Frederike Moormann
TEXT
From Windhoek to Kamina to Nauen. A workbook
Mèhèza Kalibani, Tuli Mekondjo, Dieter Daniels, Frederike Moormann, Frieda Mukufa, Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja & Angelika Waniek
2023
From Windhoek to Kamina to Nauen listens to the present-day echoes of telegraphy between Nauen (Germany), Kamina (Togo), and Windhoek (Namibia). Wireless telegraphy (a precursor of today’s global internet technology) is an integral part of the history of colonial violence, wars, and genocides. Radio telegraphy was used for the first time worldwide as a mobile means of military communication during the war against the Herero and the Nama 1904–1908 which ended in genocide. Subsequently, from 1910 onwards a permanent radio connection between the German Reich and its colonies was built. These installations were used from 1914 on, but were destroyed when Namibia was occupied by the South Africa at the beginning of World War I. This workbook is the beginning of a conversation about the colonial use of telecommunications and its effects between scientists and artists from Namibia, Togo and Germany.
Editing/English Translation: Nadja Nitsche
French Translation: Mèhèza Kalibani, Nadja Nitsche
Graphic design: Studio Goof | Julia Boehme
Fonts: Archivo by Omnibus Type, Atlas Grotesk & Atlas Typewriter by Commercial Type, Tajamuka Script by Baynham Goredema
Printing: Sina Schindler, Risoclub Leipzig
Also available as an E-Book
https://akono.de/product/from-windhoek-to-kamina-to-nauen-a-workbook-diverse-autorinnen-dt-eng-fr/
“We are lying on a meadow in Leipzig. It is summer. We are watching the stars. One of the stars is moving. And then another. A long string of pearls. We shake our heads. It takes us a while to understand that these are the Starlink satellites. We read that Elon Musk was born in South Africa. Back then, in 1971, Namibia was still under the South African apartheid regime. Now Elon Musk is one of the few owners of satellite infrastructure — which we may already have used to google his name. And Namibia has been independent for thirty years. minus 270 degrees approx. 80g of quartz glass? approx. 100kg of titanium“