In the footsteps of Namibia's exiled children

On the eve of the commemoration of Cassinga Day a group of Namibian journalists visited places in the former East Germany where children from Swapo refugee camps had been sent.About 430 refugee children were sent to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) under an agreement with its government and the exiled Swapo leadership. Many of these children were first taken to Jagdschloss (hunting castle) Bellin, which the GDR government had expropriated from a noble family. There, in the rural backwaters of the socialist state, the children were housed and schooled. The castle, built by Henry Brarens Sloman in 1910, has 50 rooms where the children slept, played, prayed, and where the foundations of their lives were laid.From Bellin many of the older children were transferred to the former School of Friendship Strassfurt, which is now the vocational training institute of Saxony-Anhalt, about three hours from Bellin, where they continued with their secondary schooling. Most of the children had been living in the GDR since 1979. Some arrived later in the 1980s. As seismic political changes swept across Europe, the notorious Berlin Wall dividing East and West Germany fell in 1989, heralding in a new socio-political era. It was also the birth of the new Namibia. With that came the end of Namibia's GDR kids' stay in Germany. They were all repatriated to Namibia, the country of their parents, where many struggled to adapt to the local way of life. This week's trip was aimed at retracing the history of the so-called 'GDR kids' and what it meant for them and the Germans who were part of this project. CATHERINE SASMAN

In the footsteps of Namibia's exiled children

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-17

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In the footsteps of Namibia's exiled children

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-17

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