Transcultural memories of German-Namibian history (1978-1990): : Micro-perspectives from the global autobiographies of Lucia Engombe and Stefanie Lahya Aukongo

• Main Author: Pasqualini, Arianna
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan Dalarna, Afrikanska studier 2018
• Subjects: Namibia; East Germany; autobiography; global history; microhistory.; Other Humanities; Annan humaniora
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-28965

The present thesis deals with the Namibian liberation struggle against the South African regime, by focusing on the relationship of solidarity between SWAPO and East Germany. It provides an original perspective of the German-Namibian history between 1978-1990, by using the life stories of Lucia Engombe and Stefanie Lahya Aukongo. They are Namibian women who, according to the pact of solidarity, lived on the brink between Namibia and East Germany, becoming in this way witnesses of the historical upheavals that have changed the global order. Then, this thesis makes use of Child No. 95. My German-African Odyssey – the autobiography of Lucia Engombe – and Kalungas Kind: meine unglaubliche Reise uns Leben – the autobiography of Stefanie Layha Aukongo – as sources to investigate the complexities of that period. The global lives of Lucia Engombe and Stefanie Lahya Aukongo allow the combination of macro and micro history and bring out new facets, which otherwise would remain in the shadow. Through the deconstruction of their life narratives, in fact, the big narrative of the global history become fraught with new meanings, bringing out the power of microhistories. This thesis shows how individual autobiographies can be meaningful to history, and how global history can be reconciled with micro-history through the story of global lives, which provide new and unprecedented points of view.