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Published: September 22nd 2007
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Let me get the most FAQd (FAdQ?) question from my near, dear, not-so-near, and not-so-dear first - Namibia? Why Namibia? I am tempted to quote Mallory and say "Because it's there", but considering that several countries are "there", and that I didn't disappear in Namibia for my body to be found 75 years later, I will resort to one of the following, and the reader may choose what (s)he likes best. ...
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Rajiv Dama
non-member comment
German Colonization
Regarding your comments on ex-German Colonies and there being not too many of them etc.. I think the main reason you will not find too many ex-German Colonies is not Germany's historical disinterest -- they were as interested and eager as any other -- the reason is that they lost the first two world wars. Pre WW-I maps will show that the Germans had pretty much taken up substantial portions of Africa (along with the Belgians, French and Dutch) and left the British out of the picture. The Brits I guess were more focused on their Mid-East and Asian Colonies. After loosing WW-I they had to give up most of their prized African Colonies to the victors of the war (East Africa went to the British), Namibia went to S. Africa , etc.... I guess loosing World War -- II did not help either, but by that time colonization was flagging anyway and any colonies they may have had ended up being protectorates of UN or the allies (UK, USA). So that explains the curious lack of ex-German Colonies as well as the fact that German is not spoken in Namibia. After WW-I, the widely spoken German in Nambia was replaced by English, Dutch and Afrikaans -- languages of the S. Africans. Afrikaans and Dutch was dropped due to the connotations with Apartheid and the hated S. African regime and English became Lingua Franca of Namibia. Same is true of E. Africa, where German was replaced by English after the WW-I. HTH