International solidarity in the GDR and transnationality: an analysis of primary school materials for Namibian child refugees

As part of a solidarity project between the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), approximately 430 Namibian children were brought to the GDR from 1979 to 1989 to be trained as an elite for a future liberated Namibia. The children attended school in the GDR until they were brought back to Namibia in August 1990. The school lessons intertwined topics about Namibia and SWAPO with the usual GDR school curriculum. The linchpin of this intertwining was the socialist ideal of international solidarity. This article uses an objective-hermeneutic analysis to show how the school materials produced transnationality.