dag Hammarskjöld became the accepted candidate to succeed Trygve Lie as second Secretary-General of the United Nations as ‘the unknown Swede’. It then summarizes his convictions, which were already internalized when he was a civil...

This chapter revisits the normative frameworks on which the establishment of the United Nations were based after World War II. It includes discussion about the Atlantic Charter as a precursor to the UN Charter, and recapitulates the differences in interpretation of self-determination and sovereignty between the Western states and the nationalist mo...

This article engages with the limits to liberation in Southern African societies under former liberation movements. It argues that the policies executed in the new societies are still infected by substantial elements of the old power structures and mindsets claimed to be left behind. The five former anti-colonial movements in Angola (since 1974), M...

Since independence in March 1990, the unequal distribution and ownership of land as a leftover of colonial-era dispossession and appropriation has been a major issue of sociopolitical contestation in Namibia. This article summarises the structural colonial legacy and the efforts made towards land reform. Reference points are the country’s first nat...

In 1953 Dag Hammarskjöld became the second Secretary-General of the United Nations—the highest international civil servant. Before his mission was cut short by a 1961 plane crash in then Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia), he used his office to act on the basis of anti-hegemonic values, including solidarity and recognition of otherness. The dubious c...

This chapter analyzes why secessionist movements on both sides of the Namibia-Zambia border have—despite shared roots—so far never joined forces in a united cause of pan-Lozi nationalism. We outline the historical processes through which the Lozi kingdom was partitioned and gradually transformed into Barotseland and the Caprivi Strip during the col...

The chapter engages with challenges facing genuine research collaboration and knowledge production in a North–South interaction with particular reference to Development Studies. It maps asymmetries in scholarly interaction generally and examines African realities specifically. Partnership limitations are critically explored by identifying some stru...

Chinese-Namibian relations are by both governments classified as an "all-weather friendship". Based on the Chinese support to the anticolonial liberation struggle, the strong political and economic links emerged since the turn of the century. The Chinese presence in Namibia has added to the new socioeconomic realities to an extent, which provokes s...

Anti-colonial movements secured political power as governments in countries of Southern Africa. Populist discourses, which reinforce the patriotic history and heroic narratives of a ‘big men’ syndrome, are part of their political culture retaining continued legitimacy, not least in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, where national sovereignty was...

The annual overview of events and developments in Africa (on 2017)

StandpunktE RoSa LuxEmbuRg Stiftung 9 / 2018 Derzeit wird in deutschen Landen darum gestritten, ob und in welcher Form sich der kolonialen Gewaltgeschichte des Deutschen Kaiserreichs erinnert wird. Damit ist die Frage verbunden, ob es eine angemessene Form der Auf-und Verar-beitung gibt. Dem halten wir die These entgegen, dass weiterhin von kolonia...

The following arguments are in support of a “renegotiation of the terms of knowledge production” (Horáková 2016: 47). By doing so, this essay sides with demands by others (for example, Keim et al 2014) that “the need to move towards non-hegemonic forms of cooperation between academic realms and forms of knowledge is a practical-material as well as...