Snippets from the Audio Archive VI – Carol and Ron Gestwicki
BAB Interviews and Conversations
English - November 19, 2021 08:00 - 10 minutes - 8.7 MBHistory Science Social Sciences namibia interview history archives oral history african history african studies southern africa sound archives historiography Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Carol and Ron Gestwicki, a couple from northern America, worked for the Anglican Church in Namibia from 1964 to 1966. Ron worked as a priest in Windhoek’s African township, the Old Location, and as such worked closely with oppositional leaders such as Hosea Kutako and Clemens Kapuuo. Carol, a trained nurse, gave courses in the Red Cross clinic of the Old Location and also evening and Sunday classes for the Anglican church congregations. For a while they lived in a caravan on the outskirts of Gobabis in eastern Namibia in order to provide services to the so-called African reserve population.
Audio letters became the common feature of their communications with their family. Given the increasing surveillance by the colonial administration on foreign church workers in Namibia, the couple decided to return to the US in 1966, after the birth of their first child. Ron Gestwicki continued to work closely with the exiled Namibian politicians and American Anti-Apartheid groups in the US. For a while, their African friends in Namibia continued to send them audio letters from Namibia. Today, the Gestwicki’s collection of audio letters is housed at the BAB Archives.
Audio letters from Carol and Ron Gestwicki, Gobabis 1965
Carol and Ron Gestwicki, a couple from northern America, worked for the Anglican Church in Namibia from 1964 to 1966. Ron worked as a priest in Windhoek’s African township, the Old Location, and as such worked closely with oppositional leaders such as Hosea Kutako and Clemens Kapuuo. Carol, a trained nurse, gave courses in the Red Cross clinic of the Old Location and also evening and Sunday classes for the Anglican church congregations. For a while they lived in a caravan on the outskirts of Gobabis in eastern Namibia in order to provide services to the so-called African reserve population.
Audio letters became the common feature of their communications with their family. Given the increasing surveillance by the colonial administration on foreign church workers in Namibia, the couple decided to return to the US in 1966, after the birth of their first child. Ron Gestwicki continued to work closely with the exiled Namibian politicians and American Anti-Apartheid groups in the US. For a while, their African friends in Namibia continued to send them audio letters from Namibia. Today, the Gestwicki’s collection of audio letters is housed at the BAB Archives.