„Even Friday ́s sun sets“


This is a Nama-phrase.

It refers to a specific Friday.

It was a traumatic Friday, a Friday full of fear - a day on which dignity and pride were traded for life.

This Friday the men of the village were lured into the church.  

-to pray-

but they were surrounded by german soldiers of the Schutztruppe by machine gun of iron and taken hostage within the holy walls.

The praying did the women . . . and even this day took an end with the setting sun.

however the certainty of fear remained . . .

Numerous books have been written about the history of German South West Africa. However, how the unspeakable consequences of human and land loss were experienced by Namibians who lived and died in this period is not well known and largely underestimated or not even given any notice.

For several months I traveled Namibia on a search for history and stories related to the genocidal crimes committed by the german colonial rule against the Herero and Nama people. With me I had a self-made, portable photo-studio and my journey led me to different towns and villages all around the country.

So arose the very special occasion for me to meet people who can still recall what happened to their ancestors. Getting to know stories and reflections about the past, which shapes today the physical and psychological inheritance of the descendants.

My work seeks not to tell about general history, neither to follow or express a political statement. My aim is to portray pieces of reality related to the genocide with the attempt of tracing a more human understanding of the topic.

 The work consists of living voices full of pieces of humanity longing for acknowledgment and recognition.

I have been navigating through a web of facts, emotions, politics and sometimes even denial. I see this work as more than a collection of data and faces about a distant past from a distant place… in fact it means engaging with stories and history that do not only belong to the past, but also to the present and a time to come.