The presentation by Liam Kingsley is part of the Namibian and Southern African Studies Research Colloquium by the Basler Afrika Bibliographien, the Centre for African Studies, University of Basel, and the University of Namibia.

Liam James Kingsley is a Ph.D. candidate in African History at Indiana University in the US. Their research deals with the intersection of disease, ideology, and state-building in Namibia during and after South African rule and explores the effects of apartheid, exile, and HIV/AIDS.

The presentation focuses on the thousands of Namibians who fled during the independence war in the early 1970s and resided in exile camps in Zambia and Angola run by the liberation movement SWAPO. Leaning on their long history of engagement with the global community, SWAPO deftly navigated the apparatus of international aid to achieve and maintain the medical capacity necessary for survival. The experience of working in the camps shaped the careers and approaches of the many medical professionals who would staff the health administration of Namibia after independence was achieved in 1990.

This is a hybrid event. Contact for registration and zoom link: julia.rensing@unibas.ch and makawa@unam.na

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