The Multicultural Germany Project and the German Film Club invite you to attend a screening of the 2006 documentary “Omulaule heißt schwarz” (Omulaule Means Black; German with English subtitles) and the following discussion.

Dwinelle Hall B4, basement level. Refreshments will be served.

This documentary by Beatrice Möller, Nicola Hen, and Susanne Radelhof deals with the lives of young Namibians who grew up in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and had to return to Namibia following German reunification.

In the film, these young people fondly look back at their East German childhood and consider how their relationship to Germany has since been complicated by immigration laws and Germany‚s uncomfortable colonial past. The film also explores the difficulties of their return to Namibia, a country of which they had little memory. Where is your home if the culture of your childhood no longer exists and your “homeland” is foreign to you?

Today these young adults struggle to re-define notions of “home” and to construct a cohesive identity despite their disrupted biographies and the narrow-minded notions of others. “To the Whites, we are black, and, to the Blacks, we are German”; This is a paradox they attempt to circumvent by their identification as “Omulaule,” which is Oshiwambo for black.