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A Contemporary Expression of the Namibian San Communities’ Past and Present Sufferings Staged as an Interactive Digital Life Performance

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Digitisation of Culture: Namibian and International Perspectives

Abstract

San communities suffer a long history of discrimination and marginalization. Despite many empowerment initiatives, the voices of the San themselves are still channelled through those of ‘others’. Through the creation of the //Ana-Djeh San Trust we, a group of San youth in Windhoek, have taken it upon ourselves to fight for our communities’ rights and to reinstate cultural pride among our people. In an effort to reach wider audiences we present an interactive digital performance which we co-produced and performed at the International Conference on Culture and Computer Science 2016 in Windhoek, Namibia. The performance highlights major injustices in the past, conveys current issues and lastly suggests a way forward. The theatrical performance is overlaid with a video in the background, consisting of our prerecorded clips interweaving narrative elements. We recognize that through technology infusion our voices are amplified encouraging us to pursue further means of digital expressions.

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Acknowledgements

First of all, we would like to acknowledge our co-performers and producers, Appolia Dabe, Esau Kamati, Japeni Hofeni, Simson Kapembe, and Daniel Cabrero without who this production would not have been possible. Further, we would like to thank Prof Heike Winschiers-Theophilus for the editorial assistance in putting this chapter together. We further recognize the financial support of the NCRST for the digital production as well as NUST, Faculty of Computing and Informatics as the organizer of the ICCCS 2016 conference. Special thanks to Namibian government for establishing San division in the government and recognized San people as an indigenous community in Namibia. To our donors, Open Society Initiative of Southern African (OSISA), Finish embassy Namibia, our partners Party Project, Ubuntu Foundation, and Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST). We would also like to express our gratitude to //Ana-Djeh San Trust, and Women Leadership Center, in particular, Ms Liz Frank, as well as everyone who contributed for the establishment of //Ana-Djeh San Trust.

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Correspondence to Kileni Fernando .

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Fernando, K., Fernandu, T., Kapembe, S., Isay, K., Hoffeni, J. (2018). A Contemporary Expression of the Namibian San Communities’ Past and Present Sufferings Staged as an Interactive Digital Life Performance. In: Jat, D., Sieck, J., Muyingi, HN., Winschiers-Theophilus, H., Peters, A., Nggada, S. (eds) Digitisation of Culture: Namibian and International Perspectives. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7697-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7697-8_13

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