Shows
BAB Interviews and ConversationsDoek! Reflections by Rémy Ngamije on becoming a writer and founding a literary magazine in Namibia
Doek! is an online literary magazine published in Windhoek since 2019. It has brought to the front new fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art —to much acclaim. Experimental and daring in various ways, its beautifully curated editions have enriched Africa’s literary and visual landscape quite unexpectedly. Early on, Rémy Ngamije, one of the co-founders, invited the Basler Afrika Bibliographien to contribute glimpses from its archival holdings and within the curatorial frame of providing “a window to the past”. After a series of historical photography explorations, we now jointly curate past Namibian voices in aural graphs.
In this extract from a public...2025-02-2515 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsKritische Rückblicke: Barbara Müller über Solidarität und Freundschaft mit Befreiungsbewegungen in der Schweiz und in Zi
Barbara Müller fungierte von 1973 bis 1988 als Präsidentin des Komitees «kämpfendes afrika» (ka), das 1971 als politische Solidaritätsorganisation Medic’ Angola begann. Zunächst eng mit dem maoistisch geprägten «proletarischen Internationalismus» der Kommunistischen Part der Schweiz verbunden, konnte das sich seit 1976 «kämpfendes afrika» nennende Komitee besonders enge Kontakte zu einigen Befreiungsbewegungen im südlichen Afrika aufbauen. Barbara Müller reflektiert im Gespräch mit dem BAB Archivar Dag Henrichsen zunächst über die Bedeutung von Freundschafts- und Solidaritätsbeziehungen mit afrikanischen Bewegungen in einem schwierigen politischem Umfeld (zu letzterem siehe auch den früheren podcast mit Barbara Müller vom 9. März 202...2024-09-2021 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsLiberation Politics and Archives. A Conversation with Journalist Ruth WeissArchive talk at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien (2013)
In view of South African journalist Ruth Weiss’s 90th birthday in 2014, BAB’ s archivists invited her in 2013 to a public conversation in the series “Archivgespräche” – “Archive talk”. In this podcast episode, conducted in both German and English, we provide an extract from the live-recorded conversation held in Basel. It includes introductions to Ruth Weiss’s collections by the archivists Dag Henrichsen and Susanne Hubler Baier, followed by historical interview snippets from her impressive tape collection and her reflections.
The conversation took place as part of the preparations for the BAB exhibition “’My very first questio...2024-07-2629 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsKritische Rückblicke: Solidaritäts- und Anti-Apartheidsengagement des Afrika-Komitees, BaselGertrud Baud und Hans-Ueli Stauffer ziehen Resümee
1973 als Teil einer Solidaritätsbewegung gegen Kolonialismus, Rassismus und Ausbeutung in der Schweiz entstanden, konzentrierte sich das Afrika-Komitee in Basel auf eine kritische Solidaritäts- und Informationsarbeit mit und zur Zivilgesellschaft in Afrika. Nach 50 Jahren löst sich das Komitee 2024 auf. Mitbegründer:innen Gertrud Baud und Hans-Ueli Stauffer reflektierten bereits 2018 in einem Gespräch mit BAB Archivar Dag Henrichsen über damalige Themensetzungen in der Schweizer Zivilgesellschaft und im «Bulletin» des Komitees, weiterhin «brennende» Themen mit Bezug auf den afrikanischen Kontinent sowie enttäuschende post-koloniale Entwicklungen.
Dieser Gesprächsauszug ergänzt eine Reihe von vorh...2024-06-1421 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsTuli Mekondjo‘s art performance „Ousie Martha“A conversation with the artist on the reverberations from the colonial image archive
The Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo reflects in this conversation about her work in the colonial image archives of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien and how this led her to initiate new artistic practices and conceptualise and design a new art performance. «Ousie Martha» references generations of African laundry women in Namibia as wage labourers in white settler homes, often depicted in settler family photography. Inventing an outdoor print technique with copies of one particular photograph of a laundry woman in Okahandja in 1953 from the BAB photo archives, Tu...2023-10-1212 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSolidaritäts- und Anti-Apartheidbewegungen in der Schweiz – „kämpfendes afrika“ (Zürich)Barbara Müller, das Komitee „kämpfendes afrika“ und staatliche Eingriffe in der Schweiz, 1971-1988
Barbara Müller fungierte von 1973 bis 1988 als Präsidentin des Komitees «kämpfendes afrika» (ka), das 1971 in Zürich als politische Solidaritätsorganisation Medic’ Angola begann. Zunächst eng mit dem maoistisch geprägten «proletarischen Internationalismus» der Kommunistischen Partei der Schweiz verbunden, konnte das sich seit 1976 ka nennende Komitee besonders enge Kontakte zu einigen antikolonialen Befreiungsbewegungen im südlichen Afrika aufbauen. Innerhalb der Schweizer Solidaritätslandschaft entfaltetet das ka eine besonders intensive und programmatische Informations- und Veranstaltungsarbeit und schuf alternative Lobby- und Fund Raising Netze.
Als Prä...2023-03-0924 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSolidaritäts- und Anti-Apartheidbewegungen in der Schweiz – Komitee Südliches Afrika (Zürich)Susy Greuter und ihr Afrika-Engagement in Zürich in den 1970er Jahren
Susy Greuter erinnert sich im Gespräch mit dem BAB Archivar Dag Henrichsen an ihr vielfältiges
Engagement zum afrikanischen Kontinent, zunächst als Studentin der Soziologie und Ethnologie an
der Universität Zürich und im Komitee Südliches Afrika (1975). Das Komitee Südliches Afrika verstand
sich als Abspaltung des maoistisch ausgerichteten «kämpfenden afrika» und war nur eines von vielen
Komitees in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz. Susy Greuter bettet ihr studentisches Engagement in
eine Vielzahl von Aktivitäten in weiteren (Frauen-) Befreiungs- und Solidaritätsbewegungen und
Initiativen i...2022-12-2120 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSolidaritäts- und Anti-Apartheid-Bewegungen in der Schweiz – Südafrika-BoykottBeatrice Felber Rochat und ihr Engagement in Basel in den 1980er Jahren
Beatrice Felber Rochat erinnert sich im Gespräch mit dem BAB Archivar Dag Henrichsen an ihr frühes Engagement in der von christlichen Frauen gegründeten transnationalen Solidaritätsgruppe «Südafrika-Boykott». Die Boykott-Gruppe organisierte gegen Ende der 1970er Jahre öffentliche Anti-Apartheid Aktionen in Basel, trat für den Boykott von Konsumprodukten und von multinationalen Firmen und Banken, die mit dem Apartheidregime Beziehungen unterhielten, ein und solidarisierte sich mit der afrikanischen Bevölkerung. Felber reflektiert über konkrete Solidaritäts- und Boykottarbeit in den 1980er Jahren wie auch über die Staatsobs...2022-07-1416 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSolidaritäts- und Anti-Apartheid-Bewegungen in der Schweiz – Das Afrika-Komitee BaselGertrud Baud und ihr Engagement im Afrika-Komitee, Basel
1973 als Teil einer Solidaritätsbewegung gegen Kolonialismus, Rassismus und Ausbeutung in der Schweiz entstanden, konzentriert sich das Afrika-Komitee in Basel bis heute auf eine kritische Solidaritäts- und Informationsarbeit mit und zur Zivilgesellschaft in Afrika. In diesem Auszug aus einem Gespräch mit dem BAB Archivar Dag Henrichsen vom April 2016 reflektiert die Mitbegründerin des Komitee’s, Gertud Baud, über die Aufbauarbeit und Schweizer Solidaritätsnetze in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren sowie zeitgenössische Positionen und Ideale. Baud skizziert Veränderungen in der Arbeit des Afrika-Komitees und postkoloniale Entwicklungen und Konsequenzen.
Dieser Ges...2022-05-1016 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSolidaritäts- und Anti-Apartheid-Bewegungen in der Schweiz – Das Afrika-Komitee BaselHans-Ulrich Stauffer und die Anfänge des Afrika-Komitees, Basel
1973 als Teil einer Solidaritätsbewegung gegen Kolonialismus, Rassismus und Ausbeutung in der Schweiz entstanden, konzentriert sich das Afrika-Komitee in Basel bis heute auf eine kritische Solidaritäts- und Informationsarbeit mit und zur Zivilgesellschaft in Afrika. In diesem Auszug aus einem Gespräch mit dem BAB Archivar Dag Henrichsen vom November 2015 reflektiert der Mitbegründer des Komitees, Hans-Ulrich Stauffer, über die Aufbauarbeit und Schweizer Solidaritätsnetze in den 1970er Jahren sowie zeitgenössische politisch-ideologische Positionen. Stauffer gab 1974 die Schriften des kapverdischen Intellektuellen Amilcar Cabral in deutscher Sprache im Berliner Rotbuch Verlag heraus...2022-03-2234 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsThe Day Mandela is arrested – Lewis NkosiReading and conversation with Lewis Nkosi, Basel 1999
Lewis Nkosi (1936–2010), born in Embo (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), was an acclaimed journalist, writer and professor of literature in various African and European countries as well as in the USA. Living in exile since 1960, he resided in Basel between 1997 and 2010. On 11th November 1999 he gave a reading from his yet unpublished novel “Mandela’s Ego” (2006) at the BAB. In the extracts of the audio recording presented here, he explains his motivation to write about ‘the day Mandela is arrested’, reads from his novel and reflects about the challenges of also writing in his mother tongu...2022-02-1823 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSnippets from the Audio Archive VI – Carol and Ron GestwickiAudio letters from Carol and Ron Gestwicki, Gobabis 1965
Carol and Ron Gestwicki, a couple from northern America, worked for the Anglican Church in Namibia from 1964 to 1966. Ron worked as a priest in Windhoek’s African township, the Old Location, and as such worked closely with oppositional leaders such as Hosea Kutako and Clemens Kapuuo. Carol, a trained nurse, gave courses in the Red Cross clinic of the Old Location and also evening and Sunday classes for the Anglican church congregations. For a while they lived in a caravan on the outskirts of Gobabis in eastern Namibia in order to provide se...2021-11-1910 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSnippets from the Audio Archive V – Freedom Nyamubaya and Ruth WeissFreedom Tichaona Nyamubaya in conversation with journalist Ruth Weiss, 6 May 1982
Freedom Tichaona Nyamubaya (1958 – 2015) was a Zimbabwean freedom fighter, activist and poet. In 1975, she left what was then Rhodesia to join the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army (ZANLA) in Mozambique. She achieved the rank of Female Field Operation Commander and was elected the Secretary for Education in the first ZANU Women's League conference in 1979. After independence she worked as a rural development, gender and peace activist as well as a farmer, dancer and poet.
Ruth Weiss (*1924), who grew up in South Africa, was one of the few prolific female jo...2021-10-1512 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsZur Geschichte der BAB, mit Albert M. DebrunnerGespräch von Dag Henrichsen und Daniela Schlettwein-Gsell mit Albert M. Debrunner über die BAB in den frühen 1990er Jahren, Juni 2018
Die BAB blicken 2021 auf 50 Jahre Institutsgeschichte zurück. 1971 von Carl Schlettwein als Bibliothek und Verlag gegründet, um Publikationen insbesondere zu Namibia unabhängig von kolonialen Rahmenbedingungen zugänglich zu machen, gewährleistet die Carl Schlettwein Stiftung seit 1994 das Bestehen der BAB als Namibia Resource Centre und Southern Africa Library, inklusive eines Archivs. In dem Gespräch von Dag Henrichsen und Daniela Schlettwein-Gsell mit Albert M. Debrunner im Juni 2018 erzählt Debrunner aus der Zeit der frühen 1990er...2021-09-0211 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSnippets from the Audio Archive IV – Sister Janice McLaughlin and Ruth WeissSister Janice in conversation with journalist Ruth Weiss, 30th July 1982
In this extract from an interview Ruth Weiss conducted with Maryknoll Sister Janice McLaughlin (1942–2021) in Harare (Zimbabwe) on 30th July 1982, Sister Janice reflects on her decision to move to Rhodesia where she worked for the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in 1977. Documenting atrocities of the Zimbabwean war of liberation she was arrested and deported, only to continue to work from Mozambique. After Rhodesia gained its independence in 1980, Sister Janice returned to Zimbabwe to work as an education consultant in the President's Office. She continued to work in Zimbabwe until 1992 an...2021-08-0614 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSnippets from the Audio Archive III - Kenneth Kaunda and Ruth WeissKenneth Kaunda in conversation with journalist Ruth Weiss, 30 March 1977
Kenneth Kaunda (1924–2021) was the first State President of independent Zambia. On March 30, 1977 Ruth Weiss conducted an interview with Kaunda in Lusaka on the occasion of the visit of Nikolai Podgorny, then President of the Soviet Union. In this extract from the interview, Kaunda provides an assessment of the Cold War situation in southern Africa, Zambia’s position as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and the supportive role of the Soviet Union for Zambia.2021-07-0209 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSnippets from the Audio Archive II - Mike Muendane and Vuyisile DlovaEvent of the solidarity committee “kämpfendes afrika” with PAC representatives Mike Muendane and Vuyisile Dlova, Zurich, March 1980
In the 1970s and 1980s, the political solidarity committee “kämpfendes afrika” (fighting africa) in Zurich engaged in the support for African liberation movements. Its archives of papers, images and sound recordings are today housed at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien. The extracts of a recording presented here document an event of the “ka” on 1st March 1980 in the Zurich Volkshaus. Mike Muendane and Vuyisile Dlova speak as representatives of the South African liberation movement Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) to the audience...2021-06-0424 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsReturning Home - Lewis NkosiConversation with Lewis Nkosi, South African journalist, writer and professor of literature, November 1999
Lewis Nkosi (1936–2010), born in Embo (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), was an acclaimed journalist, writer and professor of literature in various African and European countries as well as in the USA. Living in exile since 1960, he resided in Basel between 1997 and 2010. On 11th November 1999 he gave a reading from his novels at the BAB. In this extract of the ensuing conversation, he talks about his identity as a writer and the experience of arriving in exile in London in 1960 and returning to South Africa in 1991.
The fo...2021-05-0413 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSnippets from the Audio Archive I - Libertina Amathila and Ruth WeissThe Ruth Weiss Collection - Interview with Libertina Amathila, September 1979
In this extract from an interview by Ruth Weiss on September 28, 1979 the then “first and only” Namibian medical doctor, Libertina Amathila, talks about studying in exile and becoming a doctor as well as women’s education, gender issues and life in the Namibian refugee camps in Angola and Zambia. Amathila, who had fled South African ruled Namibia in the early 1960s, became a high-ranking SWAPO official. Ruth Weiss interviewed her most possibly in Lusaka where SWAPO had its headquarters in the 1970s.2021-03-1619 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsAfrican Collections and Decoloniality - Nashilongweshipwe MushaandjaConversation with Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, Namibian performance artist and scholar, September 2019
Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja, doctoral student at the University of Cape Town, performed the “Ondaanisa yo Pomudhime” (Dance of the Rubber Tree) at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien and inside its archives shortly before this conversation took place with the BAB archivist. He reflects about the challenges of “decolonizing the archive” and his roles as a performance artist in “cleansing a space which is speaking to ghosts.”.2020-11-1309 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsNamibian historiography - Vilho ShigwedhaInterview with Dr Vilho Shigwedha from the University of Namibia, August 2015
Vilho Shigwedha is a senior lecturer at the Department of Geography, History and Environmental Studies at the Unversity of Namibia in Windhoek. He, Martha Akawa and a group of students visited the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in August 2015. In this interview he talks about becoming a historian and researching the controversial history of the Cassinga massacre in southern Angola in 1978 during the Namibian liberation struggle.
The following book is available in the book shop of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien:
2020-10-1614 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsSouth African history research - Patrick HarriesConversation with Prof Dr Patrick Harries from the Universities of Cape Town and of Basel, December 2015
In this extract of a conversation with the BAB archivist about his audio research archive, Patrick Harries, who passed away in 2016, reflects about his early career as a historian, researcher and lecturer at the University of Cape Town in the 1970s and 1980s
The following book is available in the book shop of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien:
2020-09-1113 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsBittercomix - Anton KannemeyerTalk with Anton Kannemeyer from Cape Town
In this extract from a BAB Lunch Talk, the South African comix artist Anton Kannemeyer reflects about the early history of comix and cartoons in South Africa, his own career and the history of the controversial Bittercomix No 1, published in 1992
The following books are available in the book shop of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien:
2020-05-1215 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsMozambican film - João RibeiroInterview with João Ribeiro from Kanema Produçoes Mozambique
João Ribeiro is manager, documentalist and producer for film and TV production at Kanema Produçoes Maputo and independent film director in Mozambique. He visited the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in September 2015 at the occasion of showing his film „O Ultimo Voo do Flamingo“ in the BAB film series „mozambique in motion“ (German Flyer, PDF, 321 KB). In this interview he talks about the challenges of movie making in his country and state funding for cultural activities in Mozambique
2020-05-1118 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsNamibian historiography - Martha AkawaInterview with Dr Martha Akawa from the University of Namibia, August 2015
Martha Akawa is the Head of the Department of Geography, History and Environmental Studies at the Unversity of Namibia in Windhoek. She and a group of students visited the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in August 2015. In this interview she talks about becoming a historian, her research interests and history debates in Namibia.
The following books are available in the book shop of the Basler Afrika Bibliographien:
2020-05-1018 min
BAB Interviews and ConversationsTrailerIntroduction
Introducing Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB). The podcast series "Interviews and Conversations" features past and recent interviews with scholars and BAB guests as well as selected recordings from the BAB audio archive.2020-05-0900 min
Africa Past & Present » AfripodEpisode 73:Dag Henrichsen (Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Basel) on protest and prophecy among Herero intellectuals in 1940s Namibia. Also discussed are the 1904-5 German genocide, construction of Herero modernity, private archives, popular culture, Namibian historiography, and how Namibians conceptualized a "South African Empire."2013-04-1730 min