Poetry, Memory, and the Wake of Empire
13 - 99 years MS Stubnitz – Kultur, Raumschiff Kirchenpauerkai 29, 20457 HamburgStanding at the intersection of poetry, testimony, and reparatory justice, Ovaherero poet and cultural worker Prince Kamaazengi Marenga presents a memorial intervention exploring the living legacies of German colonialism. Moving between Hamburg's harbour and Namibia's deserts, personal biography and collective memory, From This Shore invites audiences to re-imagine how it could have begun. Through spoken word and reflection, the performance asks how we inherit difficult past, and what we choose to do with them.
The accompanying documentary captures a commemorative march in Mannheim by Ovaherero horse riders from southern Namibia, with a narration by Marenga that frames the procession as a living act of memory and an appeal for greater recognition of these histories and their continuing significance today.
Prince Kamaazengi Marenga he/him
Prince Kamaazengi Marenga is an Ovaherero poet, cultural worker, and reparatory justice advocate living and working in Germany. Born in Botswana to parents raised by genocide survivors, his work explores memory, displacement, belonging, and the ongoing legacies of German colonialism in Namibia.
As Chief Representative to Germany and Chief Coordinator for Ovaherero Reparatory Justice in Europe, he works at the intersection of art, public history, education, and dialogue, collaborating with museums, universities, cultural institutions, churches, and descendant communities. His artistic practice combines poetry, storytelling, oral history, performance, and song, creating spaces where difficult histories can be confronted with honesty, dignity, and humanity.
Through his work, Marenga seeks to build bridges between past and present, between Namibia and Germany, and between remembrance and repair. His performances are rooted in the conviction that art can reach places where politics alone cannot, transforming memory into encounter and dialogue into understanding.