Africa 2001

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Windhoek is a charming city. I had visited Windhoek in December 1999. On the 2001 trip, after weeks of travelling to new places, it was comforting to get back to Windhoek and see familiar buildings and streets.

On this holiday, I stayed only briefly in Windhoek. I spent one night there on the way to Etosha National Park, and a second night which was the last night of my holiday.

The main park in Independence Avenue, Windhoek

The city park, in Independence Avenue, is a favourite spot of mine. I spent a lot of time before Christmas and on Christmas Day 1999, in this park. At that time it was lit up with quite splendid Christmas decorations.

In July, in mid-winter, it was just as inviting.

The Namibians seem to be a remarkably tolerant people. Namibia was colonized by the Germans in the 19th century and by the late 19th century it was a formal protectorate of Germany, known as German South West Africa. The administrators developed the Schutztruppe which fought a bloody war against the local Nama and Herero people in the early 20th century.

This statute, which sits on a high hill overlooking the Windhoek CBD commemorates that German victory over the local peoples. Its formal inscription, in German, remembers those who fought, and died, "for Kaiser and Reich" in the Herero- and Hottentot-wars from 1903 to 1908.

South Africa was granted administration of Namibia after World War I, and took over the country after World War II (in contravention of the UN's mandate). Only in 1990 did Namibia gain its independence, after the intervention of the UN, the International Court of Justice and finally a guerrilla war between SWAPO (the South West African Peoples' Organization) and South African forces.

Elsewhere in Namibia I have seen war memorials commemorating German victory over Hottentots (as the Khoi-Khoi or Nama people were then known), British victory over Germans and Afrikaner victory over the British. In some cases it seemed difficult to tell who was commemorating what victory.

And yet 11 years after independence, after a viscious guerilla war and inter-tribal disputes, those war memorials stand.

There are few places I have been where I can imagine such tolerance.

This splendid church, the Lutheran Christuskirche, is perhaps the main landmark in Windhoek. It sits at the top of a hill in Peter Müller Strasse, which runs straight down to Independence Avenue.

It was built of local sandstone in the early 20th century.

A view of Windhoek city at twilight, from the balcony of my room at the Fürstenhof Hotel.

Sunset on the last day of my holiday, looking over Windhoek.