Film

Namibia - Return to a New Country 1997

85 min Documentary

Starting in 1979, nearly 2,000 children were evacuated from Namibia (and refugee camps in neighboring Angola and Zambia) to protect them from the violence of civil war between South Africa and the socialist liberation movement, SWAPO. In a gesture of allyship with SWAPO, the GDR accepted almost 500 children for their “protection, education, and socialist training.” In 1990, they were suddenly returned—after Namibia's independence and first all-race elections, which took place the same week as the Berlin Wall opened. The young people interviewed in this film reflect on the experiences of the Namibian children who spent their childhoods in East Germany, focusing especially on their sense of identity and the difficulties they faced fitting into society.

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