The Rider and the Coffee Maker: Sites and Practices of Remembrance in Contemporary Namibia

ABSTRACT In light of recent interventions by artists and activists, this article explores key contestations around colonial monuments in today’s Namibia and asks not only what monuments can do but also what the limitations are in providing a radical break with the colonial afterlife in this country. What forms of memorialisation are activated through monuments and monumental institutions? How can they be understood as markers of history as well as proposals for overcoming this history? This article will first explore the context of and discourse around the statue of the Reiterdenkmal and the Independence Museum, which “replaced” it, before moving to alternative sites and rituals of remembrance which might give insights into possible public and collective processes of decolonisation – as demanded by the current protests.