Walking – Decolonizing - Memory – Storytelling This website represents the outcome of a Walking Workshop conducted by the Visual Arts Department of the University of Namibia and the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Research of the University of Bremen in September 2019. The participating students and staff spent two days enquiring together about questions of decolonization, memory and storytelling in Windhoek and Katutura. Walking was applied as an explicit methodology for processes of decolonization.
Within Anthropology and interdisciplinary Humanities, Walking has always been a method of classical fieldwork that helps to explore the different geographies and sites of a field. Today Walking has become a central tool within Sensory Ethnography – one that activates all senses of the body for the complex and differentiated perceptions of the (micro-)worlds that we encounter during fieldwork. We see walking as a special technique of moving the human body, involving the differnt senses such as seeing, touching, listening and smelling. Together with these physical processes, the human mind is activated so that thoughts and emotions of our daily lives are rising and internal or external images may stimulate us to remember certain situations and events. These streams of remembrance and imagination are part of the individual un-conscious, but can be shared in communication with others during walking.
The outcome of this Walking Workshop are seven personal stories that combine visual and written narratives reflecting the personal experiences of each workshop participant. The collaboration included Rosa Persendt and Frauke Stegmann, of the University of Namibia as well as Cordula Weisskoeppel, Martin Gruber and Franziska Redeker of the University of Bremen. The group was complemented by Loredana Pelozzi of Cardfiff University and Olivia Persendt of the University of Cape Town.
Workshop Poster – Call for Participants
Opening Speech by Dr. Martha Akawa-Shikufa, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, UNAM
Report about UNAM / University of Bremen collaboration
Introduction to the method of Walking by Cordula Weisskoeppel
Participants
Martin Gruber
Olivia Persendt
Rosa Persendt
Loredana Polezzi
Franziska Redeker
Frauke Stegmann
Cordula Weißköppel
Website creation: Martin Gruber & Lennert Wendt