Search

This research project is an interdisciplinary investigation of the memory of the 1904-1908 Namibian genocide through its performance representation(s). It lies at the intersection of performance, memory and genocide studies. The research considers the role of performance in remembering, memorialising, commemorating, contesting, transmitting and sustaining the memory of the genocide across time and place. The project frames performance as a media through which history is narrated by positioning performance as a complex interlocutor of the past in the present. This claim is premised on the assumption that the past is not simply given in memory ‘but it must be articulated to become memory’ (Huyssen, 1995:3). The research considers commemoration events and processes as fruitful performance nodes to uncover the past as well as the politics of the present. It makes the case that while the Namibian genocide has so far been denied official or state acknowledgement, it is chiefly through the medium of performance that the genocide memory is remembered, contested and performed. The project offers a variety of perspectives on the relationship between genocide violence, memory and space by focusing on what is remembered, how it is remembered and by paying attention to when it is remembered. The research contributes to an understanding and reconstruction of memory and performance of the Namibian genocide on two fronts. Firstly, as a cultural phenomenon and secondly, as a form of elegy and memorial in contemporary times. These insights contribute to the emerging body of scholarly work on performance and the cultural memory of the Namibian genocide. The project also charts avenues of inquiry in the production and transmission of memory across time and generations, within and beyond Namibian national borders. It pays close attention to performance’s contribution to the formation of cultural memory by exploring the conditions and factors that make remembering in common possible such as language, images, rituals, commemoration practices, exhibitions, theatre and sites of memories. Through examining the specific role of performance as a medium of cultural memory of the Namibian genocide the study considers ‘memory as performing history’ (Shuttleworth et al., 2000:8). The research interrogates how contemporary artistic performance representations and interpretations from within and outside of Namibia inform the way societal history and the present are presented and remembered. Performance becomes an aperture to investigate the enduring contemporary role of the memory of the Namibian genocide as well as its simultaneous reconfiguration. This enables the project to investigate how memories circulate across time and place - transnationally and across generations. This cross-border and transgenerational reflection is essential to understanding how the Namibian genocide has and is articulated, circulated, structured and remembered through performance in the postcolony.

"The use of testimonies in performance is enjoying increased artistic and critical popularity on contemporary world stages and has a long and rich tradition on South African stages. Both internationally and locally, emerging and established playwrights working on migration and refugee issues are seeking to incorporate the testimony of asylum seekers into their work. This necessitates a need to critically reflect on the influences that shape and structure the staging of testimonies. This study argues that increased migration and the mounting number arrivals of asylum seekers on South African shores, has motivated at times violent interaction between host communities and the new arrivals. These incidents have inspired a distinct trend of testimonial performances around the concept of asylum. This dissertation uses Narrative analysis to read examples of contemporary theatre of testimony plays that examine this phenomenon. The study examines how playwright positioning informs the structuring of asylum testimonies on stage in addition to contextualising the ethical and moral complexities the playwright's positionality places on their practice. Through three case studies, the study interrogates how playwright positioning informs notions of authorship, authenticity, truth, theatricality and ethics. The study further investigates the challenges speaking for 'self' and speaking for the 'other' place on testimonial playwrights."