The mass killing of Herero/Ovaherero and Nama/Namaqua peoples carried out by German colonial forces between 1904 and 1908 in Namibia (then German South West Africa) is often described as a “forgotten genocide” (e.g., Erichsen and Olusoga 2011).1 When this kind of rhetorical trope gets employed in the art world, it often casts the artist as what Okwui Enwezor calls an “agent of memory,” a figure who rescues forgotten historical traces from a mausoleum-like archive and then presents them to a hitherto ignorant public (2008: 46). Black Box/Chambre Noire (2005) by the South African artist William Kentridge is perhaps the most well-known artwork to address the genocide. It operates within the understanding of the relationships among artist, archive, and audience outlined by Enwezor (Dubin 2007: 130). Commissioned by the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, the installation takes the form of a miniature proscenium with mechanized figures and an animated film. Visual...
Remembering the Herero-Nama Genocide in Namibia
Paul Wilson is an associate professor of art history at Ithaca College in New York, where he teaches contemporary art and museum studies. His research focuses on art after 1990, particularly in Southern Africa and the Nordic region. He was a Fulbright Lecturer/Researcher at the University of Namibia in 2018. [email protected]
Paul Wilson is an associate professor of art history at Ithaca College in New York, where he teaches contemporary art and museum studies. His research focuses on art after 1990, particularly in Southern Africa and the Nordic region. He was a Fulbright Lecturer/Researcher at the University of Namibia in 2018. [email protected]
Paul Wilson; Remembering the Herero-Nama Genocide in Namibia. African Arts 2023; 56 (1): 62–81. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00698
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