6533b871fe1ef96bd12d0e0a
RESEARCH PRODUCT
“You are special”: othering in biographies of “GDR children from Namibia”
Matthias D. WitteCaroline Schmittsubject
Cultural StudiesSociology and Political Sciencemedia_common.quotation_subjectRefugeeGender studies06 humanities and the arts0603 philosophy ethics and religionRacismlanguage.human_languageSolidarityDemocracy060104 historyGermanWest africanAnthropologyPolitical science060302 philosophyEliteAgency (sociology)language0601 history and archaeologymedia_commondescription
ABSTRACTThe article analyses a historical case of politically induced flight. The so-called German Democratic Republic (GDR) children from Namibia are about 430 people brought to the GDR between 1979 and 1989. They came from Namibian refugee camps and were part of a solidarity project between South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) and the GDR. They were educated to become the Namibian elite once the country had been liberated. Their stay was to be temporary, with the children identified as Namibian by SWAPO and GDR. The article reconstructs culturalist and biological-racist forms of othering as characteristic biographical experience of the young people which deny them belonging to GDR and Namibia. Simultaneously it examines how the young people irritate the categories of othering and create spaces of agency. They build a new hybrid language “Oshi German” thereby breaking culturalization and staying together as a collective in search of a place of belonging.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-02-08 | Ethnic and Racial Studies |