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Article: Effa Okupa, Carrying the Sun on Our Backs: unfolding German colonialism in Namibia from Caprivi to Kasikili.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Africa
- Article date:
- September 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Edinburgh University Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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EFFA OKUPA, Carrying the Sun on Our Backs: unfolding German colonialism in Namibia from Caprivi to Kasikili. Berlin: LIT (pb 14.94 [pounds sterling]-3 8258 7872 4). 2006, 433 pp.
With her imaginative and emotionally engaged style Effa Okupa could have added a fresh and lively touch of colour to existing Namibian historiography, in particular to the darker chapters of German colonial rule there. Unfortunately, this book fails to meet basic standards of scholarship and makes exhausting, at times surreal, reading.
Throughout the book, Okupa appears to be struggling to reconcile a nostalgic affinity with a supposedly pure pre-colonial African heritage and a ...