Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the politically motivated removal of the controversial historical memorial, the Reiterdenkmal, in relation to the public response to its disappearance from the city centre to an unknown location.

Paper long abstract:

On the eve of the Christmas day, 2013, the Namibian Police moved the Reiterdenkmal (erected in 1912 to commemorate German soldiers and civilians killed in the war with Herero and Nama people) from its historic site in the heart of Namibia's capital city, Windhoek, to an undisclosed location. This paper argues that the drive to demonize colonial memorials (the mediums through which colonialists' relations with local communities can be contextualized and negotiated) as deplorable and unacceptable historic figures in an independent Namibia translates into the Namibian state's intent to replace Namibia's complex and dynamic history of colonization, resistance to colonialism and the liberation struggle with a biased and commonplace nationalist narratives. It is further argued that the removal of the Reiterdenkmal landmark memorial would not eliminate and silence people's memories about experiences of colonialism nor can it lead to forgetfulness of historic events to which civil society attaches importance.