The Namibian Museums Association (M.A.N) will show their mobile exhibition “Changing History”, which deals with the influence of the First World War on the Namibian history, in Swakopmund and Gobabis in June 2016. The tour of the exhibition is financed through the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany. The exhibition is open from the 6th-8th of June in the Swakopmund Museum and from the 13th-15th of June in the Gobabis Library for interested groups of learners. Additional exhibition venues are planned for September in Ondangwa and Tsumeb.

The exhibition was funded by the British High Commission and was already shown in Khorab, Windhoek and Keetmanshoop in 2015. Now, learners in Swakopmund and Goboabis have the possibility to learn about the meaning of the First World War for Namibia. They are supported by students from the UNAM History Society, who will provide guided tours through the exhibition. In addition to this, the teachers accompanying the groups will receive a teacher’s handbook funded by the German Embassy, with which they can work with their learners after the visit of the exhibition.

As the Museums Association stated, this is “a unique opportunity for Namibian students to learn outside the classroom”. In total, the German Embassy is providing 37.600 NAD in financial assistance.

The exhibition describes the course of the First World War in Namibia and especially highlights the transition from German to South-African rule through the surrender of the German troops near Khorab on the 9th of July 1915. The role of the local population is also highlighted.

The pieces of the exhibition have been gathered by M.A.N in cooperation with the UNAM History Society, the British High Commission and the Namibian National Archives. M.A.N is especially “excited, that exhibition is traveling to Swakopmund, as the coastal town is significant in Namibia's involvement in the war. It had one of the military targets for the Union of South African army, the wireless transmitters that could be used to communicate with powerful German fleet of battleships in the South Atlantic Ocean”