Namibia Embassy Berlin -
NAMIBIA FIRST OPERA IN BERLIN – GERMANY
On September 15, 2023, a group of artists from Namibia, Germany and South Africa performed Namibia's first opera in Berlin. The piece "Chief Hijangua" by Mr.Eslon Vakomboka Hindundu celebrates a bilingual premiere - in Otjiherero, one of the national languages, as well as in German. The libretto is written by the German author Nikolaus Frei. The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin plays under the direction of Mr. Hindundu. The work is directed by Kim Mira Meyer and co-directed by Micheal Pulse. The Namibian artist also performed at the German President’s Citizens Festival on 08 September 2023.
Kindly click here to read the Ambassador's words of welcome for the Opera brochure; for the German version, kindly click here
Kindly click on the photos to enlarge them
Lüderitz Germany – Luderitz Namibia
H.E. Mr. Martin Andjaba, Ambassador of the Republic of Namibia to Germany, welcomed a five-member delegation from the Municipality of Lüderitz Namibia, led by Mr. Benjamin McKay, Mayor of Lüderitz, on an official visit to Lüderitz/Tangerhütte in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany from 4 to 10 September 2023. The delegation was received by Mr. Andreas Brohm, Mayor of the municipality of Tangerhütte and Ms. Edith Braun, Mayor of Lüderitz in Germany. This is the first time that a delegation from the town of Lüderitz is visiting the town Lüderitz in Germany, with the aim to establish a city to city partnerships. The two towns intend to cooperate in different areas, among others cooperation in waste disposal, basic concept of the unified municipality in the area of administrative organization and treatment of wastewater and education. Namibia’s Honorary Consul for the States of Saxony, Saxony Anhalt & Lower Saxony also participated in the visit.
To read the Ambassador's words of welcome, kindly click here.
photo on the right: H.E. Mr. Martin Andjaba, Ambassador of the Republic of Namibia (Centre), Mr. Benjamin McKay, Mayor of Luderitz, Namibia (Second from Left) and delegation. (Kindly click on the photos to enlarge them.)
City of Windhoek and Bremen – Germany
A delegation from the City of Windhoek, led by Mr. Joseph Uapingene, Mayor of the City of Windhoek, visited Bremen, Germany from 10 to 12 September 2023. The delegation was accompanied by Ms. Michelle Farmer, First Secretary, Embassy of the Republic of Namibia to Germany. The two cities share historic relations dating back to 1975, when the Bremen Civil Society supported SWAPO Liberation Struggle. The delegation visited the Bremen Straßenbahn AG to find out about possible cooperation in the expansion of public transport in Windhoek. The delegation paid a courtesy call on Ms. Anje Grotheer, President of the State Parliament of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, and Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte, President of the Senate, Mayor of Bremen. The President of the Bremen Parliament as well as the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, to discuss the expansion of cooperation with Namibian Universities.
Photo on the left: Meeting withMayor of Bremen, Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte; photo on the right: Meeting with the Bremen University of Applied Sciences; (Kindly click on the photos to enlarge them.)
City of Windhoek – Berlin
H.E. Mr. Martin Andjaba, Ambassador of the Republic of Namibia to the Federal Republic of Germany, welcomed, Cllr. Joseph Uapingene, the Mayor of the City of Windhoek, who led an eight-member delegation to the sister city Berlin from 12 to 16 September 2023. The two cities established a partnership in April 2000 and collaborated in sport, education as well as energy. During the visit the two Mayors signed a memorandum of understanding on the joint project titled “Promoting Sustainable Energy Transition in Windhoek”, to promote sustainable energy technology.
Mr. Joe Chiallo, Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion (second from left), Cllr. Joseph Uapingene, Mayor of the City of Windhoek (third from left), Mr. Kai Wegner, Governing Mayor of Berlin, (fourth from left), H.E. Mr. Martin Andjaba, Ambassador of the Republic of Namibia, (fifth from left) and the Namibian Delegation. (Kindly click on the photos to enlarge them.)
Visit to Aue-Bad Schlema on the occasion of the Day of the Saxons
From 01 to 02 September 2023, His Excellency Ambassador Martin Andjaba followed an invitation to Aue-Bad Schlema from Dr. Matthias Rößler, President of the Board of Trustees of the Day of the Saxons / President of the Saxon Parliament, and Mr Heinrich Kohl, First Mayor of Aue-Bad Schlema in the Ore Mountains.
On the occasion, the Ambassador had the opportunity to meet with Minister-President Michael Kretschmer of the Free State of Saxony, who invited the Ambassador to join him on his walk across the various thematic festival miles. During the evening reception on Friday, 01 September 2023, and on Saturday morning, the Ambassador exchanged ideas for cooperation projects with the Minister-President, other representatives of politics and the private sector.
To enlarge the photos, kindly click on them.
photo above, left to right: Dr Mathias Rößler, President of the Saxony Landtag; Minister-President Michael Kretschmer; Ambassador Martin Andjaba at the opening of the Day of the Saxons; photo on the right, left to right: Landrat Rico Anton, Ambassador Martin Andjaba, Mr Marcel Koch, CEO of Erzgebirgsklinikum at the evening reception.
Ambassador Andjaba, Mr Koch at the Partnership stage introducing the partnership project OEWONA (Organisation for the Empowerment of Widows/Widowers and Orphans of HIV/Aids in Namibia), which was established by the former First Lady of Namibia, Ms Penehupifo Pohamba; photo above on the right: Ambassador talking to Minister-President Kretschmer at the Craftspeople's Mile (Handwerkermeile)
Welcome at the Craftspeople's Mile; photo on the right: Visit to the stand of the Erzgebirgsklinikum Annaberg-Buchholz introducing the OEWONA project with Namibia
Minister-President Kretschmer visiting the stand of the Erzgebirgsklinikum and being introduced to the OEWONA project cooperation by Mr Koch and the Ambassador. Photo on the right: Talks on the side of the walk across the Health Mile (Gesundheitsmeile)
"Born in exile during Namibia’s war of independence (1966–89) and within the historical context of the trauma of the country’s past under Germany’s violent colonial rule (1884–1915), Tuli Mekondjo’s artistic practice has been a labour of belonging, re-creation, and restitution. Her work is based on the stories she carries with her from her family and community in Namibia— where she returned after the country gained independence in 1990—as well as in her persistent research with and against colonial archives. In Ounona vedu, Mekondjo recreates a series of fertility dolls, which were formerly passed down from generation to generation to practise motherhood and connect to fertility in her community, the Aawambo people, while her canvases recompose a context through which archival photographic portraits of Aawambo women return the colonial gaze. By burning, washing, embroidering, cutting, and mending, the canvases become a space of transformation, to heal and honour the interrupted ancestral lineages. Her works draw the viewer into the renewing force of life that bonds and births generations. Mekondjo proposes a reimagining of restitution as the restoration of ancestral fertility channels and their strength to remember and recreate beyond institutional museum repatriation centred on ownership." Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Tuli Mekondjo and HKW, 2023.
Text by Paz Guevara, Handbook, Archive Books, Berlin, 2023: Quilombismo Handbook, HKW
left to right: artist, Ms Tuli Mekondjo; Col. Cecilie Kazaronda, Defence Attaché; Michelle Farmer, 1st Secretary; Ms Avril Coetzee, Counsellor
The Embassy Staff was received by the new Director of Haus der Kulturen der Welt, HKW, Mr Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung; right to left: Ms Michelle Farmer, First Secretary, Col. Cecilie Kazaronda, Defence Attaché; Ms Avril Coetzee, Counsellor; Mr Ndikung, Director HKW; Ms Rita Herkenrath, Assistant; Ms Tuli Mekondjo, Artist.
(Photo: courtesy, Ms Paz Guevara, HKW)
The Address of His Holiness Pope Francis can be read here....
PRESENTATION OF LETTERS OF CREDENCE BY THE AMBASSADORS OF MOLDOVA, KYRGYZSTAN, NAMIBIA, LESOTHO, LUXEMBOURG, CHAD AND GUINEA-BISSAU
Clementine Hall, Friday, 17 December 2021
Your Excellencies,
I am pleased to receive you for the presentation of the Letters accrediting you as Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of your countries to the Holy See: Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Chad and Guinea-Bissau. I kindly ask you to convey my sentiments of esteem to your respective Heads of State, together with the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will abundantly bless them and your fellow citizens with peace and prosperity.
When I gathered with your colleagues a little more than a year ago for the same ceremony, the world was still in the firm grip of the pandemic, yet signs of hope were emerging on the horizon as the initial vaccines were about to be administered. At the time, many believed that their arrival heralded a quick end to the pandemic. While great progress has been made since then, we see a year later how COVID-19 is still causing pain and suffering, not to mention the loss of life.
To continue reading, kindly click here.
The Ambassador was accompanied by his wife, Mrs Caroline Andjaba, his son, Martin Jr., and Mr Brendan Siluka Kabuku, First Secretary. (Photo left to right).
On 11 September 2021, Ambassador Martin Andjaba, opened the travelling exhibition of the Deutsch-Namibische Gesellschaft (DNG), entitled Namibia-Germany - Aspects of a Special Relationship.
From left to right: Mr Klaus Hess, President of the German-Namibian Society (DNG); Ambassador Martin Andjaba; Mr Heiner Naumann, former country representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) in Namibia; Ambassador Robert Dölger, Regional Commissioner for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Sahel in the Foreign Office.