History

The collection of The Namibia Association of Norway (NAMAS) contains historical papers and documents, publications, newspaper clippings, photos, slides, videos, an art collection and five suitcases for educational purposes. Other items are also included. The collection is housed at NAMAS' offices at The Namibia House in Elverum, Norway.

The NAMAS library contains more than one thousand titles of books and other publications, in addition to over one hundred video titles. The collection includes a large number of photos and slides, altogether several thousand. Posters, maps and 12 scrapbooks with newspaper clippings are included. There is an art collection and various artworks from Namibian and Norwegian artists, and five suitcases with educational material related to Namibia.

The library, with books and videos, and the bulk of the slides, are part of the information office at The Namibia House. The rest of the collection is stored in the storeroom at the same location.

The collection covers a wide range of issues related to the following subjects:
- NAMAS in general, and the association's work in Norway, Namibia and Southern Africa, including numerous projects since its foundation in 1980.
- NAMAS employees, board members and volunteers in The Namibia Shop.
- Co-partners: people, businesses and organizations working closely with NAMAS through the years.
- The general situation in Namibia prior to, and after, independence in 1990.
- The general situation in Southern Africa from the 1970s to date, especially the period of apartheid.

Photos, slides and videos are organized in separate sections. The items are organized in groups according to the topic they are related to. Sometimes, however, there is more than one group with the same title. Sometimes old and new items related to each other are in separate groups, or there might be several groups because the groups have different photographers. One group might have an identified photographer, while another has no identified photographer.

Consequently, when a photographer's name is stated, it does not necessarily mean that he or she has taken all of the photos in that particular group. They are listed because they are the only identified photographers in the group.

The same applies for the years stated. Sometimes it has been impossible to find out which year the photos are taken. When a year is stated, it only concerns the identified items in that specific group.

A large number of the videos are recordings from TV, or amateur recordings made with personal video cameras. Some of them have the same title, and the titles are often quite general or insufficient. In addition, a number of videos do not have any remarks explaining the content. This is either because the title itself explains the content, or because the exact content cannot be identified.

Due to the project's time limit, the large number of items, and variety of content, it has been impossible to identify every single object. The bulk of the items, however, have been identified. Marit Sætervadet, Personnel Officer at The Namibia Association of Norway since its foundation in 1980, has been advisor during the project, and a great help in identifying a large number of items.

Through the years, NAMAS has produced a number of folders, brochures, books and other publications. Most of them are in Norwegian, but there are also publications in English. They include folders about NAMAS in Norwegian and English, booklets about Namibia and Tsumeb in Norwegian, a book in Norwegian in connection with NAMAS' 20th anniversary, and a number of other publications. These items are also available from the information office.

Address

Headquarters:
The Namibia Association of Norway
Sven Morens v. 7
P.O. Box 369
N-2403 Elverum
NORWAY
Telephone: +47 62 41 36 22
Fax: +47 62 41 30 42
E-mail: post@namibiaforeningen.no
http://www.namibiaforeningen.no/ External link. (In Norwegian)

Windhoek office:
The Namibia Association of Norway
11 Pasteur St.
P.O. Box 24140
Windhoek
NAMIBIA
Telephone: +264 61 22 00 82
Fax: +264 61 22 00 70
E-mail: namnorwa@mweb.com.na