Swakopmund in Namibia was 'interesting' when I went there about 10 years ago.
Namibia used to be German South West Afrika colony until we took it off them after the First World War, was then run by South Africa until it became an independent (black) African state in the 1970's/80's after a war of independence.
But Swakopmund particularly still has a very Germanic feel,
- lots of the shops have Germanic names above the windows, German food in delicatessens/pastry shops, you hear German spoken as you walk down the street, etc.
There's a war memorial thing down near the harbour - a uhlan (sp ?), a German cavalryman on a horse, one of those pointy-spikey coalscuttle helmets on his head.
It commemorates the Herero uprising of 1910-or-so (African Herero tribesmen vs. colonial troops : score, 20-or-so German soldiers dead, hence the statue, vs. 30,000 Africans on the other side...)
I was looking at this and a very, very old white woman came up to me and started talking to me. She said that 'they', the government, wanted to pull it down, 'they' said it was colonial and not right in the modern Namibia, but she said, "these men died for us".
I found a shop selling guns and bowie knives, etc - all openly displayed in the window. Some hunting rifles, but also assault rifles and pump-action shotguns.
Although not on display, a sign said that anti-personnel mines were available 'for your protection and security against intruders'...
Back on the bus, someone else said they'd seen one shop selling swastica badges...
Like I said, 'interesting' place, and maybe a bit 'left over'...
makes a post a bit more interesting...
. Evidently a multi billion dollar wood pulp factory nearby has caused a huge spat between Argentina ( just a few miles away) and Uruguay. The locals really were quite worried at the time about how it would play out..This deep water port was heavily upgraded to accept the shipping traffic.
