Well, it’s technically not too windy but Windy Windhoek does make for a nice alliterative title for the post – if you get what I mean :). While it might not be too windy, Windhoek is quite the hilly city which can only be good for my love of walking. I arrived in the storied city last Saturday 26 April after more than 24 hours of travel from my front door in Wageningen, Netherlands to the door of my self-catering apartment in Windhoek, Namibia. A journey that took me from Amsterdam – Rome (busy due to Pope Francis’ funeral happening), Rome – Addis Ababa and then Addis Ababa – Windhoek. Yes, you might wonder why I choose such a tortuous route when more simply routes are available. For one there is no direct flight from Amsterdam to Windhoek and then also I was constrained by time and cost. I know that this fieldwork is part of my ERC Starting Grant but we can’t spend the little budget on some expensive flight when the real work hasn’t even started.

This is my first time in Namibia and so obviously the first time in Windhoek. My first two days have already been intense and insightful – thanks in no small part to my wonderful MSc thesis student Henrike who has already been here for almost a month now undertaking fieldwork for her thesis project that I am supervising. She made sure I could hit the ground running. My visit here is to conduct reconnaissance, make contacts with key stakeholders, have a psychogeographical feel for the city and it’s entangled colonial heritage and cultural memory politics and lay the groundwork that will ease the burden for my PhD student who will be researching the Namibia-Brazil-Germany case study of the FRICTIONS project.

My impressions are many but these will come in future installments of the NAMIB NOTES series where I offer some short reflections on different aspects of my field visit. On Saturday evening and on Sunday, I already undertook some self-guided walking tour of some the key sites related to our FRICTIONS project. For the next episode of the NAMIB NOTES, I will share my reflection on the Sunday visit to Katutura where I had some tasty Namibian cuisine for lunch at the Oshetu Market before we went deepeer in to the township to hear story from a resident. For now, I have to prepare for the last minute seminar event happening tomorrow at the University of Namibia which the excellent Dr. Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete helped me put together at such short notice.