To watch the full video clip, click here
Is there anything one can not find on the internet? Here is a photo of my old office in Lüderitz in what was South-West Africa when I went there in 1968. It was a very German town in what had once been a German colony. The hot desert winds never stopped blowing and the freezing cold Benguela Current made swimming impossible. It was not the Africa I had expected.
Less than nine months earlier, I had returned to Germany after two years in Australia. Why had I left Australia again? I had made new friends there and built up a new life, so why leave again? Why had I not stayed in Germany? I had found promising employment and had met up with old friends and previous colleagues again, had even met my old girlfriend again, none of whom ever thought of leaving. What made them stay when I couldn't? Was it habit; lack of imagination; lack of opportunity?
And why did I leave South-West Africa again? Was it the place, the people, the apartheid? Even though I felt uncomfortable about apartheid, I had no ideological reservations about it, as it simply seemed to be the law of the land. What made me leave South-West Africa and all the other places before and scores of places since was a feeling of not belonging. So what was the best thing about South-West Africa? That it was halfway from Germany back to Australia - and six months later I was back there and eight months later in New Guinea.
For more fifty-seven-year-old photos, click here.
P.S. You want to see more of Lüderitz than just my old office. Watch "Lüderitz: The Town of Wind, Salt, and Stone" and "Wonders of Namibia".
