Swakopmund

Swakopmund is a strange little town on the Skeleton coast of Namibia. From the name alone you notice the German influence, and as soon as you cross from the sprawling township (the African version of a slum) just on the outskirts of the city, you feel like you have landed in a warped version of a tropical Germany, about 50 years ago. The obligatory beer-bellied group of German men sitting around a table at noon with their mugs of lager are found on most street corners. You can walk past the "Altes Amtsgericht" and then straight into an African curio market selling everything from wooden giraffes to ostrich eggs and voodoo dolls. You can order mealie pap (a sort of African maize porridge) and game meat on the same menu as Wiener Schnitzel and Apfelstrudel. The "Kupferpfanne" restaurant is fringed by tropical palm trees. The only book store in Swakopmund sells predominantly German books, many of them with dusty faded covers that seem to have been there since the town was founded. And strangest of all, the locals, who are of course mainly African, do not seem to speak any German at all! It really makes you wonder how the world works sometimes, and although I have to admit I did enjoy the irony of eating a Nusschnecke in the depths of Africa, I am not sure I feel totally comfortable in such a place, where the locals appear to be visitors in their own country.