It was a long struggle before the Republic of Namibia finally became independent in 1990. What role did the intertwining of politics, church and theology play in the fight for freedom from South African mandate administration? That is the main question addressed by a new research project at Goethe University Frankfurt’s Faculty of Protestant Theology, funded by Volkswagen Foundation.
The Volkswagen Foundation is making available a total of €541,400 for the project, entitled “Decolonizing Postcolonialism. On the Intertwined History of Politics, Church and Theology in the Namibian Freedom Struggle (1957-1990)”. Project applicant is Prof. Stefan Michels, who teaches historical theology at Goethe University’s Faculty of Protestant Theology. “Religious-historical and theological research on Namibia mostly relates to the colonial period. There has hardly been any research on Namibia’s contemporary church history. I am very pleased that the Volkswagen Foundation is funding our project, enabling us to expand our state of knowledge. I am also very grateful to the Centre for Interdisciplinary African Research [Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Afrikaforschung, ZiAF] for its support during the preparatory phase,” says Prof. Michels.
Namibia’s political identity is the result of an eventful history spent between foreign rule and free self-determination: In 1884, the vast southwest African territory was declared a “protectorate” of the German Empire and remained a German colony – known as “German Southwest Africa” – until the end of the First World War. In 1920, it became a mandate territory of South Africa and thus placed under the sovereignty of the neighboring state, which in turn was shaped by the system of apartheid. Namibia gained independence on March 21, 1990, following military altercations between the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) and the South African military, particularly in the years between 1960 and 1989, a period also known as the “Namibian liberation struggle”.
In the second half of the 20th century in particular, a variety of emancipation movements emerged in Namibia, which fed into the struggle for political independence, both with regard to the country’s political and ecclesiastical relations with Europe and South Africa. During Namibia’s colonization in the 19th century, the impact of which continues to shape contemporary social discourse in the country, Christian churches and religious communities established themselves in the country. These religious institutions remained in close contact with the churches of their countries of origin in the post-colonial period.
The project sets out to analyze the intertwining of politics, church and theology, with an additional focus on the question of what role the theology of liberation in particular played for a free Namibia. In addition to an examination of previously unrecorded archive material, the project also will include interviews with contemporary witnesses. Much like a network analysis, the resulting insights into the intertwining of church and politics could improve the fundamental understanding of the emancipation history of suppressed freedom aspirations as well as the roles played by churches and religion. Part from that, the findings also pave the way for further insights into “Black Liberation Theology” in southern Africa.
Michels and his team – the project includes two assistant and one postdoctoral position – are openly approaching the question of whether the role of the many different churches and church groups in Namibia’s liberation struggle can be considered positive or inglorious. Preliminary research had shown that the liberation movement definitely encountered resistance – born out of concern over further communist-motivated aggression. On the other hand, individual partner churches in Germany had proactively supported the movement. To gain as comprehensive an overview as possible, Michels plans to work closely with Namibian research teams in the project, which to the scholar of church history could turn out to be just the beginning of an even larger research project.
The VW Foundation’s “Pioneer Projects: Explorations of the unknown Unknown” initiative is funding 15 high-risk projects with a total of €7.9 million. It supports projects that could lead to major breakthroughs in basic research – or fail to achieve their goals. In its own press release, the Volkswagen Foundation explicitly acknowledge the real risk of such a potential failure, thereby paving the way for taking the appropriate risks, and adding that, in the event of success, the potential for gaining new knowledge is great.
