Biographies of artists & speaker
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DJ Banu
DJ Banu is a DJ and electronic music producer. Banu finds herself between music, sound art installations and research, using music production and DJing as an artistic tool for activism. Growing up in South Eastern Turkey in the underground rave scene and currently based in Berlin, she specializes in techno that is versatile with a groovy bounce, mixing in vinyl and live sets with analog synthesizers. Banu creates uncanny experiences in her DJ sets, which she utilizes as an empowerment tool for minority groups with an emphasis on BIPOC and LGBTQI+ communities.
Agata Nguyen Chuong
Agata Nguyen Chuong is an advanced researcher at Forensic Architecture and PhD student at the Centre for Research Architecture (Goldsmiths, University of London). Her research focuses on developing methods for evidencing long-term environmental violence in support of land claims and advocacy.
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Katharina B. Hacker
Katharina B. Hacker is a doctoral candidate and scholarship holder at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC). In her doctoral project, she is working on the changes in cultural and (trans-)collective memory structures of the Ovaherero and Nama genocide in light of the official recognition by the Federal Republic of Germany in 2021.
Joel Kaudife Haikali
Joel Kaudife Haikali is an Namibian filmmaker, academic, and creative entrepreneur. Since 2015, he has been running the production company Joe Vision Production (JVP) together with Sophie Haikali, which produces award-winning international films. Their film “Invisibles. KaunaPawa” made it into the selection for the 2021 Academy Awards. They are founders of the Creative Industry Institute Africa in Windhoek and have published the “Namibian Creative Industry Guide”.
Nika Herero
Geboren in West-Berlin, ist Dominika Kahiha aka Nika Herero das Kind einer polnischen Mutter und eines Vaters aus Namibia, der als Herero vor der Apartheid floh. Zwischen verschiedenen Kulturen aufgewachsen, fand sie durch Afro- und Tribal House Musik eine Brücke zu ihren Wurzeln. Sie nutzt ihre DJ-Plattform, um Herkunft und Identität neu zu verbinden und Räume für Austausch zu schaffen. Getrieben von ihrer Leidenschaft für rhythmische elektronische Beats, kraftvolle Drums und unvergessliche Vocals, verwandelt Nika Herero ihre Sets in ein einzigartiges Erlebnis – eine musikalische Reise durch Tribal House mit fesselnden Klängen aus Afro House, Latin House, Tech House und House Music.
Gita Herrmann
Gita Herrmann is curator at TheMuseumsLab, a transcontinental fellowship programme that brings together museum professionals from Africa and Europe to share knowledge, explore new forms of collaboration, and develop perspectives for a decolonial future of museums. In her role, she shapes the programme’s content and works at the intersection of theory, practice, and networking to foster long-term collaborations and institutional change in the international museum field.
Naita Hishoono
Naita Hishoono is the Executive Director of the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID), where she leads initiatives promoting civic engagement, democratic governance, and youth participation. With over 15 years of experience in governance and development, she is passionate about fostering inclusive dialogue and strengthening democratic values in Namibia.
Laura Horelli
Laura Horelli was born in 1976 in Helsinki, grew up partly in Nairobi and London and lives in Berlin since 2001. As a visual artist and filmmaker, she is interested in representations and mediations of the past, taking on a microhistorical approach. She has examined private and public archives in her artistic research, which often results in found footage or photo films. Horelli received the 3-year media art grant of the Arts Promotion Center Finland for 2023-2025.
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Israel Kaunatjike
Israel Kaunatjike is a Herero activist, who has made Berlin his home for many decades. Throughout his life, he has been a tireless advocate for justice, calling on the German government to acknowledge and take responsibility for the atrocities committed during its colonial rule in what is now Namibia. As a member of the transnational alliance #NoAmnestyOnGenocide, he works to keep the memory of these crimes alive and to push for meaningful accountability.
Chief Charles Kasuto
Chief Charles Kasuto has been based in Europe for over 21 years. He holds an Bachelor of Law degree, specialising in International Human Rights and Immigration Law. As an elected Chief representing the Ovaherero people in Europe under the Ovaherero Traditional Authority UK & Europe, he is committed to serving and advancing the interests of his community across all aspects of life.
Christian Kopp
Christian Kopp is a historian, tour guide and exhibition curator. He is co-curator of the permanent exhibition “zurückgeschaut | looking back. The First German Colonial Exhibition 1896 in Berlin-Treptow”. From 2020 to 2024, he worked for Berlin Postkolonial as sub-division manager in the model project “Dekoloniale – Memory Culture in the City”.
Sima Luipert
Sima Luipert is a fourth-generation survivor of the Nama and Ovaherero genocide. She serves as Patron for International Affairs on the Nama Traditional Leaders Association’s Technical Committee on Genocide, a role entrusted to her by the Nama Chiefs. She is the Director for Development Planning at the Hardap Regional Council in Namibia. Deeply self-taught, her understanding of German colonialism and human rights stems from years of study and from the stories her grandmother shared about the atrocities endured by their people.
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Prince Kamaazengi Marenga
Prince Kamaazengi Marenga is a Namibian poet, cultural provocateur, and creative activist whose work bridges memory, resistance and healing. With roots in the Herero tradition, his writing and performances engage the ongoing legacy of colonial trauma, ancestral memory, and contemporary identity. Rooted in Otjiherero and careful linguistic intention, Marenga’s work fuses orality, ritual cadence, and contemporary critique. He works across poetry, journalism, lyricism, short stories and spoken-word performance, speaking not just of struggle, but of survival, resurgence, and the spiritual weight of remembrance. He is also the Chairman of the Ovaherero Parliament DE – a working arm of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority UK & Europe.
Lara-Sophie Milagro
Lara-Sophie Milagro is an actress, author, director, producer, and Berliner with roots in Guyana and Germany. As CEO of the Afro-German producers’ collective Label Noir and a passionate storyteller, she has dedicated herself as a film-maker to giving voice and visibility to new narratives from intersectional perspectives in cinema. Her first short film “On Noah’s Blood Stained Rainbow We Dance” premiered in 2025 at the Afrika Film Festival Cologne. Lara-Sophie also regularly appears in film, theatre, and television productions, most recently in the tragicomedy “Catch Me If You Can” (Network Movie, premiered at Filmfest Hamburg 2025), “Woodwalkers 2” (blue eyes fiction, theatrical release January 2026), and “Dreaming Emmett” (Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts Berlin, 2025).
Mark Mushiva
Mark Mushiva is a Berlin-based Namibian technologist, street poet, and multidisciplinary artist. His work focuses on making games, cinematic 3D worlds, and wearable AI devices that try to subvert the colonial legacies of today’s technologies. He has a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Trento (Italy). Mushiva currently works as a researcher at the investigative agency Forensic Architecture, where he explores the environmental impacts of German colonialism in Namibia and military occupation through remote sensing tools, machine learning, and decolonial frameworks of thought.
Dr. Yvette Mutumba
Dr. Yvette Mutumba is the co-founder and director of Contemporary And (C&), a platform for contemporary art and thought in Africa and the Global Diaspora, founded in 2013. Mutumba teaches at the Institute for Art in Contexts at the Berlin University of the Arts. From 2020 to 2024, she served as Curator-at-Large at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Previously, she was part of the curatorial team of the 10th Berlin Biennale and held a visiting professorship for Global Discourses at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne. As an author and editor, she has published widely on contemporary art and art history.
Ndamian Nghishidimbwa Hangula
Ndamian Nghishidimbwa Hangula is a Chief Archivist at the National Archives of Namibia. He joined the institution in 2016 as an Archivist for Preservation and Restoration. In 2022, he was promoted to Senior Archivist, and in 2024, he was appointed Chief Archivist. He has nine years of experience in the fields of archives, preservation, research, and the management of audio-visual materials. Hangula holds an Honours Degree in Records and Archives Management as well as a Master’s Degree in History, both obtained from the University of Namibia. He is passionate about managing archival materials in all formats and providing access to documentary heritage to support research and education.
Vitjitua Ndjiharine
Vitjitua Ndjiharine is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose work interrogates identity, knowledge production and the legacies of colonial archives, with a particular interest in restitution and re-contextualisation of historical texts and images. Using various painting and collaging techniques, her compositions connect the past and present through socio-politically and historically informed, empathetic storytelling. Vitjitua Ndjiharine has previously presented her work in New York, Hamburg, Berlin, Belgrade, Zurich and Windhoek (among others), while being awarded various artist residencies and research fellowships.
Rudolf Netzelmann
Rudolf Netzelmann has been developing, evaluating and coordinating European cooperation and network projects in the fields of vocational training, health research, culture, urban and regional development and international cooperation since 1995. As a sociologist, Netzelmann’s special expertise lies in interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration. One focus of his work is the transferability and consolidation of successful models and methods. He has worked as a consultant in this area on international cooperation projects since 2014.
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Celia Parbey is a journalist, presenter and studied African Studies. She works as an editor for DIE ZEIT and freelances for various online and print magazines. She is also the managing director of RosaMAG, an online lifestyle magazine for Black FLINTA in German-speaking countries. She writes on the topics of colonial continuities, intersectionality, feminism and racism.
Julia Runge
Julia Runge is a German documentary photographer, filmmaker, and curator who has been living and working between Namibia and Germany for over 15 years. Her work is defined by an empathetic and ethical approach, telling intimate stories about identity, social structures, and cultural realities – particularly within the Namibian context. She graduated in 2015 from the Ostkreuz School of Photography in Berlin, where she gained recognition for her acclaimed project “Basterland”. As Creative Director of the Windhoek-based production company Obsessive Media cc and founder of REFRAME Kollektiv e.V. in Berlin, she is dedicated to supporting emerging photographic talents and fostering cultural collaboration between Southern Africa and Europe.
Matteo Sant’Unione
Matteo Sant’Unione is a film-maker and founder of the production company cineMars, which specialises in socially relevant themes such as education, democracy and sustainability. This is reflected in the company’s slogan “filming for change”. Alongside his work as a producer, as a member of the executive board for the Federal Association of Green Consultants Germany, he campaigns for a fair and environmentally friendly future in the film industry.
Theodora Shandé
Theodora Shandé is a film-maker and co-founder of Wave In Motion. Born in Nigeria, her documentary film “Sorry for the Genocide” seeks to highlight Germany’s historical responsibility and strengthen the voices of those affected in Namibia. For her, film-making is not just a medium, but a way to stimulate dialogue and build bridges between the past and the future.
Hildegard Titus
Hildegard Titus, born 1991, is a namibian photographer, filmmaker, artist, curator and decolonial activist. She has a keen issue on working on topics of gender, identity, culture and race. She campaigned actively and successfully for the removal of the Curt von François statue in Windhoek (2022). Hildegard Titus is currently doing her MA in Gender, Media & Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London.
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Duduzile Voigts
Duduzile Voigts is a Berlin-raised dancer and performance artist whose practice operates at the intersection of movement, healing, and ecological awareness. Her artistic research is informed by a deep engagement with identity politics and postcolonial discourse, alongside extensive training in diverse movement traditions – from Bharatanatyam and Odissi to Kalaripayattu in India, as well as contemporary African dances and psychological research in South Africa. Her ongoing research in dance therapy and somatic practices, she now deepens through a PhD on “Embodiment and Ecology”, exploring the body’s transformative and healing power in relation to its environments.
Eyal Weizman
Eyal Weizman is the founder and director of Forensic Architecture and professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, where in 2005 he founded the Centre for Research Architecture. He is the author of numerous books, including “Hollow Land”, “Investigative Aesthetics” and “Forensic Architecture: Violence at the Threshold of Detectability”. Weizman has received various awards, among them the London Design Award (2021) and the Mark Cousins Theory Award (2024).
Christian Zipfel
Christian Zipfel is a film-maker and media artist. His documentary films have been shown at international festivals, including “The Soil of the Namib” at the 39th Warsaw International Film Festival and “ROOMS” at the 75th Venice International Film Festival. He has been artistic director of the research project “Volumetric Contemporary Testimony of Holocaust Survivors” at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF since 2021.